The name of RB Leipzig may not be as popular as Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 or Bayer Leverkusen. Naturally, because in the German football scene, RB Leipzig is just a club that is only about the age of corn.
RasenBallsport Leipzig or better known as RB Leipzig is a German football association club based in Leipzig, a city located in Eastern Germany.
RB Leipzig was founded on May 19, 2009, by the initiative of Red Bull energy drink maker Dietrich Mateschitz, which bought the rights of the fifth division team, SSV Markranstad.
Mateschitz bought the club because he wanted to advance football in Eastern Germany. He also has a target to promote the new club to the top castes of German football within 8 years.
The purchase makes Red Bull have the right to change the club’s name, coat and jersey. RB Leipzig was formed with a budget transfer of 100 million Euros or equivalent to 1.4 trillion rupiahs. This fantastic number also makes this club was able to crawl through the season by season until they are in the Bundesliga.
Before undergoing the season in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig had to play in the fifth division of the German league. Only one season in the fifth division, they immediately promoted to the fourth division with the status of fifth division champions.
Playing in the 4th division in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, RB Leipzig always failed to promote. It was only in the 2012/13 season, they managed to level up to the 3rd division of the German league after winning the competition.
It only took two seasons for RB Leipzig to compete in the third division as in the next season, they managed to advance to the Bundesliga 2. To advance to the German Bundesliga, RB Leipzig had to fight again for two seasons. After the 2014/15 season, only finished fifth. It was only in the 2015/16 season they went up to the Bundesliga caste after finishing as runners up Bundesliga 2.
The 2016/17 season was the start for the club based in Zentralstadion, playing in one of the best competitions in Europe. As a debutant team, RB Leipzig’s appearance greatly surprised many parties. They are unbeaten in 13 early league matches and set a record as the first promotion team to do so.
At the end of the season, RB Leipzig enters runner-up position under FC Bayern with 67 points after winning 20 wins, 7 draws and 7 defeats. They are also entitled to tickets to the European Champions League.
Upon the results, RB Leipzig became the first Bundesliga debutant team since Germany united to qualify for European competition. Or the first from the former area of East Germany after Union Berlin in 2002. Their break into the champions league was celebrated by more than 30,000 fans.
The cold hand of the coach Ralph Hassenhuetl has led many players who performed brilliantly in that season, one of which is a young striker, Timo Werner. Thanks to the bright light with RB Leipzig Werner also called to strengthen the German national team.
Next season. RB Leipzig again appeared promising. Had lost to Schalke 04 in the first match, Leipzig raged in the second match by beating Freiburg 4-1.
RB Leipzig’s stunning performance didn’t stop there, in October 2017 they defeated Dortmund 3-2 at home. Before the season ended they had beaten Bayern Munich with a score of 2-1. At the end of the season, they only ranked 6th Bundesliga.
While his first season playing in the champions league, RB Leipzig was unable to do much. They failed to qualify from the group phase because it only ranked third in Group G under Besiktas and FC Porto. And must be thrown into the Europa League.
In the 2018/19 season, RB Leipzig finished the Bundesliga season in 3rd place, with a total of 66 points. In the same season, the typical club with the Bull escaped to the DFB Pokal final for the first time. Unfortunately, they have to admit the greatness of FC Bayern with a 3-0 score.
As a young team, the achievements achieved by RB Leipzig were quite extraordinary. In their first three seasons in the Bundesliga, they were able to trouble and even beat old teams like Eintracht Frankfurt, Hamburger SV, Herta Berlin, Dortmund, Hannover 96 and even Bayern Munchen.
But in spite of the greatness of the red-and-white costumed club, it turns out they are hated by the German football public. Why?
The word “RB” is the first reason why this team is hated. RB which stands for Rasenballsport itself is Leipzig’s way to hide sponsors in the club’s name.
The use of sponsors in club names is prohibited by the German football association. Finally, the club tried to cover up the main owner by abbreviating the name to RB which could mean Red Bull and Rasenballsport.
In fact, the German football association has banned large investors from owning a club. With the 50 + 1 rule, the majority share must be owned by club members. In addition, only investors who have been with a club for more than 20 years can pass this 50 + 1 rule.
While Red Bull has never made an investment in the German League. We all know that Red Bull is synonymous with Sports but not in football.
This 50 + 1 allows a club to have a lively investor who can come from supporters. For example, Borussia Dortmund has 139,000 members or ‘investors’ who have veto rights to participate in making decisions, such as stadium ticket prices. Dortmund only fixes 62 Euros or the equivalent of 877,000 rupiahs per year.
Red Bull’s presence in Leipzig does not violate the “50 + 1” rule. However, they manipulated the rules to cause controversy and anger throughout Germany.
Leipzig is known to still have club members who control 51 percent of the club’s shares but only contains 17 people who are all Red Bull employees. Each member is required to pay 800 euros or around Rp. 12.8 million per year. The amount is twelve times more expensive than the dues of club members in Dortmund, which is only 62 euros per year.
A number of parties, ranging from fans to other club officials, agreed to call Leipzig a marketing tool from Red Bull. It is feared that it could damage the values of German football which holds firmly to the tradition and partisanship of its supporters.
“They [RB Leipzig] did a very good thing in terms of sports. But the club was built to increase Red Bull’s income, not more than that, “said Die Borrusen CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke. (Quoted from BBC)
RB Leipzig’s journey on the football scene is really like a meteor. They so quickly shot from the middle of nowhere to compete at the top of the Bundesliga.
Seeing what RB Leipzig achieved and how the ways that Leipzig traveled automatically caused anger from almost all of Germany. Ten years have passed since the appearance of RB Leipzig, many clubs refused to compete against them, even in friendly matches.
In the Bundesliga, supporters of Borussia Dortmund are the loudest voicing their objections. In the 2016/17 season, Dortmund supporters boycotted an away match to Leipzig and preferred to watch the youth team’s match.
Then, when RB Leipzig visited Signal Iduna Park, some Dortmund hardliners also attacked Leipzig supporters at the train station.
Fans of Hallescher FC, a club about 45 km from Leipzig, have a special shirt to satirize RB Leipzig that reads “Tradition Hat Einen Namen” which means “Tradition Has a Name”.
Hallescher FC itself has historically had a fierce rivalry with FC Magdeburg. But since the presence of RB Leipzig, there has been a shift in the map of hatred.
“Now, we hate RB more. A club is the color and identity of its supporters. But they are only based on money, “said one of the supporters of Hallescher FC (Quoted from Goal).
If Hellescher FC and also other clubs in Germany are antipathy, surely it is inconceivable how much the Lokomotive Leipzig, the oldest club in the City of Leipzig, hated RB Leipzig.
Meanwhile, in the match at the 2016 DFB Pokal, the host Dynamo Dresden made a ‘welcome’ for the club they hated. A bull’s head is thrown to the edge of the field in the stadium before competing against RB Leipzig.
The hatred did indeed come from supporters and other club officials who considered RB Leipzig to damage the traditional values of the German club. However, this is not the case with the people of the City of Leipzig.
Residents in the city of Leipzig actually pleased with the presence of Die Rotten Bullen. Understandably, despite having a stadium used in the 2006 World Cup, Leipzig does not have a club in the upper caste of the German League. Mateschitz’s decision to choose Leipzig is right. No other club in Eastern Germany has appeared in the top caste since Cottbus Energy and Hansa Rostock were relegated 12 years ago.
