In Short Family, In Detail Well Read Below…
Most of my family are from east Germany(Leipzig) and a small amount from northern Germany(Kiel) growing up in Australia I didn’t know football, soccer as it’s called here was a thing until around 2004 when I got my first EA Sports FIFA game. I started to watch games of football when it was available but football isn’t a big sport as it is now back then.
I would watch games of Real Madrid, Manchester United during European cup football games. I remember coming across RB Leipzig late 2009 from searching for teams in Leipzig on google, trying to find live streams and ways of watching them in the Regionalliga up until 2013 which where a pain to find but watched them when I was able to find them. It wasn’t until 2013 that I could watch them weekly with telecasts due to them being promoted into the 3. Liga and I’ve watched them almost weekly rarely missing games since.
People say why RB though? because there is also 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and Chemie Leipzig. Honestly I didn’t even know they existed and when I found out I was already invested into supporting RB Leipzig since it’s formation it’s not everyday people can say they’ve been a supporter of a club since it’s formation.
Another reason why I don’t support 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig or Chemie Leipzig is political stances. I’ve always felt politics gets to heavily into football sometimes and Chemie fan clubs express left-wing and anti-fascist political views, while Lok has vocal supporters from the right and far-right of the political spectrum I like my football just football.
Now I know to most fans in Germany, particularly those in the county who are apart of offical fan clubs to a majority of the Bundesliga and DFB teams the very existence of RB Leipzig is an affront to all that they believe in.
The team’s primary purpose, as they see it, is not to play soccer or represent a community, but to increase Red Bull’s brand visibility. The entire organisation is, in their eyes, an artificial construct weaponised by an international corporation — and brazenly circumventing the 50+1 rules that are supposed to place ultimate control of German clubs in the hands of their fans — so that it can sell a few more cans of energy drink.
I don’t see it that way I see RB Leipzig as a club with ambitions to be the best team in Europe, East Germany and the Country, one of few clubs that have the ability, resources and persistence to challenge Bayern for supremacy in German football.