FC Red Bull Salzburg

Football club infobox
clubname = Red Bull Salzburg


fullname = FC Red Bull Salzburg
nickname = "Die Bullen" (The Bulls)
founded = 1950
ground = Red Bull Arena Wals-Siezenheim Austria
capacity = 31,100
chairman = flagicon|Austria Rudi Theierl
mgrtitle = Manager
manager = flagicon|Netherlands Co Adriaanse
league = Austrian Bundesliga
season = 2007-08
position = 2nd
pattern_la1=_redshoulders|pattern_b1=_redshoulders|pattern_ra1=_redshoulders
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=FF0000|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=_white stripes2|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=_white stripes2
leftarm2=373A6D|body2=373A6D|rightarm2=373A6D|shorts2=373A6D|socks2=373A6D

FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian 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 4 times, and reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 1994.

History

FC Red Bull Salzburg was founded on September 13, 1933, as SV Austria Salzburg. In 1950 the club was dissolved but in the same year it was re-founded again 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 April 6, 2005 and rebranded it .

The Red Bull takeover

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 new colours of red and white, to the consternation of much of the club's traditional support.Fact|date=August 2008 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 re-branding 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 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. However after five months of protests and talks between the club owners and traditional fans, no compromise was reached. On September 15 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.

Recent history

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 [ [http://www.scorespro.com/lives2/goals.php?f=220328 Salzburg - Shakhtar Donetsk : 1 - 0] Match report from ScoresPro.com] [ [http://www.scorespro.com/lives2/goals.php?f=220344 Shakhtar Donetsk - Salzburg : 3 - 1] Match report from ScoresPro.com] 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 would be taking over as the new Republic of Ireland manager in May. Currently, the team is managed by Co Adriaanse and his assistant, Luc Nijholt, both from the Netherlands.

Honours

Austrian Bundesliga
*Winners - 1994*, 1995*, 1997*, 2007

Austrian Cup
*Runners-up - 1974*, 1980*, 1981*, 2002*

UEFA Cup
*Finalists - 1994*

"* as Austria Salzburg"

European cup history

*Q = Qualification

Current squad

"As of September, 2008."

Out on loan

Red Bull Salzburg Juniors squad

Selected former players

References

External links

* [http://www.redbulls.com/index.php?lang=en#pid_1111_lang_en Official website]
* [http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/club=50030/domestic.html FC Salzburg at UEFA.COM]
* [http://www.eufo.de/football/aut/red_burg.htm FC Salzburg at EUFO.DE]
* [http://www.weltfussball.de/teams/rb-salzburg/ FC Salzburg at Weltfussball.de]
* [http://www.playerhistory.com/Default.aspx?page=club_details&clubID=484 FC Salzburg at Playerhistory.com]
* [http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/verein/409/redbullsalzburg/uebersicht/startseite.html FC Salzburg at Transfermarkt.de]
* [http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/austria/2008-2009/bundes/rbsalz.htm FC Salzburg at Football Squads.co.uk]
* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/club.php?id=9570 FC Salzburg at National Football Teams.com]
* [http://www.football-kit.org.uk/salzburg-football-shirts.html Salzburg Football Shirts]