Borussia Dortmund's team bus was the target of an attack ahead of their Champions League game against Monaco.
Dortmund -- The trial of a 28-year-old German-Russian man accused of carrying out a bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team bus is set to begin at Dortmund's regional court on Thursday. The defendant faces a life sentence, if convicted.
The defendant, identified only as Sergej W. in keeping with German privacy law, had been charged with 28 counts of attempted murder, causing an explosion and two counts of serious bodily harm following the attack on BVB's team bus ahead of a Champions League match at home to Monaco in April.
Prosecutors say the defendant hoped to profit from a drop in the football club's share price as a result. Borussia Dortmund are the only German football club listed on the stock exchange.
Carl W Heydenreich, one of the defendant's lawyers, said on Wednesday: "A player, who misses an open goal from five metres, you automatically question whether he did not want to score or if he could not score."
Heydenreich also hit out at "media prejudgement" following the release of some investigations files including psychological profiles of the defendant in German news magazine Der Spiegel.
In the act of indictment released to the public in early September, it was said that Sergej W. could have made a maximum profit of €506,275. It said that he acted out of "greed."
Borussia Dortmund went on to play their Champions League game against Monaco the following day.
The defendant is also reported to have laid a false trail by linking the attack to Islamic extremists by placing a letter of confession at the scene of the attack. Investigators doubted the authenticity.
On April 11, three explosions rocked the Borussia Dortmund team bus as the players and staff travelled from their team hotel in Dortmund's rural south to the Westfalenstadion for their Champions League match against Monaco.
Dortmund defender Marc Bartra sustained an injury requiring surgery on a broken bone on his wrist, while a motorcycle police officer accompanying the team bus suffered an ear blast injury
The match was postponed until the following day, and Dortmund subsequently lost both ties.
The defendant was arrested in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg near Tubingen 10 days after the attack. He came to the attention of investigators because he made "suspicious options purchases" for shares in Borussia Dortmund, reportedly carrying them out from the hotel, where the attack was carried out.
The bomb attack received international attention, with German chancellor Angela Merkel calling it "despicable."
Borussia Dortmund have made no public statements in the build up to the trial, but, in late November, Hans-Joachim Watzke, the club's CEO, suggested that a sporting crisis at that time could have also been in parts caused by the aftermath of the attack.
"We should not underestimate that it can still trigger post-traumatic stress months after it happened," Watzke said during a speech at the club's annual shareholders' meeting.
"I've discussed this with psychologists. They say that the risk is extremely high some six, seven months after such an attack. We have professional help."
Stephan Uersfeld is the Germany correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @uersfeld.
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Source: espn.co.uk