Most recently, there were mainly positive things to report about Eintracht Frankfurt. Winning the European Cup with exceptional fans, approachable and likeable players. The best example was Martin Hinteregger, who after the victory over Glasgow Rangers celebrated with fans in the Frankfurt pub “Oberbayern”, donated tequila and dipped his winner’s medal into a full beer mug.
Hinteregger has become an absolute popular figure among the Hessians. He is known for casual sayings, but also for giving his opinion on socially critical issues. A cult guy, with whom you can imagine playing a game of football on the football field next door.
That was probably also the Austrian’s idea when he announced that he would organize a football tournament in his home village of Sirnitz in Carinthia as part of a festival he was organizing – the “Hinticup”, where from June 16 to 19, 2022 “rocked, kicked and celebrated hard”. With 30 teams, up to 3,000 visitors are expected and there will also be a lot of music.
Hinteregger did not want to manage this event alone and brought in Heinrich Sickl, who acts as press spokesman and co-organiser and also comes from tranquil Sirnitz, to help. However, Sickl is also the publisher of the “Freilich-Magazine”, which describes itself as a “magazine for independent thinkers”. Before that he was in the Graz FPÖ municipal council, is considered an extreme rightist who is said to have had connections to the identities.
How does that go together with the easy-going Hinteregger Martin? He himself said: “I have no knowledge of past or future activities on the part of the Sickl family, I just want a football tournament to take place and nothing more.”
That may even be the case, but it doesn’t necessarily make it better. If you organize a tournament like this, which is basically a great thing, you have to think about who you’re doing it with. Hinteregger’s statement that he knew nothing about Sickl’s activities sounds naive. Because now, albeit unintentionally, he has offered Sickl and, in a broader sense, the FPÖ, a stage that should never have existed in this way.
