Didi Constantini (1955-2024) – More than just a coach

These days, Didi Constantini's special sporting qualities as a club coach and team manager are being highlighted, and quite rightly so. But Constantini also had a deeply humanitarian, egalitarian and critical approach to sport. At a time when the commitment against discrimination in Austrian football was by no means a matter of course, he repeatedly spoke out and supported the development work of fairplay.

Pioneer for fairplay and anti-discrimination

As early as 2005, the later ÖFB team coach made it clear in a fairplay interview where his compass of values stood: “For me, racism is a sign of absolute stupidity. If someone throws a banana onto the pitch because a black player is playing, then that's an embarrassing act. It's nobody's fault where they were born. And those who were born in socially better-off countries should actually be happy that this is the case and appreciate other people and their values more.” In the same interview almost 20 years ago, he also backed women's football: "In people's minds, football is a man's sport. In countries where women's football is run more professionally, it also has a different status. Austria is still in its infancy in this respect. The poor financial support makes it impossible for women's football to develop to where it could actually be."

Constantini also did not mince his words when it came to rejecting discrimination against queer people in football: “Homophobia is absolutely condemnable. It is logical that such opinions are extremely stupid.”

At a discussion event organized by the Vienna Green Party in 2006 entitled “Fans from the other side”, Constantini condemned the homophobic statements made by Otto Baric, for whom Constantin worked as an ÖFB assistant coach for almost four years. Baric said at the time “I wouldn't let a homosexual player play for me...because they are weak and sick”. Constantini countered: He didn't care about the sexual orientation of his players, what mattered was their performance.

Standing up for the weak

Constantini was also not above actively supporting NGOs. Together with his brother Germar, he visited the football school of the Viennese club Delta Cultura on the Cape Verde Islands in 2008. There he completed training sessions with the coaches and young players. The aim of Delta Cultura is to combat the unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities. On the occasion of the UEFA EURO 2008, Didi Constantini supported our intercultural Euroschools 2008 project with schools throughout Austria.  

As ÖFB team manager, he was also committed to helping the underprivileged. On the occasion of the FARE Action Weeks in 2009, Constantini said: “Violence, discrimination and racist insults are still not extinct and that is why it must continue to be a goal of all those who love our sport of football to take a firm stand against them!”. He urged young players who, without their profession as footballers, would probably be confronted with discriminatory incidents even more often - simply because of their name and/or appearance. These included Ümit Korkmaz, Rubin Okotie, Yasin Pehlivan, Veli Kavlak, Gyuri Garics, Marko Arnautovic and Aleksandar Dragovic.

His football camps and work with children were particularly important to Didi Constantini: “The most important thing in life is mutual respect. All people have to be treated like that.I also have to show respect to a child of seven or eight, and the children understand that.Children are completely underestimated, by everyone”.

Didi Constantini will not only leave a big gap in football, but we will all miss him as a person and humanist.