BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Aston Villa did it for Gary Shaw, and in some style.
Prince William was among the Villa fans following the club's return to top-tier European competition after 41 years away with a 3-0 win over Swiss club Young Boys on Tuesday. It was a day after the death of club great Shaw, a forward who won the 1982 European Cup with Villa.
“The last time @AVFCOfficial won in the top European competition, it was the month before I was born. Let’s hope tonight is the first step towards another European adventure!” William posted on X shortly before kickoff. “My thoughts this evening are also with Villa legend Gary Shaw’s friends and family following his passing yesterday.”
Villa's players wore black armbands to remember Shaw and coach Unai Emery dedicated the win to Shaw.
“Of course we want to dedicate this victory to Gary Shaw, his family and all of the Aston Villa family," Emery said, adding that Villa wants to emulate Shaw and his teammates from 1982 “and follow what that team achieved.”
Shaw was only 21 and a rising star of English soccer when he won the European Cup but his career never recovered from a serious knee injury a year later. He died Monday at the age of 63.
The Birmingham club had not played in Europe's premier competition since the 1982-83 season, when it lost in the quarterfinals to Juventus in March 1983 while trying to defend the trophy it won the season before.
Emery was coaching a team in the Champions League for the first time since Villarreal's semifinal loss to Liverpool in May 2022. Since arriving at Villa, Emery has transformed a team that finished 14th in the Premier League before his arrival into one capable of keeping up with England's best.
Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey scored for Villa in the first half. Amadou Onana scored from a long-range shot in the 86th.
England forward Ollie Watkins was seen with ice on his ankle after being substituted in the 60th minute, though Emery indicated the issue was likely not serious.
This story has been corrected. Aston Villa’s last European Cup campaign was in the 1982-83 season, not 1983-84.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Aston Villa's player celebrate their side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Young Boys Bern and Aston Villa in Bern, Switzerland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Peter Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)
Aston Villa's Jacob Ramsey celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Young Boys Bern and Aston Villa in Bern, Switzerland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Peter Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)
TOKYO (AP) — The six-year-old criminal case of Greg Kelly, an American ensnared in the scandal of Nissan’s former boss Carlos Ghosn, turned a page in a Japanese court Thursday, with his lawyer demanding “justice” with a verdict of total innocence.
Kelly, a former Nissan executive vice president, was arrested in 2018, on charges related to under-reporting the compensation of Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Corp. for two decades. In 2022, Kelly was cleared of almost all counts and given a suspended sentence, which meant he didn’t serve time. He was found guilty for just one of the eight years for which the compensation allegedly was under-reported.
“The news traveled around the world, and Kelly’s reputation was tarnished literally on a global level,” defense lawyer Yoichi Kitamura told the Tokyo High Court.
In his final arguments, Kitamura denounced the lower court verdict as “unreasonable,” saying it didn’t make sense for Kelly to be part of a conspiracy for just the last year.
“I close my arguments by demanding the court carefully consider the evidence presented, come to judgment based on law and evidence to hand down the verdict of totally not guilty, restoring Kelly’s reputation and realizing justice,” Kitamura said, using the English word “justice.”
Presiding Judge Kazunori Karei promised a verdict on Feb. 4.
Kelly asserted his innocence from the start, as has Ghosn. Kelly returned to his home in Tennessee during the appeal and was not present in the courtroom.
Ghosn was also arrested and charged but fled to Lebanon while out on bail in 2019. He says he is innocent. Ghosn is unlikely to be ever tried as Japan has no extradition agreement with Lebanon.
Top Japanese executives tend to get far smaller salaries than their Western counterparts. When Japan began requiring top executives to disclose their compensation in 2010, Ghosn’s annual pay was cut by about half, or 1 billion yen ($10 million).
Testimony and documents presented during the trial showed Kelly tried to compensate Ghosn through possible post-retirement consultancy fees and paying him not to leave for a rival company, known as a “non-compete” agreement.
Kelly, a lawyer, says he was merely trying to retain Ghosn for Nissan’s best interests, using legal means, and the issues could have been sorted out in a board room, not a courtroom.
Prosecutors say they’re confident about their case, which alleges that Ghosn’s compensation was under-reported by 9 billion yen ($63 million) in filings over eight years through 2018.
Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama
FILE - Former Nissan Motor Co. executive Greg Kelly speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, on Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
