RasenBallsport Leipzig e. The men's professional football club is run by the spin-off organization RasenBallsport Leipzig GmbH. The club achieved successive promotions the following years, eventually being promoted to the Bundesliga in In their debut top-flight season, they qualified to the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history, following a runner-up finish.
They also became a regular feature in the Champions League, reaching the semi-finals of the competition in The club won its first domestic honour, the DFB Pokal , in back-to-back seasons, and RB Leipzig's entrance into the upper echelons of German football has proven controversial, as the club's heavy corporate influence is regarded by many Germans to be antithetical to the traditional ownership, structure and management of sports clubs in Germany.
Before investing in Leipzig, Red Bull GmbH , led by co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz , spent three and a half years looking for a suitable location to invest in German football. The company made its first attempt to enter the German football scene in On the advice of Franz Beckenbauer , a personal friend of Dietrich Mateschitz, the company decided to invest in Leipzig.
The company planned a takeover, with a change of the team's colours and club name. The company made contact with Hamburg -based cult club FC St. Pauli , known for its left -leaning supporters, and met representatives of the club to discuss a sponsorship deal. A short time before, supporters of FC St. Once it became clear to the Hamburg side that the company had plans that went far beyond conventional sponsoring, it immediately ended the contact, and the question was never considered by the club's management.
Negotiations began behind closed doors, but the club was not interested in an investment and ended the discussions. This was immediately met with protests from club supporters. Leipzig was considered a suitable place for an investment, with the city having a rich history in football, being the meeting place for the founding of the DFB and the home of the first German national football champions, VfB Leipzig.
