Every Austria Salzburg supporter is at pains to say that they gave Red Bull a chance. In 2005, their club was calling out for investment. The league titles and the run to the Uefa Cup final in 1994 had quickly become ancient history as a club drifted to the margins of Austrian football.
In 2004-05, the final season before the takeover, Salzburg limped to their lowest league position in almost 20 years. It all made sense: Red Bull GmbH were a local company with a global brand. There was excitement, euphoria even, at how the two might work together.
If those supporters accepted that change was needed, they accept too that Red Bull have made a difference to Austrian football through their focus on youth development and an improvement in the country’s UEFA coefficient. Even the name change didn’t bother them: under previous sponsorship arrangements, this club had been Casino Salzburg, Sparkasse Austria Salzburg and Gerngross Austria Salzburg. All they wanted was to be given more than an inch by a company that was taking a mile, proof that their new owners at least factored fans into their masterplan.
Instead, Austria Salzburg became the club formed over a pair of socks. The new badge was unpopular and the attempts to alter history to change the club’s official formation date to 2005 deliberately inflammatory, but the change of the club’s kit colour to red, white and blue (matching Red Bull’s branding) was the final straw. When supporters protested, the new owners told them that the goalkeeper’s socks could retain the old colours. It was a slap in the face for a fanbase that had tried to build bridges. A group of them subsequently formed their own club, sharing a city but nothing else with the energy giant across town.
More from Football
Inter's Inzaghi effect has Conte feeling like a forgotten man ahead of Liverpool tie15 February, 2022
Man Utd predicted line-up against Brighton - and why the Premier League game isn't on live TV15 February, 2022
Newcastle are firing themselves to safety by keeping the ball out of play longer than rivals15 February, 2022The infancy of any phoenix club is a whirlwind. Notoriety and an established support provides significant advantages. Austria Salzburg, back in their violet and white home kit, began life in the seventh tier but were promoted four times in as many seasons. Attendances hovered around 1,000 in a country where only one club in the second tier regularly boasts a crowd of 2,000 or more. In the South Stand terrace, fans wave flags and continually make noise as if to inadvertently protest against the plasticisation of the club three miles to their north.
Austria Salzburg are emphatically a community asset again. Stefan Schubert, a supporter and board member, tells i about the food parcels distributed to the community during the pandemic and the deliberately cosmopolitan makeup of the club’s youth teams formed from every element of Salzburg’s population. He is clearly deeply proud of the atmosphere created on matchdays. A club such as this only works if it remains committed to community integration and fan power.
But more interesting is the point at which rapid progression slows down and the realities – and rigours – of running a football club come to the fore. Austria Salzburg were promoted to the second tier in 2015 but struggled to cope financially with the licensing requirements of that level and were relegated after their first season.
“We failed to make that transition,” Schubert says. “The wrong people were appointed at the wrong time and the club has learnt its mistakes from that period. We are in a strong position this season but will not apply for a licence to gain promotion [back to the second tier]. We are planning a new stadium that will incorporate apartments, half of which will be rented out as social housing. More important is that the club is run sustainably, never living beyond its means and ensuring that it will still be here in 10, 20, 30 years. Some things matter more than where you finish in the league.”
Schubert, like most Austria Salzburg supporters, is damning when discussing Red Bull Salzburg. He remarks disdainfully that when they win each league title (it’s six years since they won the domestic league by fewer than 12 points), it causes very little stir in Salzburg – no street parties, no wild joy, no sense that anybody really cares. In 2018-19, before Covid-19 reduced attendances, their average home crowd was under 10,000 in a 30,000-seater stadium. They are a club that merely exists as part of a process, more a subsidiary company than a football club.
But Red Bull Salzburg are crucial to Austria Salzburg; they are their raison d’etre. One fan website, created at the time when they were warring with their new owners, spells out the initiative: “We unalterably believe that a club can only work when attention is paid to the club’s supporters and fans. Our identification with the club is not primarily based on success on the pitch but rather on parameters defining and identifying a football club such as club colours, tradition and history.”
Related Stories
On Wednesday evening, Red Bull Salzburg will play the first knockout European Cup match in the club’s history; that is true whether they choose to consider its birth year as 1933 or 2005. It will be viewed by Red Bull as the latest milepost in their pursuit of global success. Nobody within the project has any regret about the rebrand – why would they? They got what they came for, a manufactured blank canvas.
But nobody at Austria Salzburg does either. They will probably never play in the Champions League. They may never even reach the top tier of Austrian football. But who cares? Having 1,000 match-going supporters who have a deep connection to their community clubs means more than having 10,000 who don’t. Being proud of who you are eclipses the importance of which division you play in.
They are not Red Bull, they are alive and kicking and they play in violet and white. Nothing else matters.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/mHlTuYa
Post a Comment