Peter Hyballa does not appear to be leaving Esbjerg’s trainer any time soon. On Thursday, 21 players from the club published a joint open letter in Esktra Bladet, in which they express their “strong distrust” of Hyballa and his coaching staff. However, owner Paul Conway maintains confidence in his trainer and invites players to leave if they cannot get along with the trainer.
Conway, who also owns FC Den Bosch with his investment group Pacific Media Group (PMG) since last week, calls the revolt of the player group ‘ridiculous’. He sides with Hyballa and is prepared to dissolve the contracts of the players who do not want to continue with the trainer, but without compensation. “It can never be the case that the players determine who plays and who the trainer is,” the American owner responds in conversation with the General Newspaper.
Selection demands dismissal of Peter Hyballa: ‘He nibbled on the player’s chest’
In an open letter, 21 players call for the departure of Peter Hyballa.
Hyballa joined the club at the second level of Denmark in May, together with confidants Maik Drzensla and Robin Adriaenssen, who were already part of his staff at NAC Breda. Their method immediately aroused the necessary resistance from the players. Defender Kasper Pedersen, for example, already had his contract terminated. The letter on behalf of the players’ group wrote about daily ‘threats of dismissal, mocking, sexist and degrading comments and what we believe can be interpreted as structural bullying.’
“I see it as a conspiracy by two older players who do not want to participate in my way of working. Together with the media. And they put pressure on the other players. To destroy my name”, Hyballa responds to the campaign to get him out to get at the club. For example, the letter wrote that a player is repeatedly subjected to body shaming. “You have bigger tits than your wife”, Hyballa is said to have bitten him, while also holding the player’s body to emphasize his discontent; at another time he would have sucked at a player’s chest.
“He just wasn’t fit. And then you have to work,” Hyballa explains his excesses. “My Rotterdam father taught me to be direct. So if someone is too heavy, I say so. Maybe too fast. Or over the edge. And maybe I even train too hard. But hitting? A physical punishment? Complete nonsense. Then The police would have been here long ago.” Hyballa admits that he has an “explosive nature.” “But once, as a youth coach of Mario Götze, I said he had big tits. He looked at me, nodded, went into the gym and came back in great shape.”
“Our relationship was great. It is also meant with a wink when I say something like that. Humor. In Germany that is possible. In the Netherlands a ‘yes, but’ follows and they get to work. And in Denmark you hear nothing”, continues the former trainer of, among others, NEC and NAC, who says he is threatened via social media and receives ‘racist allegations’. “There is a connection with the Second World War. That is very sensitive for people of my nationality. It is not fun for me. And certainly not funny. Not good for my name, because I can hardly get this stamp away.”