Three weeks is a long time in football. Before their Champions League last-16 first leg against Borussia Dortmund on February 17 , Sevilla were riding the crest of a wave with nine straight wins and seven clean sheets in a row. Since then, they've lost three of their last four games and fallen out of the La Liga title race. Dortmund, meanwhile, appear to have turned a corner. Marco Rose has been announced as their next coach and, with the exception of last weekend's 4-2 defeat in Munich , the team are on the rise again. The turning point for both teams was that fraught night in Andalusia. But not so fast. Dortmund have failed to get beyond the last-16 of the Champions League since 2017, when they lost to Monaco under the shadow of the terrorist attack on their team bus . Last season, they beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in the first leg, only to let it slip in the second. Interim Dortmund coach Edin Terzic is keen to avoid a repeat and knows that a big performance is … [Read more...] about Champions League: Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla on opposite trajectories
Giovanni pernice
German court rules Audi not liable in VW emissions scandal — for now
On Monday, Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled that the auto manufacturer Audi is not immediately liable to pay compensation for its parent company's role in rigging diesel emissions. Liability could shift to the Volkswagen subsidiary if it can be shown that bosses there knew that unauthorized technology had been installed in vehicles when they put them on the market. Judges had indicated that it would be difficult to prove Audi's liability, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen, in installing the so-called defeat devices from the parent company. What does the court's decision mean? Tens of thousands of vehicle owners in Germany are entitled to damages after a 2020 landmark court ruling on the Volkswagen diesel scandal. However, it was unclear whether the liability could also be applied to Volkswagen's subsidiary Audi. The ruling sends the decision back to lower court judges in the town of Naumburg, who said Audi should also pay out some €20,000 euros ($24,226) plus … [Read more...] about German court rules Audi not liable in VW emissions scandal — for now
Germany: First CEO faces trial over ‘dieselgate’ scandal
Former-Audi CEO Rupert Stadler on Wednesday became the first top executive to stand trial in Germany for his role in an enormous emissions-cheating scandal. Stadler, 57, appeared before the Munich district court to answer charges of fraud, falsifying certifications and false advertising. Former Audi and Porsche manager Wolfgang Hatz and two Audi engineers are being tried alongside Stadler, facing charges of fraud. German car giant Volkswagen — whose subsidiaries include Porsche, Audi, Skoda and Seat — admitted in September 2015 that it had installed software to rig emissions in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. Criminal proceedings have taken place in the United States over the scandal, leading to the imprisonment of two Volkswagen employees. In Germany, there have been no convictions over the scam. Prosecutors opened the proceedings on Wednesday by reading aloud an over 90-page indictment. The trial is expected to last more than two years. If found guilty, the … [Read more...] about Germany: First CEO faces trial over ‘dieselgate’ scandal