Erwin Koeman has the NOS requested not to publish a telephone interview about his first months as a trainer of Beitar Jerusalem, the public broadcaster reported in a report about the Dutch trainer. Due to the recent arrest of club owner Moshe Hogeg, who is suspected of a laundry list of criminal offences, Koeman does not want the interview to appear. That wish has been honored by the NOS.
Koeman does not want to cause more commotion at the club and has therefore asked the NOS not to publish the interview, even though it was a personal story and he did not say a bad word about Beitar, according to the broadcaster. The 59-year-old trainer signed a one-year contract with the Israeli club last summer, but saw the unrest subsequently increase with the current number eight in Israel. The low point is the recent arrest of owner Hogeg.
According to NOS-reporter Ties Brock Hogeg is suspected of 21 different cases. “Fraud and fraud, but also sex and drug offences. The police also raided the club to search everything. Beitar has passed from one owner to another in recent years and Hogeg is the umpteenth in that row. He also put the club up for sale three months ago. The fact that he has now been arrested gives the club a big problem,” said Brock from Israel.
“It is now getting out of hand,” confirms Willem Luyckx. The former fitness trainer of Beitar has lived in Israel for more than three decades and knows the club through and through. “If there are no new investors, the future of the club is at stake. It is a very bad period for Koeman to be a trainer here. Especially with all the stories about the owner.” The club owner got into trouble, among other things, because video material of sex parties was found. “There would also have been underage girls,” says Luyckx.
In addition to the administrative unrest, Koeman also prefers to stay out of the wind because of the infamous hard core of Beitar, La Familia. “This hard core is known for its anti-Arab racism,” Luycx said. Muslims also have to suffer, because only Jewish players are tolerated by the hard core.”