Former Austrian player Hans Krankl confirms:
father-in-law
Hans Krankl
Austrian legend Hans Krankl sparked a storm of controversy in international and Algerian football circles, after his recent statements to the French newspaper L’Equipe, in which he clearly affirmed that he has no regrets and refuses to offer any apology for the historic and controversial match against West Germany in the 1982 World Cup in Spain, known in football as the “Gijon Conspiracy”, which caused the Algerian national team to be deliberately excluded from the first round.
The statements of Krankl, the current analyst for the Austrian “ORF” network and the former Barcelona striker, come in conjunction with the confrontation that was played at dawn between the Austrian and Algerian teams in the 2026 World Cup finals, bringing back to the fore one of the ugliest pages of sports history that changed the laws of the game to play the final round matches at the same time to prevent tampering.
For the first time, Krankl revealed the details of what took place between the players on the field after Germany advanced with Horst Hrubesch’s goal in the twentieth minute, stressing that the agreement to end the match with a score of (1-0), which is the only result that qualifies Germany and Austria together and eliminates Algeria, was arranged between the two halves in an instant.
Speaking to the French newspaper’s envoy in the Austrian city of Linz, Krankel said that in the first half everything was normal, but the two teams froze in the second half, noting that after the break, the German star Paul Breitner came to them and literally said to them: “You certainly will not want to score the equalizer… We have qualified and you have qualified as well, the matter is in the pocket,” and their response was: “Agree.”
The former Austrian striker admitted that the scene was shameful and embarrassing for the fans who were present in the stadium at the time, explaining that he completely understood the reason for the anger of the people, as the rhythm was truly unbearable to watch, and that they went too far in passing the ball to each other to the point that it lasted for a longer period than necessary. Despite this explicit acknowledgment of the field arrangement to stop play, Krankel refused to offer any apology to the Algerian people or to the sports fans, justifying this by great physical exhaustion and the fear of losing qualification.
Krankel stated decisively that he did not see any reason to apologise, as his team had fought beforehand and given everything it had. Then he lowered the tempo logically so that the match ended with a result that suited everyone. He called on the fans to put themselves in the players’ shoes at that time, stressing that there was no prior agreement before the match. Rather, the matter was born on the field because the two teams realized that they had a lot to lose, stressing that emotions were at their peak, but they had nothing to blame themselves for, as it was only a matter of betting. The athlete.
