Big thanks to the lads at The Square Ball magazine for giving this story the full-page treatment in the latest issue.
It almost undid an afternoon’s hard graft down the pub when I saw it after picking up my copy before the Sheffield United game on Friday night. Then I got in the ground for a much-needed top up only to be confronted by some Red Bullshit in the South Stand bar.
Bastards.
Those people who, like me, have contacted Red Bull to express anger at the company’s hijacking of football in Salzburg will probably find themselves in receipt of a considerable stock missive from its PR department. It’s a lengthy response which raises more questions than answers, but before we get to those, here’s what the company had to say for itself.
Thank you for your email! Although it is rather critical, it does give us the chance to reply and to clarify our point of view. Obviously it is up to you whether to agree with us or not but we did not want to miss this opportunity to let you have all the relevant information and facts and to give our opinion about some important questions.
The matter is just as important to us as it is to you therefore we have prepared the information and facts in as much detail and depth as possible. Please consider the length of this letter as proof of how serious we are when dealing with criticism.
The story so far:
In recent years, Salzburg football club has suffered from ever-increasing sport and economic problems. Last season it only narrowly avoided relegation, the number of spectators dropped, sponsors left and new ones were increasingly difficult to find. In a nutshell: the future of professional football in Salzburg was under a great threat. In this difficult situation, Rudi Quehenberger, who as president had led the club for many years with enormous commitment and effort also of a financial kind turned to Red Bull.
For a long time we had kept our distance from football, but Quehenberger’s enthusiasm for the sport, his doggedness, the menacing situation and above all the extremely positive development of international football over the past years led us to reconsider our stance towards football and to prepare a concept.
This concept was based on Red Bull’s overall approach to sport: Red Bull is not a sponsor in the traditional sense; it never was and never will be. Red Bull contributes its own ideas and concepts to all projects to which it is committed. Red Bull creates, collaborates, accepts responsibility, develops and plays an active part. Red Bull provides financial security, but beyond that, Red Bull’s investment in sport is know-how, ideas, enthusiasm, the will to succeed and a unique philosophy.
Red Bull has one main target: to enable sportsmen to reach their goals. This is exactly what we are doing in Salzburg. In a few years from now the club would like to be among the best in Europe. And it wants to achieve more: win new fans for football, market football professionally in all its aspects and present it in a modern way and above all: win young people not only as fans for football in Salzburg, but also as players. Our attention is focused in particular on the next generation of players. This kind of comprehensive concept is completely new to football. And like all innovations it has been greeted with controversy.
This is the starting point.
Now to a few fundamental questions and Red Bull’s point of view.
What role does tradition play in football? A significant one. Traditions are part of sport. But every tradition needs to grow. This takes time. Nobody can, nobody should buy themselves a tradition. It would have been wrong for Red Bull to buy its way into the Salzburg football tradition, dishonest and superficial, and above all not Red Bull’s style.
Since the start of this season we have been working at creating a new tradition. This tradition cannot and will not be separated from the history of football in Salzburg. But this new tradition is not purple, because purple is not the colour of Red Bull.
We realise that some fans of football in Salzburg will find it difficult to accept this. But it is the better, more honest, more consistent solution. Everyone should be able to contribute to creating a new tradition – fans of the old club just as much as supporters and friends of the new club. Red Bull Salzburg does not exclude anyone and is naturally pleased to face up to open, fair discussion with its critics. So long as it is conducted openly and fairly.
How important are fans in football and which fans do Red Bull Salzburg wish to have?
Fans are among the most important aspects of football. But fans are a club’s supporters, its closest companions. They are important like friends are, perhaps even like members of the family. But they are not owners; they do not carry any responsibility for the future. Therefore they have the right to be consulted, but not to make decisions. Some fans have trouble understanding this.
Naturally all fans have the right to express enthusiasm as well as criticism. So long as certain boundaries of fairness, sportsmanship and propriety are observed, and definitely so long as nobody is attacked for having a different opinion verbally or, much worse, physically. You think it is superfluous to say this? Unfortunately not. This actually happened – the violent group of so-called ‘fans’ responsible need not expect any sympathy from us and has forfeited the right to be taken seriously or even just to be heard.
Red Bull Salzburg is a football club that stands for enthusiasm for sport and success. Red Bull Salzburg is a club, whose home games can be attended by the whole family and where parents can send their children with peace of mind. Ensuring this is one of the club’s fundamental tasks.
We welcome every true fan. The team tries to express this with its dedication and the club, among other things, with a son et lumière show designed to make each match visit an experience. This presentation is new to football and the reactions to it have ranged from enthusiastic to reserved.
The only objective evaluation of the acceptance of the new concept is to look at the number of spectators: more fans go to Red Bull Salzburg matches than to any other Austrian team; the current average gate is approximately 17,000. Compared to last year, this is a fourfold increase.
We are not so presumptuous as to consider this proof that Red Bull’s approach to football is the only possible one. But we think that the positive reaction of such a large number of fans is a good sign.
What has Red Bull done to bring the discussions with fans of the former Austria Salzburg to a positive conclusion?
Firstly: 99% of the fans of the ‘old’ club are also fans of Red Bull Salzburg. They are happy that professional football at a high level and soon at the highest level, in our intention at least is secured in Salzburg for many years to come. They realise that Red Bull has its own tradition, its own history and its own approach to football. Some of them accept this, and most of them think it is an exciting contribution to the sport.
Those fans, who express their opposition to the innovation, are therefore a relatively tiny group. Within this group there is a section open to violence; we have already made our opinion about it perfectly clear. There can and will not be any talks with this group. Violence has no place in sport. But there are also some fans of the ‘old’ club, who do wish to talk. Their arguments are, for the most part, reasonable and presented in an intelligent way. We have had extensive discussions with this group. We have made suggestions to the group about how one would integrate the part of the Salzburg football tradition that has just come to a close with the tradition of Red Bull Salzburg that is starting now as a quotation, an appreciation, an honourable reverence. The suggestions made by Red Bull Salzburg to this group of fans were rejected. The counter-proposals from this group were not acceptable to Red Bull. There were constructive negotiations but no common result. This is unfortunate, but nothing can be done about it.
These were the most important questions about Red Bull Salzburg that currently interest many football fans in Austria and across Europe. We have answered them honestly and in detail. We have tried to explain our no-nonsense, ambitious and ‘redbullish’ approach to sport to you. We are not concerned with vanities, power games, old habits – what matters to us is sport.
We are pleased that very many football fans share our point of view. But we realise that some football fans think differently.
Thank you for taking the time to hear our opinion and our arguments.
You would like to invite you to follow the future of Red Bull Salzburg with openness and shared passion.
Kind regards
Sophie Bates
Red Bull UK
Now, the success of Red Bull’s marketing strategy is undoubtedly huge, as is their heavy involvement in the creation, organisation, and sponsorship of ‘events’ and their participation in things such as extreme sports will testify. So just how good a fit is this ‘Red Bullishness’ with mainstream sports? Snowboarding, aerobatics, and box-car racing do not possess the wealth of tradition that football enjoys around the world; nor even F1, as Red Bull is currently discovering with the resistance to its recent acquisition and proposed renaming of Minardi.
Perhaps unaccustomed to such complications, Red Bull appear to have ignored many traits of football, all of which are engrained in its culture and its people, because these traits have been present throughout football’s history, and have formed the basis of the development of its considerable and varied cultures.
As they rightfully state, traditions are “a part of sport” and “every tradition needs to grow”. They also say no-one should buy themselves a tradition. So why did they buy one, only to starve it of the very things they say they value; belonging and continuity?
Their point that “fans have a right to be consulted, but not to make decisions” is an entirely valid one, yet I firmly believe fans should always retain the right to protest; at the club, the players or, as is more common, the manager. To take measures, as Red Bull have done, to first deny paying spectators their voice, and then to deny their presence at the stadium simply because they deem it to one of opposition is outrageous – especially, as Red Bull fail to acknowledge in their reply, they have directly created the environment for unrest in the first place.
Furthermore, if, as they claim, “99% of the fans of the old club are also fans of Red Bull Salzburg” and, of the remaining 1% of dissenters, “there is a section open to violence”, just how many people are they talking about? Enough to re-allocate the use of an entire terrace, as they have done? Of course not, because that simply doesn’t add up.
I feel that Red Bull’s references to their negotiations with the “for the most part, reasonable” Initiative Violett-Weiss should not be allowed to pass without illustration. Witness the Initiative’s proposal for a kit compromise (top left) with Red Bull’s counter-proposal (bottom left) and draw your own conclusions as to who’s trying to do the compromising here.
Finally, for Red Bull to dismiss history as mere matters of “vanity, power games” and “old habits” is offensive in the extreme to anyone who spends their life participating in the history of their club. Similarly, I think that, while many Red Bull Salzburg fans may well currently share the company’s point of view, the recent and continued protests at grounds across Europe demonstrates they are foolish in their notion that only “some football fans think differently”.
Football fan culture is much greater than they could ever imagine their brand to be, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to “follow the future of Red Bull Salzburg with openness and shared passion” should they ever demonstrate that they are willing to treat football and its followers with reciprocal respect.
