Volkswagen to continue supporting Wolfsburg despite crisis

German carmaker Volkaswagen plans to continue supporting their Bundesliga club despite its multi-billion euro restructuring program, the group's CEO Oliver Blume told the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung and the Wolfsburger Nachrichten newspapers, reported dpa.

Europe's largest car manufacturer is suffering from low capacity utilization at its plants and wants to reduce technical capacity at its German sites by over 700,000 vehicles.

In total, labour costs are to be reduced by €1.5 billion ($1.56 billion) annually.

"We are firmly committed to VfL Wolfsburg. With the women, with the men and also with the youth (teams). The club is an important part of Volkswagen," Blume said.

VfL Wolfsburg GmbH is 100% owned by the VW Group and the relationship is essentially based on two agreements.

A control and profit transfer agreement stipulates that the club must pass on all profits to its parent company if it sells a player. That was the case when Kevin De Bruyne was sold to Manchester City for €75 million.

Conversely, VW also compensates Wolfsburg for all losses - as in the coronavirus pandemic or after particularly unsuccessful years.

The financial support from VW also comes in other forms, such as jersey advertising and the stadium's naming rights. Ahead of this season, the contributions amounted to almost €80 million.