Martin Hinteregger wanted to organize a party in his home country for his fans. To do this, the Eintracht Frankfurt professional entered into a business relationship with a well-known right-wing extremist. The professional himself denies a right attitude.
Soccer professional Martin Hinteregger from Eintracht Frankfurt has broken off a business relationship with a former FPÖ municipal councilor and well-known right-wing extremist. At the same time, the Eintracht Frankfurt professional distanced himself from right-wing ideas. “I have friends all over the world through my time in professional football and also privately, and I clearly reject accusations that I am right-wing and continue to fight against any kind of discrimination!” Hinteregger wrote in the social media on Thursday networks.
“Any business relationship with the Sickl family will be terminated with immediate effect based on the current state of knowledge, and the ‘Hinti-Cup’ event will be examined as an alternative in order to clarify a further course of action,” continued the Austrian international.
Didn’t Hinteregger know anything about Sickl’s political views?
The 29-year-old defender from the Frankfurt Bundesliga team was reacting to a report by journalist Michael Bonvalot. Hinteregger’s business relationship with Austrian local politician Heinrich Sickl from the right-wing FPÖ was discussed in his blog “Standpunkt”. Sickl made headlines in 2018 because he rented premises in Graz to the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement. In the blog entry, Bonvalot calls Sickl a “very well-known face in the Austrian right-wing scene”. Accordingly, Sickl has been in right-wing extremist circles since his youth. According to the report, the journalist and Sickl have often clashed.
The question that arises: Did Hinteregger know nothing about his business partner’s political views? Bonvalot doubts that, without assuming that Hinteregger himself has right-wing ideas: “How much does footballer Martin Hinteregger know about all these political activities of his business partner? Of course, this cannot be checked in detail, so Hinteregger is not assumed to have any relevant attitude in this article. But it does It’s rather unlikely that Hinteregger doesn’t have at least an idea of who he’s working with.”
Martin Hinteregger defends himself against speculation
Hinteregger vehemently defends himself against the accusation that he knew about Sickl’s political attitude: It’s unbelievable that an unknown person can say such things about me,” says Hinteregger’s statement on Instagram. He has no knowledge” about the past or future activities” on the part of the Sickl family and only wanted to hold a football tournament and nothing more.
According to a current excerpt from the Austrian “Register of Beneficial Owners”, which is drawn up by the Ministry of Finance, Hinteregger and Heinrich Sickl each hold a third of the “Hinti Event GmbH”. Another third is held by a restaurateur. The extract from the register is available from the German Press Agency. The head of defense of the Frankfurt Bundesliga club is organizing a fan event with a music festival from June 16th to 19th in his home village of Sirnitz in Upper Carinthia via “Hinti Event GmbH”.
Until last year, Sickl sat for the right-wing FPÖ on the municipal council of the city of Graz. He is still active in a preliminary organization of the FPÖ, namely as chairman of the Free Association of Academics in Styria.
