'Industrial espionage': Lask Linz hit back after claims club 'torpedoed' guidelines
The Austrian league leaders, Lask Linz, have been accused by their rivals of holding training sessions that break coronavirus rules but have themselves complained they have been victims of industrial espionage.
Eleven of the 12 teams in the Austrian Bundesliga, which is due to restart in June, said they had been presented with “clear video material” showing Linz had ignored guidelines that restrict training to small groups of players.
“These videos clearly show that the league leaders have disregarded the guidelines for small group training set by the ministry [of sports],” a joint statement from the other teams said on Thursday.
The clubs said they “dissociated from this behaviour and will continue to adhere strictly to the government’s guidelines. The responsible and safe continuation of the Bundesliga competition remains a top priority.”
Austria Vienna made their own statement. “We are really very disappointed, because in the past few weeks we have done everything we could for the resumption of training and matches under an extreme commitment for the
Bundesliga and for all the clubs,” they said. “Everything is then torpedoed with such fatal actions.”
RB Salzburg, the defending champions said they were “shocked and stunned” by Linz’s approachadding: “For many months we have been working so hard together ... obviously, not all clubs and individuals are aware of this great responsibility.”
The Linz managing director, Andreas Protil, told the APA news agency that two men had broken into the club’s training ground overnight and installed video surveillance cameras, adding that the incident had been reported to the police.
“We are shocked that there are obviously third parties who are willing to break into our club premises with criminal energy in order to carry out industrial espionage,” Protil said. “The perpetrators were filmed and are now being investigated.” APA said the Bundesliga was investigating the incident.
The Austrian government allowed teams to begin training on 20 April under strict rules that restricted them to groups of six. Full training sessions will be permitted from Friday.