Bayer Leverkusen sack manager Sami Hyypia

Sami Hyypia sacked by Bayer Leverkusen

Bundesliga side, Bayer Leverkusen have fired their manager Sami Hyypia after the club suffered yet another defeat against Hamburg SV yesterday. The 2-1 defeat meant Leverkusen had won only one match in their last nine games.

Leverkusen CEO, Michael Schade, said in a statement: “After a lot of thought and because of the ongoing crisis we reached the conclusion that a change at this point could help us turn things around urgently.”

He also said: “I would like to thank Sami Hyypiä for his commitment over the past few years. He made an outstanding contribution to our success in recent seasons both as a player and as a coach. But now we have reached the point where we can unfortunately see no other possibility of getting back on course.”

Hyypia, 40 took over as the manager of the club in 2012. He is to be replaced by by interim coach Sascha Lewandowski, with whom he had shared coaching duties in his first season in charge.

The club had reached the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League and were strong contenders to reach next season’s Champions League too earlier in the season.

However, the team’s performance had deteriorated since the winter break. Leverkusen have dropped from second to fourth with five games remaining. They now fear losing the Champions League spot with VfL Wolfsburg a point behind in fifth position.

Rudi Voeller, Leverkusen’s sporting director said: “It was a very difficult decision because Sami did a great job the past two years.

“The dramatic developments in the past few weeks, however, gave us no real choice than to part ways. We want and must try everything to rescue this season.”