Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday sacked coach Sami Hyypia after their 2-1 defeat at strugglers Hamburg left them with just one win in their last 11 games and facing a battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
The 40-year-old former Liverpool captain, who took on his first senior coaching role last August, has been replaced by Sascha Lewandowski, the head coach of Leverkusen’s junior side.
The defeat at Hamburg on Friday leaves Leverkusen in fourth place – the last Champions League spot – but they can be overtaken by Wolfsburg who face second-placed Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
“After careful consideration and in light of the ongoing crisis, we have concluded that only a change in the team management can bring about the much-needed shift,” said Bayer’s managing director Michael Schade.
“I thank Sami Hyypia expressly for his dedicated work over the past years.
“As a player and coach, he has been outstanding for us and a large part of the success in recent years has been down to him.
“But now we have arrived at a point where we unfortunately see no other way to turn things around.”
Hyypia, a former Finland international, retired as a player in 2011 after two seasons at Leverkusen and having spent a decade at Liverpool.
But having steered Leverkusen to the last 16 of the Champions League, Bayer were crushed by Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 in February and have endured a horror run of results.
They have crashed out of the DFB-Pokal and dropped from second in the Bundesliga to fourth.
Lewandowski is back involved with Leverkusen’s top team having been joint coach of the senior side with Hyypia last season.
“It’s not an easy situation for me now to take Sami’s place,” said Lewandowski, who has five games to make sure Leverkusen finish in the top four.
“For more than a year, we jointly carried the responsibility for the team.
“I take over from him with some regret that his ideas could not be realised, but as an employee of the club, I have a responsibility to meet the requirements of my current job.
“We’ll do everything to bring this season to a successful end.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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THE SIXTH SENSE
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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