FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bundesliga soccer clubs Hannover 96, Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 as well as second division 1860 Munich are on the list of sponsorships Volkswagen AG is considering dropping to cut costs amid its emissions scandal, German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported.
Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, is battling the biggest business crisis in its 78-year history after admitting in September it installed software in diesel vehicles to deceive U.S. regulators about the true level of their toxic emissions.
On Friday, it cut 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from its 2016 investment plan, as its emissions cheating scandal expanded to include tens of thousands more U.S. vehicles.
Auto analysts say the company could face a bill as high as 35 billion euros for fines, lawsuits and vehicle refits.
According to Bild am Sonntag, Volkswagen spends about 1.5 million euros per season on each of the soccer clubs it could now cut from its sponsorship list. In addition, Volkswagen may drop its 5 million-euro-a-year sponsorship of ice hockey club Grizzlys Wolfsburg, the paper said.
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Volkswagen said soccer was a major pillar of its sponsoring strategy that it would continue to pursue in the future. "It has not yet been decided what the volume of that will be," it said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.
Last month, soccer club VfL Wolfsburg said it had postponed plans for a new multimillion-euro youth training centre after VW's emissions scandal.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Ros Russell)
