Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg Sporting Dir Klaus Allofs remembers a few days at the tail-end of September "when it seemed there were two questions on the lips of everyone in Wolfsburg," according to Rory Smith of the LONDON TIMES. The first was "as the full scale of the emissions scandal engulfing Volkswagen began to emerge" from the U.S., people in the city "began to worry about their jobs, their livelihoods." The second "was more public, more communal." Wolfsburg is "a works town, its physical and psychological landscape dominated by its main employer, and its football team, no matter how modern and multinational its squad, is a works team." City and club alike "are bankrolled by VW, the fates of both inextricably bound to their parent company." It did not take long for supporters to make the connection: "if VW was in trouble, by extension Wolfsburg would be too." Allofs said, "A few times, people were stopping me on the street." The 59-year-old's technical director position is one "of rather more power and permanence in Germany than it is in England." Allofs: "It did not happen on every corner, but it happened. They were worried first for their jobs, but the second question was whether the club would be OK." Plans for a state-of-the-art academy "have already been shelved, for the time being, not because VW cannot afford it but because of a need to be 'sensitive' when so many things are so uncertain for so many people." It is "fair to assume that the club's approach in the transfer market might go the same way." Allofs: "It does not change our ambition but we have to show we are reacting sensibly" (LONDON TIMES, 12/7).
