Former Barcelona player and Austrian football legend Hans Krankl was temporarily detained on Sunday by police in the town of Pasching, in the Upper Austria region, for allegedly endangering a police officer as he left the stadium car park. local.
This was reported on Monday by public television ORF, confirming part of a report by the Viennese newspaper Kronenzeitung, which speaks of an agent being run over by Krankl, something that the former soccer player flatly denied.
The incident occurred around 18:00 GMT yesterday, when Krankl, 69, was leaving the parking lot of the Raiffeisen Arena Pashing stadium, after having witnessed there, and commented for Sky, the Austrian Bundesliga match between LASK Linz and Rapid Vienna (2-1).
According to police sources told the local agency APA, the former coach of the Austrian national team drove his car into a police officer in the VIP parking lot of the LASK stadium and stopped him when there had already been a slight physical contact between the agent and the car bumper.
"He then rolled the vehicle towards two other police officers and only stopped there after another contact," the police report said, quoted by APA.
The Kronenzeitung claims to have had access to eyewitnesses who described "incredible scenes" starring the Austrian soccer icon, and even an alleged run over by a police officer.
"Krankl, who is presumed innocent, was taken by six police officers to the stadium's operating room and was interrogated there," the popular daily notes.
At the same time, the newspaper publishes Krankl's reaction, which, while confirming the interrogation after the incident, denies that he hit an agent with his car.
"That is not true and I vehemently deny it. I wanted to turn right from the car park and was stopped by a policeman who told me I had to wait because they would take the Rapid fans by bus first," he explained.
"But the route was clear and there was no reason not to let me pass. The agent then demanded my vehicle documentation and told me that I was detained," Krankl said. "Six policemen took me to a room like a criminal," he lamented.
The police allowed him to leave shortly after, after taking his data, although they have opened an investigation into what happened which is still ongoing.
According to the newspaper, Krankl admitted to being very embarrassed: "I am a friend of the police, I have even given benefit concerts for them and I have played football with policemen," he recalled.
"Everyone who knows me knows that I would never put a policeman in danger. It's a stupid story that makes me feel very uncomfortable," Krankl said, according to the Kronenzeitung.
Krankl, a Barcelona player between 1978 and 1981, had his best season in 1979 when he was the top scorer in the Spanish league. The rest of his career was spent with Austrian teams and he was also coach of Austria.
