FC Red Bull Salzburg - last updated on 19 June 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: FC Red Bull Salzburg
Foundation: September 13th 1933
City: Salzburg
Colours: White, red and blue
Website: www.redbulls.com
Honours:
FC Red Bull Salzburg has currently no honours.
A bit of history:
FC Red Bull Salzburg was founded on September 13, 1933, as SV Austria Salzburg. In 1978, the name was changed to SV Casino Salzburg and in 1997 to SV Wüstenrot Salzburg. Red Bull bought the club on April 6, 2005 and rebranded it (see below). Famous players who played for the club include Oliver Bierhoff, Thomas Häßler, Toni Polster and Niko Kovač.
After the takeover, Red Bull changed the club's name, management and staff, declaring "this is a new club with no history". Red Bull initially claimed on the club website that the club was founded in 2005, but was ordered to remove this claim by the Austrian FA. Although the official colours in the statutes are still violet and white, no trace of violet can be found in the club's new logo and the team plays in the new colours red and white. This complete re-branding of the team is very similar to Red Bull's treatment of its two Formula One racing teams, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. However, Red Bull would not completely follow this precedent when it acquired the MetroStars club in Major League Soccer in the USA; while it rebranded the team Red Bull New York, it chose to recognise the MetroStars' history.
The traditional supporters tried to resist the radical changes and formed their own movement in order to regain some of the tradition. Several fan-clubs throughout Europe voiced their support in what they saw as a fight against the growing commercialisation of football.
But after five months of protests, and talks between the club owner and the traditional fans, no compromise was reached. Thus, on September 15 2005, the "violet" supporters stated that the talks had finally failed and they would end their efforts.
This gave rise to two separate fan groups : the "Red-White-Violets", who see in "Red Bull Salzburg" their old Club "SV Austria Salzburg", and the "Violet-Whites", who wanted to preserve the 72-year-old tradition, but refused to support the rebranded club, and ultimately formed a new club, SV Austria Salzburg.
In May 2006, Red Bull announced on its website that it had hired veteran coach Giovanni Trapattoni as new coach together with his ex-player Lothar Matthäus as co-trainer. The pair initially denied having reached a deal, but officially signed on May 23, 2006. Red Bull ultimately won the T-Mobile Bundesliga 2006/07 by a comfortable margin with 5 games still left in the season after drawing 2-2 with previous season's champions FK Austria Wien on 28 April 2007. Red Bull were beaten by Shakhtar Donetsk in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League 2007-08 and then knocked out of the UEFA Cup 2007-08 in the first round by AEK Athens FC. On the 13th of February 2008 Giovanni Trapattoni (the manager of FC Red Bull Salzburg) confirmed that he will take over as the new Republic of Ireland manager in May.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
FC Red Bull Salzburg -
New name since April 6th 2005
