Red Bull Salzburg
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Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian football (soccer) club, based in Salzburg. Its home ground is the Wals Siezenheim Stadium.
History
Red Bull Salzburg was founded on September 13, 1933, as SV Austria Salzburg. In 1978 the name was changed to SV Casino Salzburg and in 1997 to SV Wüstenrot Salzburg. Red Bull bought the club on April 6, 2005. Famous players who played for the club include Oliver Bierhoff, Thomas Häßler, and Toni Polster.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". Although the official colours in the statutes are still violet and white, no trace of violet can be found in the club's new logo and the team plays in the new colours red and white. This complete re-branding of the team is 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 franchise in Major League Soccer in the USA; while it rebranded the team Red Bull New York, it chose to recognize 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 fanclubs throughout Europe voiced their support in what they saw as a fight against the growing commercialisation of football.
But after 5 months of protests, and talks between the club owner and the traditional fans, no compromise was reached. Thus, on September 15 2005, the "violet" supporters stated that the talks had finally failed and they would end their efforts.
Since then two separate fan groups are in existence: The "Red-Whites", who support the management and the "new" club, and the "Violet-Whites", who want to preserve the 72-year old tradition, but will not support the new club. In February 2006 the "Violet-Whites" successfully registered the name "SV Austria Salzburg" and the old club emblem, and agreed a takeover/merger with the football section of the Salzburg Police Sports Club, who played in the 1. Salzburg Landliga, in the fourth tier of Austrian football, as an alternative to starting the relaunched "SV Austria Salzburg" in the seventh tier. The first match of the relaunched SV Austria Salzburg was planned to be on 24 March 2006, but all matches were cancelled because of bad weather; the first match will now be on 1 April against FC Puch.
Recent history
In May of 2006 the club (that is, the Red-Whites) announced on its website that it had hired veteran coach Giovanni Trapattoni as sports director together with his ex-player Lothar Matthäus as coach. The pair initially denied having reached a deal, but officially signed on May 23, 2006.Achievements
SV Austria Salzburg is a three times national champion: 1994, 1995 and 1997. They participated several times in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup. In 1994 the club reached the final of the UEFA Cup, they faced Internazionale and unluckily lost a very thrilling game.Since Red Bull Salzburg claims to have no history, there is no achievement except the 2nd in 2005/2006.
Current squad
Goalkeepers
- 22 - Heinz Arzberger (1998-)
- 23 - Pascal Grünwald (2003-)
- 24 - Martin Eisl (2001-)
- TBA - Timo Ochs (2006-)
Defenders
- 02 - Christoph Jank (1999-)
- 03 - Laszlo Bodnar (2006-)
- 04 - Thomas Linke (2005-)
- 06 - Alex von Schwedler (2005-)
- 14 - Alexander Pöllhuber (2004-)
- 15 - Aleksander Knavs (2005-)
- 25 - Ronald Gercaliu (2006-)
- 33 - Thomas Winklhofer (1992-2000, 2002-)
- TBA - Rémo Meyer (2006-)
Midfielders/Wingers
- 05 - Ezequiel Carboni (2005-)
- 08 - Roland Kirchler (2003-2004, 2005-)
- 10 - Andreas Ivanschitz (2006-)
- 11 - Patrik Jezek (2005-)
- 12 - Maynor Suazo (2003-2005)
- 17 - Jürgen Pichorner (2003-)
- 18 - Markus Schopp (Captain; 2005-)
- 20 - Markus Scharrer (2005-)
- 28 - René Aufhauser (1997-2001, 2005-)
Forwards
- 07 - Alexander Zickler (2005-)
- 09 - Vratislav Lokvenc (2005-)
- 16 - Wolfgang Mair (2005-)
- 19 - Christian Mayrleb (2005-)
- 21 - Marc Janko (2005-)
- TBA - Johan Vonlanthen (2006-)
Known players
- Wolfgang Feiersinger
- Heimo Pfeifenberger
- Oliver Bierhoff
- Thomas Häßler
- Richard Kitzbichler
- Hans Krankl
- Toni Polster
External links
- () [Official website]
- () [Initiative Violett-Weiß] — a supporters' organisation opposed to the takeover
- () [Franchising in Austria] — Article on Red Bull's takeover of the club on the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association website
- () ["Modern Football and the Death of History"] — Football Supporters' Federation article on the Red Bull takeover.
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