Good to Know — RB Leipzig

Everyone knows RB Leipzig is controlled by the Austrian Red Bull group.

Everyone knows RB Leipzig is controlled by the

Everyone knows RB Leipzig is controlled by the Austrian Red Bull group.

Everyone knows RB Leipzig is controlled by the Austrian Red Bull group. Less well known is just how cleverly the people behind the Leipzig coup navigated the loopholes in the DFB and DFL rulebooks in order to comply formally with 50+1 while still controlling the club almost as completely as Bayer does in Leverkusen and Volkswagen in Wolfsburg.

At the key moment in May 2014, between

At the key moment in May 2014, between Leipzig’s final home game of the season in the 3.

At the key moment in May 2014, between Leipzig’s final home game of the season in the 3. Liga and the final granting of the licence for the 2. Bundesliga, twelve days passed. On May 15, 2014 the DFL finally granted the “tin-can club,” as critics called it, its licence. Star lawyer Christoph Schickhardt helped. As Ulrich Kroemer wrote in his book RB Leipzig: Aufstieg ohne Grenzen, the club bought its ticket into the football establishment by agreeing to two central conditions: changing the crest so it was more clearly separate from the Red Bull logo, and staffing leadership positions with people formally independent of the sponsor. The DFL’s own wording said that, through the binding declaration to fill its bodies in future with a majority of independent figures and to alter the logo with UEFA requirements in mind, the club had met the key requirements. Nothing now stood in the way of licensing.

Only days before the second-division licence was granted,

Only days before the second-division licence was granted, owner Dietrich Mateschitz had still rejected the very idea of a member-run club.

Only days before the second-division licence was granted, owner Dietrich Mateschitz had still rejected the very idea of a member-run club. He even threatened to fill in the excavation for the training centre and “bury RB.” But the relatively mild DFL conditions were acceptable to him — and suddenly Leipzig were in.

Lawyers still regard the licence as a coup.

Lawyers still regard the licence as a coup.

Lawyers still regard the licence as a coup. One sports-law expert said what Leipzig did was tricky but permissible; another said the club had simply used the weaknesses in the rules particularly well and that, at least at first, the DFL officials may not have realised those weaknesses existed.

Another point almost never sufficiently appreciated is that

Another point almost never sufficiently appreciated is that the success of Red Bull’s clubs is not only about money but about a meticulously built strategy.

Another point almost never sufficiently appreciated is that the success of Red Bull’s clubs is not only about money but about a meticulously built strategy. A central part of that strategy is the academy in Liefering, Austria. Other pieces are the promotion of a very specific Red Bull style of play and the intelligent use of modern technology for training, match analysis and recovery — football for the twenty-first century.

According to Manfred Pamminger of FC Liefering, the

According to Manfred Pamminger of FC Liefering, the Red Bull system is set in stone: every coach, staff member and player works according to the same model.

According to Manfred Pamminger of FC Liefering, the Red Bull system is set in stone: every coach, staff member and player works according to the same model. It is based on pressing, counter-pressing and quick transitions. That system is refined in a high-tech complex with six pitches, an indoor hall, a weight room, an athletics room and a motor-skills park, along with sensors that collect data day and night. The athletics room features a special sprint training device with belts around the players’ waists connected to computer-controlled winches. The high-tech gym has 13 stations where players log in by tablet and follow individual programmes while computer and trainer provide feedback. There is an anti-gravity treadmill designed originally for astronauts to speed up rehabilitation. There is Soccerbot 360, where projectors create targets on a wall and players have to strike them with passes under time pressure while cameras and software evaluate speed, accuracy and foot usage. And there is LPM indoor tracking, which records the positions of players and ball at least 25 times per second, enabling exact measurement of running, acceleration, braking, possession, pass rates, heart rate, breathing and even skin temperature. Over the academy entrance in Liefering stands the slogan ENTER THE NEXT LEVEL. Hardly a place for old carbon-age romantics of the blood-sweat-and-tears variety.

Between 2020 and 2026, RB Leipzig firmly established themselves as a fixed force at the top of German football.