Werder Bremen’s new signing Marco Grüll and former Bundesliga professional Guido Burgstaller have been banned for three games in the Austrian Bundesliga after participating in homophobic chants. The league’s criminal senate ordered the sanction for discrimination, as the internal committee announced.
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“The Austrian Football Bundesliga is committed to the fight against discrimination of all kinds,” the ruling said. “The content of the videos is in no way consistent with the values that football as a whole and the Austrian Bundesliga in particular stand for.”
Grüll and Burgstaller will then be on probation for three games. In addition, three other professionals from the Rapid Vienna club as well as managing director Steffen Hofmann and assistant coach Stefan Kulovits received penalties.
Grüll and Burgstaller apologized
The 25-year-old offensive player Grüll, who currently plays for Rapid Vienna, and Burgstaller, among others, insulted derby opponents Austria Vienna with chants after the 3-0 win on February 25th. The executive board of the Austrian club Rapid condemned the players’ chants “in the strongest possible terms.”
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Grüll apologized after the scandal. “We as players have a certain role model function and we certainly didn’t live up to that in this situation.” Burgstaller also apologized on Instagram afterwards. Players must attend workshops on discrimination.
From a sporting perspective, the penalties are a serious setback for the club. Rapid has to replace five players in the decisive game for entry into the championship group on Sunday at Austria Klagenfurt. If the offense is committed again in the next two years, the club risks losing three points.
Werder Bremen’s new signing Marco Grüll and former Bundesliga professional Guido Burgstaller have been banned for three games in the Austrian Bundesliga after participating in homophobic chants. The league’s criminal senate ordered the sanction for discrimination, as the internal committee announced.
“The Austrian Football Bundesliga is committed to the fight against discrimination of all kinds,” the ruling said. “The content of the videos is in no way consistent with the values that football as a whole and the Austrian Bundesliga in particular stand for.”
