RB Leipzig and the 50+1 rule
RasenBallsport Leipzig is a German professional football club that plays in the Bundesliga, the top flight of German football. The club was founded in 2009 in controversial circumstances when Red Bull, the energy drink company from Austria, purchased the playing rights of fifth-tier side SSV Markranstädt. The club hit a roadblock when it came to renaming the club as German football laws were stricter than those in Austria (when Red Bull took over Austria Salzburg and renamed it Red Bull Salzburg) or USA (when Red Bull took over New York/New Jersey MetroStars and renamed it New York Red Bulls). The laws didn’t permit teams to be named after their sponsors unless they had a historical association. As a result, they had to drop the name ‘Red Bull’ and simply use RB. Here RB stands for RasenBallsport which roughly translates to lawn ball sport.
The club gained promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 2013-14. As they rose through the divisions, they faced further scrutiny. The German Football League took umbrage with several issues, the first being the club is run by too few people and the second being that they weren’t independent enough from the larger Red Bull organization. So, Red Bull adapted by redesigning the logo, changing their organizational structure and lowering membership fees. But many accuse them of manipulating the rules to serve their corporate agenda. This included desecrating the 50+1 rule, something that is so sacrosanct in German Football culture.
The 50+1 rule states that the club and its fans must own a majority of the shares. RB Leipzig aren’t technically in breach of the 50+1 rule as they have a membership scheme and they aren’t registered as a private company in the stock exchange like Borussia Dortmund. But it’s not implemented the way it was intended. Red Bull own a 99% stake in the club and its members own the other 1%. However, the 1% owns 100% of the voting rights. This is their way around it. It costs €800 a year to become an RB Leipzig member on top of a €100 registration fee. For comparison, becoming a Bayern Munich member is an affordable €60. Leipzig also retains the right to reject any application without justification and a membership doesn’t even guarantee voting rights. This is why the club has only 17 voting members. Yes, you read that right.
Whatever your views are on the club, you cannot deny the impressive achievements of the club in just 11 years. They reached the Bundesliga in 2016-17 where they finished 2nd behind Bayern Munich. They made their debut in the Champions League in 2017/18. They finished in the top 4 thrice in four seasons. They famously reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2019-20. Maybe not this season or the next, but they will win a Bundesliga title to break Bayern’s winning streak and dominance.
