RB Leipzig Threaten Bundesliga’s Cherished Ownership Model

By Elaine Teng
10 years Ago

RB Leipzig, kicking off this weekend in the Bundesliga’s second division, is raising caution flags all over Germany with their unorthodox ownership model that may pose a threat to the structure of German football.

When the Bundesligaai??i??s second division kicks off this weekend, keep an eye out for RB Leipzig. If all goes according to their plan, theyai??i??ll end the year promoted to the top flight, which would mark a remarkable, troubling ascent up the ranks of German football: from fifth division to top division in only six seasons. Their rise has not gone unnoticed in German football, causing even those in Munich and Dortmund to cast a wary eye. Itai??i??s not only the rise of a potential competitor that concerns them; itai??i??s that RB Leipzig challenges the very structure of the Bundesliga.

A mere six years ago, RB Leipzig was SSV MarkranstAi??dt, a fifth-division side from a town of about 15,000 just outside of Leipzig. Then, in 2009, the energy drink maker Red Bull bought the club, changed its colors, crest and name, and moved it to the 44,300-seat stadium in the center of Leipzig. They werenai??i??t allowed to call the club Red Bull Leipzigai??i??like its counterparts in New York, Salzburg, and Sao Pauloai??i??so they settled for Rasenballsport (lawn ball sport), or RB Leipzig. The team is marketed as the Red Bulls (die roten Bullen), and the players wear those well-known wings on their shirts.

Leipzig make no secret of their intentions. As their owner Dietrich Mateschitz, whose net worth is estimated to be $9 billion, stated blatantly in 2011: “We are developing RB Leipzig with the aim of playing in the Bundesliga in three to five years. We also want to get into the Champions League and be successful there, which is something you can only achieve with a club that plays in one of the top leagues.”

With Ralf Rangnick, the man who took Hoffenheim from third division to first, at the helm, RB Leipzig look set to accomplish that goal. In 2012, Rangnick had a transfer budget of ai??i??100 millionai??i??unheard of in the lower divisionsai??i??and the club invests half a billion euros into marketing alone each year. Theyai??i??ve knocked Wolfsburg out of the German Cup, invest heavily in youth talent, and loan young signings to Red Bull Salzburg (even though Salzburg compete in the Champions League while Leipzig have only just reached the second division). As soon as they make it to the top flight, the big-name marquee signings will undoubtedly begin to appear.

For east Germans, RB Leipzig is a unique glimmer of hope in a land devoid of high quality football. No east German side competes in the Bundesliga; the last top-flight team from the other side of the Iron Curtain was Energie Cottbus, who were relegated in 2009. The year that Red Bull boughtAi?? SSV MarkranstAi??dt, a poll showed that 70 percent of Leipzigai??i??s citizens welcomed the corporationai??i??s involvement in local football.

Others are not so happy, however, as they see Leipzigai??i??s rise as a threat to the very structure of German football. What sets the Bundesliga apart from the other top leagues is its much-publicized 50+1 rule, under which the members of a club must retain 51 percent of its ownership, preventing any single entity, be it a corporation or a Russian oligarch, from taking control. Leipzig donai??i??t technically violate this ruleai??i??they do have a membership scheme, but it costs ai??i??800 a year, plus an initial ai??i??100 to join. (Membership to Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich costs ai??i??62 and ai??i??60 a season, respectively.) After five years, they only have 11 members, most of whom are Red Bull employees. (Again for contrast, Borussia Dortmund have 95,000 members and Bayern Munich 224,000). The club is unabashed about flouting the rulesai??i??club spokesperson Sharif Shoukry once said flat out, ai???We are not the classic membership club, nor do we want to become one.ai???

There are three well-known exceptions to the 50+1 rule already in the Bundesliga: Volkswagenai??i??s Wolfsburg, pharmaceutical giant Bayerai??i??s Leverkusen, and Hoffenheim, owned by software tycoon Dietmar Hopp. Wolfsburg and Leverkusen have been affiliated with those companies from their inception, with the Bundesligaai??i??s chief executive stating in 2010: ai???If a company is supporting football in a club for more than 20 years then it can acquire the majority. The idea is that a company has by then proved to fans and the league that they take their engagement in the Bundesliga seriously, that it’s not just a fancy toy or part-time cash injection that [could] change from one day to another.ai???

Hoffenheim are more problematic, and the most similar to Leipzig. Yet the Red Bulls take this ownership model and commercialization of football to another level. Dietmar Hoppai??i??s software company SAP is at least located in Hoffenheim, and Hopp was a boyhood fan of the club. Red Bull, however, is based in Austria, owns a global portfolio of football clubs across four continents, and Ralf Rangnick acts as sporting director for both RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg. As Philip Oltermann put it in The Guardian, ai???In their merchandising, the club refer to themselves as Die roten Bullen, so that even the team’s nickname already advertises the product. It’s as if Wolfsburg were known as The Beetles.ai???

As RB Leipzig make their seemingly inexorable climb up the Bundesliga hierarchy, their rise may not go unopposed. Last year, the vice president of second-division FC St Pauli encouraged ai???the football league association to look closely at clubs who actively hinder their fans from becoming members with a right to vote.ai??? In Dortmund, BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, a passionate defender of the 50+1 rule, declared, ai???This development is bad for the Bundesligaai??i??s overall development.ai??? However, he doubted a challenge would be mounted: ai???Everyone is afraid; nobody wants to mess with Red Bull.ai??? Should Leipzig really join the big boys next season, it will be interesting to see if that stays true.

Categories: Features, German Bundesliga
Tags: 50+1 rule Bundesliga RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig, kicking off this weekend in the Bundesliga’s second division, is raising caution flags all over Germany with their unorthodox ownership model that may pose a threat to the structure of German football.

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