The club was founded in 2009 on the initiative of Red Bull GmbH and took over the playing licence of SSV Markranstädt for the 2009/10 season in the fifth-tier Oberliga Nordost. Since promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 2014, the professional department and academy teams up to U15 have been spun off into RasenBallsport Leipzig GmbH, which is 99 percent owned by Red Bull and one percent by the club. Because the members of the association are also closely tied to Red Bull, the club is in practice controlled by the company.\n\nIn that way the 50+1 rule in German football has effectively been hollowed out.
That made Leipzig, especially in their early years, a target for hostile fans in the Oberliga, the 3. Liga, and later the 1. and 2. Bundesliga.