Having inspired several Formula One world titles, Austrian energy drink company Red Bull are aiming to lift football club RB Leipzig all the way from Germany’s regional leagues to the Bundesliga.
Since the company founded RasenBallsport Leipzig and pumped in millions of euros in sponsorship, three promotions have followed in five years.
RB Leipzig are third in Bundesliga 2 and pushing for promotion, which would make them the first club from the former East Germany to play in the top division since Energie Cottbus was demoted in 2009.
Red Bull’s owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, wants the club to win the German title.
“A few years go by so quickly, but eventually it will happen,” the 70-year-old billionaire said when asked if winning the Bundesliga is realistic.
In the meantime, he wants Leipzig to reach the top tier to challenge the likes of recent German title-winners Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
“If we did not want that at some point, then we might as well hang up our boots,” he said. “To talk about promotions as a foregone conclusion would be absurd, but you need ambitious goals and it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we get in the first division as soon as possible.”
The squad contains several players with Bundesliga experience, including midfielder Rani Khedira, brother of Real Madrid’s World Cup winner Sami, and Germany international Marvin Compper.
The RB Leipzig story began just five years ago when Red Bull bought amateur club SSV Markranstadt, who were languishing in the fifth division, after first considering other clubs.
They changed the club's name and the fourth Red Bull football team came into existence, after New York Red Bulls, FC Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Brazil.
The name change bypassed the German football association rule prohibiting teams being named after a sponsor because the unusual RasenBallsport (grass ball sport) moniker allows the team to be known as RB Leipzig.
Big-money sponsorship of Bundesliga teams is nothing new. Hoffenheim are backed by software billionaire Dietmar Hopp; Wolfsburg have car manufacturers Volkswagen behind them; Bayer Leverkusen are sponsored by drug manufacturers Bayer.
RB Leipzig already have a World Cup-standard stadium. The 44,345-capacity Red Bull Arena, formerly known as Zentralstadion, hosted matches during the 2006 World Cup.
RB Leipzig’s budget of about €30 million (Dh136.6m), with a reported similar figure being invested in a training centre, means they are a force to be reckoned with in Germany’s second tier, where teams have an average budget of €15m to €20m.
Their rise has received mixed reactions in Germany.
A former East German club in the Bundesliga paints a romantic picture of a “Beacon of the East”, according to Leipzig’s managing director Ulrich Wolter.
But Red Bull’s considerable investment does not sit well with many of their rivals.
German clubs have a “50-plus-1” rule, which means every club’s supporters must have a controlling stake to prevent commercial interests from taking control. Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are exempt as they were founded as factory teams.
RB Leipzig’s management board was elected by club members, but it is heavily influenced by Red Bull, which has drawn criticism from German media.
A group of their second-division rivals, with Berlin’s FC Union the most vocal, have already protested by forming a “Nein zu RB” (No to RB) campaign.
Union’s 2-1 win against Leipzig in Berlin in September was marked by a 15-minute silent protest and with the majority of the home fans dressed in black. The match felt like a funeral.
Football magazine 11Freunde described Leipzig’s rise as a “resounding slap in the face to football’s culture” and they are not alone in that opinion.
“This development is bad for the overall economic performance of the Bundesliga,” Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke told magazine Der Spiegel.
“People are afraid, nobody wants to mess with Red Bull.”
Leipzig’s rise strikes fans as the product of a “marketing machine”, sports marketing specialist Peter Rohlmann said. “I don’t think it’s a model, Red Bull is an exception,” he said. “But this is a very big risk: if the money disappears, so does the club.”
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