Red Bull’s Salzburg and Leipzig given wings to enter UEFA Champions League

June 21 – Both RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg have been given the go ahead to participate in the UEFA Champions League, having restructured their relationships with the Austrian Red Bull energy drinks company to overcome the regulatory prohibition on common ownership of clubs.

Red Bull Salzburg earnt a place in the UEFA Champions League after winning the Austrian Championship whilst RB Leipzig qualified after storming to second place in the Bundesliga in their first season in the top flight. If the arrangements with Red Bull had been deemed to breach UEFA’s integrity rules then, under UEFA rules, Salzburg would have gone into the competition as champions of their country and if they had opted to give way to Leipzig, they may have fallen foul of domestic licensing rules.

However, as Salzburg’s club chief executive Oliver Mintzlaff was keen to emphasise in the aftermath of UEFA’s decision, the two clubs had “done their homework” and have successfully worked to separate their affairs at all levels so that UEFA’s Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) was able to find that “Article 5 (Integrity of the competition) of the competition regulations is not breached.”

According to the Adjudicatory Chamber, “Following a thorough investigation, and further to several important governance and structural changes made by the clubs (regarding corporate matters, financing, personnel, sponsorship arrangements, etc.), the CFCB deemed that no individual or legal entity had anymore a decisive influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition.”

The decision, full details of which are yet to be published, may still be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within ten days and the CFCB will continue to monitor both clubs to ensure that integrity rules are respected going forward.

The decision will be far from universally popular in Germany as RB Leipzig was set up by Red Bull who bought the playing rights of fifth division side SSV Markranstadt in 2009 and their ownership structure stands in contrast to the usual German model of membership-owned clubs.

Red Bull bought Austria Salzburg in 2005, renaming it, but following the recent restructuring it no longer has a controlling stake and merely sponsors the club in a contract which extends to 2022.

Salzburg will now play in the second qualifying round against the winner of the match between Hibernian’s Paola from Malta and FCI Tallinn from Estonia. Leipzig goes straight into the group phase.

UEFA’s Article 5 includes the following stipulation to ensure integrity of the competition:

5.01 To ensure the integrity of the Uefa club competitions, the following criteria apply:

  1. no club participating in a Uefa club competition may, either directly or indirectly:
  2. hold or deal in the securities or shares of any other club participating in a Uefa club competition,
  3. be a member of any other club participating in a Uefa club competition,

iii. be involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a Uefa club competition, or

  1. have any power whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a Uefa club competition;
  2. no-one may simultaneously be involved, either directly or indirectly, in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a Uefa club competition;
  3. no individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a Uefa club competition, such control or influence being defined in this context as:
  4. holding a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights;
  5. having the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the club;

iii. being a shareholder and alone controlling a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights pursuant to an agreement entered into with other shareholders of the club; or

  1. being able to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club.

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