German soccer clubs may become the newest collateral victim in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, as the automaker is considering dropping its sponsorship contracts.
Reuters is quoting German weekly newspaper Bild amd Sonntag as reporting that the list includes Hannover 96, Werder Bremen, Schalke 04 and second division 1960 Munich, along with the Grizzlys Wolfsburg hockey club.
Volkswagen spends approximately €1.5m every season on each of the aforementioned soccer clubs, but the most affected one will be the hockey team, which gets €5m annually. In total, the German car brand should save €11million by dropping the sponsorship.
First division soccer club VfL Wolfsburg had postponed its plans for the new multi-million-euro youth training center last month, after the emissions scandal.
Volkswagen can lose $35-billion in the “dieselgate” scandal, for fines, lawsuits and vehicle refits, and it’s looking into dropping its costs, after cutting €1 billion ($1.1b) from its 2016 investment plan.
Europe’s largest carmaker has the biggest business crisis in its 78-year history. VW admitted in September that a software was installed in some of its diesel vehicles to deceive U.S. regulators on the level of toxic emissions.
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