Together we’re stronger: the synergy of Red Bull football teams
Understand how the teams of the Austrian company benefit from its network
The great success of Red Bull teams on the field with the achievements of the Austrian championship (for the 7th time in a row), Série B do Brasileirão, in addition to reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League, reflects a different management of their rosters, based on integration information, style of play and athletes.
Brief history of acquisitions that led to immediate conquests
It all started in 2005 when Red Bull bought the then SV Austria Salzburg, changing the club’s name, shield and colors to fit the company’s visual elements, which culminated in the revolt of local fans, but also in the quick victory of the Austrian Championship a year later , in the 2006/07 season, a fact that had not occurred in a decade.
2006 was also the year in which another team was acquired, this time in the United States: the New York Metrostars, undergoing the same overhaul to be renamed the New York Red Bull and in 2008 the team was runner-up in the MLS.
In 2009, it was the turn of the German team SSV Markranstädt, who at the time worked in the 5th division of his country to be incorporated into the company’s teams … or almost so. That’s because the German Football Federation prohibits clubs from having major shareholders in the country’s first and second division. By the rule known as “50 + 1”, public or private investments are allowed so that members of a club have the majority of the votes (50% of the votes + 1).
Bayern Munich, for example, has approximately 293,000 members, while Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund have some 155,000 members, according to a study made by the KMPG Football Benchmark. Red Bull then defined that in RB Leipzig only 19 members would have the right to vote, all of whom are employees of the company. In practice, then, the company started to control the club.
For a further comparison, whoever wants to be a Bayern Munich member has to pay between € 30 and € 60 per year, while RB Leipzig charges an initial membership fee of € 100, plus another € 800 per year for maintenance right, according to Tifo Football. With all these disincentives, the club has only 750 members, while Paderborn, the penultimate club in number of members, has 5,300, a 706% higher value (see table below).
Furthermore, in the process of reformulation, the name of the club could not contain “Red Bull”, also by local determination, a fact once again circumvented by the company that registered the Leipzig club as “RasenBallsport” (something translated as “sport with ball” of lawn “), generating the acronyms” RB “.
Under the new management the club got the promotion to the Bundesliga in the 2015/16 season and already the first season in the elite, won the vice-championship and, consequently, a place in the group stage of the Champions League.
With Bragantino the process was a little different, with the announcement of the partnership made in March 2019, but with the visual changes only happening in January 2020. At the end of 2019 the team won the B Series of the Brasileirão and this year will compete in the first division of national football.
Red Bull still tried to maintain a team in Africa, in Ghana, but the team created in 2008 was extinguished six years later, 2014, after being relegated to the country’s 3rd division.
Team integration (within the field)
Because it has four top tier teams, in addition to three other “support teams” (see a chart of the organization chart below), Red Bull follows the example of several multinational companies and relocates its employees from one place to another within its network , including among its F1 teams (the best Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers go to the main team, Red Bull Racing). Think about it from the perspective of a career plan for a Brazilian player:
First he stands out in his country (Bragantino). Then he moves to Europe, more precisely to Austria (Salzburg), where he will have an environment of less pressure than major European leagues, but still participating in the Champions League or Europa League. From there, if everything goes well, he is hired to play in the Bundesliga (Leipzig) and compete in major championships, where he will enjoy the peak of his career. Finally, when you are ending your cycle, you can transfer to cosmopolitan New York and play your last years as a professional player in MLS. This entire trajectory is offered and facilitated by Red Bull with teams with each of these characteristics.
This flow of players who transfer between teams in the group is clearer when we look at the numbers. From the 2014/15 season to today, 25 players have moved from one Red Bull team to another Red Bull team, an average of 4 per season (the most recent one in July involving striker Hee-chan Hwang). This number does not account for transfers involving smaller teams owned by Red Bull, as shown in the image above. If counted, this number would be close to 100.
- Salzburg to Leipzig: 16 players; € 90,5 mi
- New York to Leipzig: 1 player; € 2,63 mi
- Leipzig to Salzburg: 6 players; € 0,9 mi
- Leipzig o New York: 1 player; on loan
- Leipzig do Bragantino: 1 player; on loan
Among these transfers, we highlight names like Naby Keita (now at Liverpool), Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabizter, who moved from the Austrian team to Leipzig, where they played an important role in the team’s recent success. In the case of the latter player, there was another component that made the deal more interesting.
In 2014 when playing for Rapid Vienna, striker Sabitzer was bought by RB Leipzig for € 2 million, activating his severance fee for foreign teams and was immediately loaned to RB Salzburg until the following year. In the new team he was very important in the campaign for the championship titles and the Austrian Cup, in which he participated directly in 48 goals (27 goals and 21 assists). He is currently a regular player at Leipzig and his market value is set at € 35 million.
If the negotiation was directly between the Austrian teams (from Rapid to Salzburg) the negotiation would probably have been for higher values, or even, it would not have happened at all.
Integration also takes place with technicians, albeit on a smaller scale. An example is the American Jesse Marsch, now trained by Red Bull Salzburg, but who trained the New York Red Bull and was also a technical assistant at Leipzig.
Team integration (off the field)
In addition to the players and coaches, Red Bull has an integrated system of physical structure, information and people from other areas of the clubs.
In the city of Thalgau, 18 km from Salzburg, the Athlete Performance Center offers professionals who work with conditioning, physiotherapy, mental performance, nutrition for athletes sponsored or not by Red Bull, who also enjoy facilities for physiological assessments, analysis of 3D movements, sleep consultations and final performance evaluation, according to Forbes.
In an interview with “Máquina do Esporte” (podcast “Os Maquinistas # 013”), the Head of Football Operation of RB Bragantino, Thiago Scuro also stated that more areas are interconnected within the football structure.
“There is a person in the technical area who talks to all sports directors, in the commercial area, in the legal area … (…) we have exchanges of ideas; of practice among sports directors (…) we also have eight professionals who work monitoring athletes in South America, to attend Red Bull Bragantino but also to provide information to other clubs in the group “.
This whole connection, then, becomes a preponderant factor for the sports success of the clubs that enjoy not only financial investments, but also a management with well-defined principles that aim at the perpetuity of all the institutions involved in the processes.
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