Esbjergin pelaajistolta tuli tänään pitkä avoin kirje seuran johdolle Hyballan toimintatavoista. Soiri ei ollut kyllä allekirjoittaneiden pelaajien joukossa. Pastetaan nyt tähän kääntäjän läpi vedettynä silti ihan yleisestä mielenkiinnosta:
Open letter to the management of EfB
I, the undersigned employees of EfB, express with this letter their strong distrust of coach Peter Hyballa and his staff.
In our clear view, Peter Hyballa does not have the necessary professional or human qualities to lead the squad.
This has manifested itself, among other things, in the fact that a large number of players have been physically injured as a direct result of a hard-fought training without regard to individual dosing. Many of these players are quite young and have just arrived at EfB.
From Peter Hyballa's side, there is a fundamental and lack of understanding of the extent and nature of the injuries, which in our and the physiotherapist's opinion will only extend the injury period for the individual player.
The club's former doctor, Kasper Hermansen, has stated, "… that it is worrying that Peter Hyballa disregards the medical assessment and professionalism despite a well-informed basis…"
Just as it is for us players, this statement must also for the club's management be a serious sign of poor and lack of daily management which in the worst case can have unnecessary health consequences for players.
Peter Hyballa also openly ignores and opposes the club's newly hired physiotherapist, who after a few days of training and repeated condescending behavior towards the physiotherapist broke down crying.
We have experienced daily threats of dismissals, mocking, sexist and humiliating remarks, and what in our opinion can be interpreted as regular bullying, which goes far beyond the already wide limits that exist in the football world.
As has been described in the media, the coaching team has taken pictures of us, players, in bare upper body to allegedly "measure" our fitness. It is our opinion that the photos are on a private mobile device owned by someone from the coaching team. We do not trust that these images will be processed in accordance with our wishes and applicable law, and we therefore demand that these images be deleted from the device in question as well as any other places where they may have ended up.
There have also been cases of - what some players have interpreted as physical assaults - in the presence of the squad. We must take this opportunity to jointly report and confirm some of these examples of these incidents. Due to fears of retaliation, the incidents are reproduced without names. However, we must point out that the incidents have gone beyond signed players, and one or more of the signed players can witness these.
A player is repeatedly subjected to so-called bodyshaming. The player has repeatedly been called fat, and the coach has on several occasions during training trained grabbed the side of the player's abdomen as well as the chest to emphasize his dissatisfaction with the player's body.
In this way, the player has been exhibited in front of the entire team. In a specific situation, the coach first grabs the side, then pulls up the player's jersey and nibbles on the chest.
A player has repeatedly been called 'stupid' and 'stupid horse'. None of this is said with a twinkle in the eye or the like. It is all sent off with a very mocking and condescending tone.
After a training match, where Peter Hyballa has been very dissatisfied during the match, a player walks past Peter Hyballa in the locker room, where he chooses to give the player a reasonably hard blow / slap with a flat hand down his back.
The player chooses to move on, but thinks it was a strange act. Right after, the player then passes Peter Hyballa again inside the locker room and here he then gives the player, again, a hard blow / slap down the chest, again with a flat hand.
After that, the player stands a little confused and looks around to see if others saw it, which he can ascertain is the case. In addition, there are several teammates in the bath who can see that a red mark has been left on the chest due to the blow.
During a training session one day after a training match in which Peter Hyballa has been dissatisfied with a player, Peter Hyballa exhibits that player in front of the entire squad.
This is done by Peter Hyballa during a gathering on the day, taking his flute and whistling all he can, the person in question plays directly into one ear. Then Peter Hyballa says the player has to take 20 elbow bends because he is so bad at pushing.
During a training match, the coach is again very dissatisfied. The coach starts talking about the individual players, and says directly to a specific player ‘you are a joke’ ‘I can just call the owners and then it’s bye bye’.
After a public description of some of what has taken place in our troupe, Peter Hyballa has expanded his methods by - on a daily basis - being sarcastic about what "you" may do in Denmark and what you may not.
A TV feature in Onside shows a clear example of this; first he simulates a blow to the body, after which he stops himself and strikes out with his arms because you are not allowed to strike in Denmark.
In a meeting with Peter Hyballa experiences a physiotherapist and a player that Peter Hyballa proclaims that “… now I have been nice, but it's over now. The old Peter Hyballa is back ”.
He has created a training environment in the club which is in no way conducive to making us better football players either as individual players or as a team.
The undersigned players unfortunately find it necessary to inform the management of EfB that we have lost respect for Peter Hyballa as leader and inspirer. It is clear from both Peter Hybala's statements in the press, as well as the very clear continued mocking and condescending behavior during training, etc., that Peter Hyballa has no respect for the players in the squad, or any idea of how to act as a leader.
We have a hard time seeing how he can somehow bring the club forward in the direction of the success that we all want and that we are all ready to work hard for.
We must refer to the history of Peter Hybala, of which a similar pattern is clearly seen in a large number of other clubs from which he has been dismissed.
It is important for us to emphasize that this letter is not a desire to return to "old times" in EfB.
In fact, we have a great understanding that organizational changes must and must take place.
On the other hand, we have an expectation that this will take place in a proper and decent manner and in accordance with the rules of the game in Denmark.
Together or individually, we have raised our concerns and dissatisfaction with the club's management on several occasions. Most recently, we have had 8 men in Director Brian Knudsen's office to describe in detail what the working environment in the club is like. Immediately thereafter, we also had the opportunity to tell the same to Board Member Paul Conway.
We feel to the extent that our views and opinions are not acted upon at all, and we are genuinely really, really tired of hearing about, there are few players who create the problems or that there are adjustments to another player- and training style.
Our dissatisfaction has NOTHING to do with that part and we are many signatories of this letter. Overall, we are very surprised that the club's management does not show any respect for us as a player squad and people, when we have repeatedly tried to shout.
It is very incomprehensible to us as employees of EfB that the behavior shown by the coach is accepted and all our worries are just swept off the table and neglected. These cannot be the values that EfB must stand for.
Finally, we would like to say that this letter is an expression of our desperation and need to be heard. None of our previous attempts to shout at the management have created the necessary changes, or ensured a safe and good working environment to be in.
We are of course aware that the Players' Association on our behalf a long time ago had a video meeting with Brain Knudsen and Lars Vind where several of the above episodes have been spoken. Later, the Players' Association contacted the club in writing with our frustrations, etc.
The Players' Association has not received a meaningful answer either. In addition, the management of EfB, by several different people, has painted a wrong and false picture of our reality in the media, just as Peter Hyballa has publicly asked for the names of involved and dissatisfied players.
We have therefore not been able to see any other way out and we therefore find it necessary for us to send this letter to the media on 29 July 2021.
This letter has been acceded to and signed by;
Simon Bækgård, Jeppe Brinch, Jeppe Højbjerg, Jakob Ankersen, Mads Larsen, Kevin Conboy, Zean Dallügge, Mads Kikkenborg, Emil Holten, Patrick Egelund, Jonas Mortensen, Yuriy Yakovenko, Lasha Parunashvili, Marcus Kristensen, Kristoffer Lund Hansen, Marcus W. Hansen , Oliver Svendsen, Mads Borchers, Marcus Gudmann, Viktor Tranberg and Phun Mang
