Teams --> Salzburg

FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club, based in Wals-Siezenheim. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. The club was known as SV Austria Salzburg before being bought by the Red Bull company in 2005 who renamed the club and changed the club's colours from its traditional violet and white to red and white. The change resulted in some of the team's fans forming a new club, SV Austria Salzburg. The club has won the Austrian Bundesliga 6 times, and reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 1994. They also played in the 1994–95 edition of the UEFA Champions League as Casino Salzburg, being the only team not defeated by eventual champions Ajax Amsterdam.

History

FC Red Bull Salzburg was founded on 13 September 1933 as SV Austria Salzburg. In 1950, the club was dissolved but later that year re-founded for the first time. In 1978, the official name was changed to SV Casino Salzburg and in 1997, to SV Wüstenrot Salzburg, while the common calling name remained SV Austria Salzburg. The Red Bull company bought the club on 6 April 2005 and rebranded it.

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 F.A. The new authority removed all trace of violet from the club logo and the team now play in the colours of red and white, to the consternation of much of the club's traditional support. A small pair of wings form the motif of the new club crest, displayed on the team jersey, in accordance with Red Bull's commercial slogan at the time: "It gives you wings." This complete rebranding of the team proved 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 United States; while it rebranded the team as the New York Red Bulls, 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. However, after five months of protests and talks between the club owners and traditional fans, no compromise was reached. On 15 September 2005, the "violet" supporters stated that the talks had irreversibly broken down and efforts to reach an agreement would be terminated.

This gave rise to two separate fan groups: the "Red-Whites", who support "Red Bull Salzburg" and the "Violet-Whites", who want to preserve the 72-year-old tradition and refuse to support the rebranded club. The Violet-Whites 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 23 May 2006. Red Bull ultimately won the T-Mobile Bundesliga 2006-07 by a comfortable margin with five games still left in the season after drawing 2–2 with previous season's champions 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. On 13 February 2008, Italian manager Giovanni Trappatoni confirmed that he would be taking over as the new Republic of Ireland manager in May. He was succeeded by Co Adriaanse, under whom they finished as champion, and he left after one year. His successor and the current manager of the team is Huub Stevens. Stevens won his first major title as the manager of a country's highest league on 14 May 2010, which led the team to the title of the season 2009/10.

In the 2010/11 season Stevens was replaced by Ricardo Moniz at the end of the season. Red Bull finished second in the league and plays in the UEFA Euro League qualification. Despite the recent philosophy the team announced that the qualification for the Champion League is not a must. Moniz was ordered to integrate young players of the Junior squad. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season Daniel Offenbacher, Martin Hinteregger, Georg Teigl and Marco Meilinger were promoted to the first squad.

In 2008, Red Bull Salzburg opened their academy in Sogakope, Ghana.

Honours

Austrian Bundesliga

Austrian Cup

Austrian Supercup

UEFA Cup

UEFA Europa League

* as Austria Salzburg

Gallery

Champions 2006/07

Champions 2008/09

Champions 2009/10

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Red Bull Salzburg Juniors squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

European competition history

References

External links