Would a Red Bull-Owned Team, Like RB Leipzig, Work in England?

The Bundesliga, for so long the epitome of footballing self-assurance and sometimes self-righteousness, isn’t so comfortable in its own skin right now.

Supporters still swill beer while swaying in masses of choreographed unity, having paid less for their tickets than most Premier League fans pay to park their car at the ground, but look at the top of the league table and there is an anomaly. 

RB Leipzig are that anomaly. Having won seven straight games, they hold a three-point lead over Bayern Munich and all the rest at the peak of the German top flight.

That in itself is not especially revelatory. The Bundesliga has had shock champions before, most recently in 2009, when Wolfsburg lifted the title. Stuttgart’s triumph in 2007 was also a surprise.

It’s how they got there that rankles. RB Leipzig only won promotion to the Bundesliga in May, but they were already renowned by the time they played their first-ever top flight game this season. They are the most hated club in Germany. A blot against an otherwise pristine copybook, as it is widely seen. 

The club was only formed in 2009 when Austrian energy drink company Red Bull acquired the playing license of German fifth-tier club Markranstadt. League rules in the country prevent commercialisation of certain aspects of a club, like its badge or name. RB Leipzig—Rasenballsport Leipzig to give them their official name, Red Bull Leipzig to give them the name everyone knows them by—found a way to bend those rules.

This commercialisation, of course, goes directly against the grain of German football’s identity. The so-called “50-plus-one” rule stipulates that clubs must hold a majority of their own voting rights. Only specific investors who have been involved with a certain club for more than a 20-year period can apply for an exception to the 50-plus-one rule. 

This deters outside investors from entering the German game, but RB Leipzig found a way to get around this rule. The majority of their memberships—which cost €1,000 a year—are held by Red Bull employees and associates. Their critics say they have found a way to corrupt German football’s spirit.

Their on-the-field exerts have seen them called the Leicester City of the Bundesliga, but German football fans balk at such a suggestion. Leicester’s …

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