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RB LEIPZIG

UPDATED FOR 2024/25 - AUGUST 2024

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Founded: May 19, 2009
Club Members: 21
Nickname: Die Roten Bullen
Coach: Marco Rose
Captain: Willi Orbán

DFB Pokal: 2
German Super Cup Winner: 1
Regionalliga Nordost: 1
NOFV Oberliga Süd: 1
Landespokal Sachsen Winner: 2


Website: www.rbleipzig.com

Even in the hyper-commercial world of 'modern football', RB Leipzig stand out as something of an outlier. Their meteoric rise from the German fifth-tier to Bundesliga runners-up and Champions League semi-finalists in little more than 10 years is seen by some observers as a fairy-tale. To others, the fact that they exist at all in Germany - where a club's history, tradition and identity is valued almost as highly as trophies - has caused a great deal of controversy and made them the 'most hated club' in the country. Yet, despite the contempt the team inspires, there are some who believe that RB Leipzig are breathing new life into a region short on football and economic victories in the post-communist era and contributing to greater competition in a league otherwise dominated by just Borussia Dortmund and Bayern München.

Co-founded by Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull GmbH have long sought to get 'eyeballs on the brand' by sponsoring various sporting events and stunts including skydiver Felix Baumgartner's reality-defying space jump in 2012. However, while Baumgauter's act of derring-do captivated the world, Red Bull's forays into football up to that point had been less arresting. In 2005, they bought Austrian top-flight side SV Austria Salzburg and rebranded them FC Red Bull Salzburg before changing the club crest and kit to the red and white colours of the world's most recognisable energy drinks company. However, despite winning a dozen league titles in the years since then, their impact on the Champions League has been minimal. The profile of Red Bull's other clubs in Ghana, Brazil and New York was similarly limited and with efforts to establish themselves in the sport bearing little fruit, the company began looking for opportunities in Germany - one of football's traditional powerhouses.
Few were open to the idea of Red Bull bankrolling a club when it was first touted in 2006 however and an enquiry regarding investment in FC Sachsen Leipzig was rebuffed by the DFB (German FA). Fan protests then followed as the company cast their net further afield and explored potential takeovers at FC St Pauli, 1860 München and Fortuna Düsseldorf, before revisiting their initial idea of acquiring a Leipzig-based team.

 
Leipzig was an obvious choice for a footballing start-up with the sport and the city sharing a long history. The DFB were founded here, VfB Leipzig were crowned Germany's first ever league champions in 1902-03 and their successor 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig enjoyed glorious European nights, title challenges and cup magic during the 1970s and 1980s. There was also a brand new stadium lying unused after been built for the 2006 World Cup. Leipzig was the 'Stadt der Helden ' (City of Heroes) where protests that brought down the East German state began and the city was entering the initial stages of a renaissance, having stagnated in the aftermath of German reunification. The population was growing, international companies were setting up office and a cultural scene was beginning to flourish leading some to refer to Leipzig as "The new Berlin".  Despite its heritage though, the city lacked a football team with the financial might to take on those from the west. It left an enticing gap for Red Bull to fill. 

When Red Bull came calling, officials at local fifth-tier side SSV Markranstädt didn't know what to expect and hoped that the company would buy the whole club. However, the Austrians quickly made it clear that they were only after their NOFV Oberliga Süd playing licence as setting up a completely new club would have meant starting in the Kreisliga - the lowest division in the German pyramid. Nonetheless, Markranstädt's board remained interested and after some whirlwind negotiations, RB Leipzig were formed in time to start the 2009-10 season having bought the licence, changed the name, crest and kit, and promised a transfer budget of a rumoured €100m. Before a ball had even been kicked, Dietrich Mateschitz made no secret of Red Bull's ambitions telling Bild, Germany's biggest newspaper, that the aim was to play Bundesliga football within eight seasons and that actually winning it was possible ... "in principle".

The impact of Red Bull's patronage was felt within a year. The new club left Markranstädt's Stadion am Bad, moved into the grander surroundings of the Zentralstadion which was promptly rebranded the Red Bull Arena and won promotion to the Regionalliga at the end of their first ever campaign. After their march forward was halted the following year by a fourth-place finish, a major overhaul of the management and playing squad saw Ralf Rangnick, who had masterminded TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's rise from the third-tier to the Bundesliga, appointed Sporting Director. The shake-up did the trick and RB Leipzig finished the 2012-13 season as Regionalliga Nordost champions after a tour-de-force campaign which also saw them beat Chemnitzer FC in the Saxony Cup final. Helped by further investments from Red Bull, the club won two more promotions over the next three years to reach the Bundesliga in 2016 before establishing their presence as one of Germany's top clubs by reaching the Champions League semi-final in 2020 and following up with quickfire DFB-Pokal successes in 2022 and 2023.


In the tribal world of football, the emergence of a new and successful club was always likely to spark hostility. For critics, though, the problem with RB Leipzig goes deeper. Technically speaking, Leipzig haven't broken any of the laws governing German football, but many feel the sleight of hand way that has given Red Bull 'wings' to rise through the leagues challenge their spirit. Their name is a case in point. When Red Bull set up its clubs in Austria, Brazil and the US, it named them after itself: FC Red Bull Salzburg; Red Bull Bragantino; New York Red Bulls. German rules don't allow this. So, instead, the new club were christened 'RasenBallsport Leipzig ', an odd-sounding neologism that means “lawn ball sport” and conveniently abbreviates to RB.

 

A bigger source of controversy is how RB Leipzig apply Germany’s so-called 50+1 rule -  a shorthand term for a statute in the German Football League (DFL) regulations that simultaneously protects against volatile ownership and safeguards the democratic traditions of German clubs. The rule requires that the parent club — and thus their members — hold a majority of the voting rights in their football club, giving them a say on topics such as ticket prices. Only investors who have funded a club continuously for at least 20 years are allowed to hold more than 50%. RB sidestepped a core principle of the rule by simply limiting the number of club members. At Bayern München, Germany’s most successful club, the annual adult membership fee is €80, and all members over 18 have the right to vote at the club’s annual meeting. At RB Leipzig, the annual fee for a “gold member” is €1,000 — but this does not confer any voting rights and the club refuses to provide details on how to become a voting member. The result is that, whereas Bayern München have more than 290,000 voting members, Leipzig have just 1050. The fewer members involved, the easier it is to get the decisions you want over the line.

From the outset, RB Leipzig's rise has been met with constant and unrelenting disapproval over its Red Bull-fuelled commercial structure
. Shortly after their creation, the club's pitch at Markranstädt was sprayed with weed killer. Teams refused to play friendly matches against them. Erzgebirge Aue supporters distastefully portrayed Leipzig fans as Nazis and compared Mateschitz to Hitler. FC Ingolstadt 04 fans displayed a banner calling coach Ralph Hassenhuttl "a whore of modern football" after learning their manager was leaving them for Leipzig. When RB travelled to the German capital to play Union Berlin in 2014, the team was met with home fans clad in black plastic ponchos who created a funereal atmosphere with a 15-minute silence after kick-off. In the same fixture a year later, Union's programme editors took the page which would normally be dedicated to the visiting team and wrote a 700-word article on the history of bull farming. In 2016, supporters of Dynamo Dresden unfurled a banner that read 'You Can't Buy Tradition!' before upping the ante by hurling a severed bull’s head on to the side of the pitch. 28 Borussia Dortmund fans were arrested in 2017 for throwing cans and stones at the travelling Leipzig support. And fans of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim – previously reviled as the Bundesliga’s other “plastic” club on account of having their own speedy ascent through the German leagues bankrolled by a software billionaire – waved sarcastic placards that read: “We want our throne back: Germany’s most hated club.”

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RB Leipzig’s supporters accuse their critics of hypocrisy - pointing out that 12 other clubs in the Bundesliga have sold their stadium naming rights to sponsors and that their team isn't the first in Germany to be created by a corporation and taking to the field adorned with corporate insignia. This much is true. Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Wolfsburg are both hardly subtle about the respective significant roles that Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Volkswagen play in their identities. However, a fundamental difference exists between those two clubs and RB Leipzig: The former were both started as sports and football clubs for company employees, and detractors will argue that RB Leipzig is a marketing project first and a football team second. Indeed, this corporatism and lack of an authentic background is not appreciated in a national league of clubs replete with histories going back a century.

Leipzig's defenders will point to the club's progressive football philosophy and the fact that a
lthough the club have certainly spent large amounts of money to reach their lofty perch in the Bundesliga, by top-flight standards, their outgoings have not been excessive. They have a wage cap and, unlike some English or Spanish clubs, they haven't blown tens of millions on marquee signings. Instead, they've focussed investment on building state-of-the-art training centres, laying out a long-term strategy of developing a specific style of football at all age levels, picking up the most promising youth coaches, establishing an outstanding chain of scouts and recruiting little known talents who have gone on to become stars at the club like Emil Forsberg, Naby Keita, Timo Werner, Marcel Sabitzer, Dayot Upamecano and Joshua Kimmich. 

The lack of history and tradition spanning a century also means that RB Leipzig are
 free of some of the negatives that such a heritage might bring like an over-enthusiastic fanbase attacking opposing fans or throwing dismembered cattle onto the pitch during a game. Home games certainly lack the same atmosphere found in other German stadia, with their ostentatious pyrotechnic displays and enormous, unfurled banners. However, the plus side is that they also lack the often accompanying drunken rowdiness and violence that mar other games. This makes games at the Red Bull Arena a more wholesome affair and one that can be enjoyed by the family without fear of getting caught up in trouble.


There is also an argument that Red Bull’s financing doesn't just benefit fans of the Roten Bullen, but all fans of the Bundesliga. While German fans are fearful at the thought of wealthy corporate benefactors running riot over the Bundesliga in the same way that they have in the English Premier League, it has at least brought a degree of competitiveness to the highest end of English football. It can be argued that this investment prevented just one or two teams from dominating the league year in, year out, with their future dominance assured by the financial windfall they reap by their successive victories. Over the past decade, there have been five different Premier League champions. By comparison, there have just been two in the Bundesliga, with one of them - Bayern München - having their name engraved in the sterling silver of the Meisterschale for the past 11 seasons. If a team is able to make things more exciting by making the Bundesliga more competitive, is that such a bad thing? 

​For young fans in the Leipzig area, watching big clubs like Dortmund and Bayern complain nervously about the Saxon upstart is a novel and exciting experience given the fact that RB Leipzig hadn't even been formed the last time a team from the former GDR played in the Bundesliga. Even so, regardless of the positives on offer; the very nature of the team, its corporate identity and lack of history will ensure that it is a long time before the RB Leipzig 'fairy-tale' is accepted by German football fans.

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 GROUND DETAILS 

Ground Name: Red Bull Arena
Architect: Wirth+Wirth Architekten
Built: 2000 - 2004

Year Opened: 2004

Capacity: 47,069 (10,500 standing)
Record Attendance: 43,348 (2015)

Executive Boxes: 18
Business Seats: 1,400
Media Seats: 104
Wheelchair Spaces: 99
Construction Costs: €116m

Undersoil Heating: Yes

Running Track: No
Floodlights: 1,700 lux
LED Video Screens: 63m² x 2

Playing Surface: Natural Grass
Pitch Size: 105m x 68m

Grounds:

Stadion am Bad (2009 - 2010)

Red Bull Arena (2010 - )

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Looking very different from the Zentralstadion which opened in 1956 embodying the Stalinist aesthetics of stadium design behind the Iron Curtain, the Red Bull Arena has been transformed into one of Germany's most modern and iconic stadiums - its sweeping curved roof standing out on the Leipzig skyline.

The Zentralstadion itself rose from the ashes of World War 2 as Werner March, the architect behind Berlin's Olympiastadion, drew up plans to build a showpiece stadium from the rubble of Leipzig's ruins - part of a bid by the newly established East German government to host the Olympic Games and "... highlight even more clearly the superiority of socialist order in the area of sport". Walter Ulbricht, the local-born Secretary General of the Central Committee, saw his home city as the 'sports capital of the GDR' and also wanted the new stadium's capacity to commemorate the fallen soldiers in the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. The deadline was tight but after just 15 months of construction and the efforts of 180,000 volunteers, the Zentralstadion opened in August 1956 in time to host the Gymnastics and Sports Festival with Ulbricht calling it "Stadion der Hunderttausend " (Stadium of 100,000). Along with the Nou Camp, Wembley and Giuseppe Meazza, it was one of Europe's largest stadiums and a few weeks after opening, a crowd of 100,000 watched the Oberliga  match between local rivals SC Rotation Leipzig and SC Lokomotive Leipzig - setting the attendance record for a German domestic fixture which still stands to this day.

The Zentralstadion was the jewel in the GDR's sporting crown and over the next 30 years it hosted mass rallies, gymnastic festivals, international football and some of 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig's glorious European nights against the likes of Benfica, Olympique Marseille, AC Milan and a Napoli team built around a certain Diego Maradona.

In the years after reunification however, football clubs in the former GDR struggled financially as association with communism, a general demographic exodus and the lack of success led to falling attendances. As money became tight, the Zentralstadion's last remaining tenant, VfB Leipzig, moved out following their relegation from the Bundesliga in 1994 and the stadium quickly fell into a state of disrepair. Municipally owned, rising maintenance costs became a burden to the local council and on the increasingly rare occasions that the stadium was being used, large sections of the ground were closed due to Health & Safety concerns. As questions were being asked about what to do with the iconic yet crumbling stadium, Germany unexpectedly won the right to host the 2006 World Cup and, keen for Leipzig to be invited to the party as a host city, the local authorities started working on a plan to remodel the Zentralstadion.

This wasn't your standard 'out with the old, in with the new' type of development however and instead of knocking everything down and starting again, the planners opted to marry history with future ambition by retaining the original architecture and building a new 44,000 seater arena within the bowls of its grand predecessor. Designed by German/Swiss architects Wirth+Wirth, the revamped Zentralstadion re-opened in 2004 with a friendly between FC Sachsen Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund II before a European mini-tournament featuring Red Star Belgrade, Werder Bremen and FC Bruges was played in July that year. After the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2005, the Zentralstadion then became 
the only stadium in the former East Germany to host matches at the 2006 World Cup but questions about its long-term future were being asked before the tournament had even begun.

The biggest problem for the stadium operators had been finding an anchor tenant for the Zentralstadion. FC Sachsen Leipzig, who played the opener in front of almost 30,000 people, were plagued with constant financial difficulties before going bust a few years later and there had been hope that one of the other Leipzig clubs - Lokomotive or Chemie - could somehow 'grow into the stadium'. With the state-of-the-art venue under-used and losing €1.2 million a year, a solution was found in 2009 when Austrian energy drink powerhouse Red Bull bought the playing license of then-fifth-league SSV Markrandstädt - a club that few had heard of even in its native Saxony - changed its name to RB Leipzig and moved into the Zentralstadion before agreeing a deal to rebrand it the Red Bull Arena a year later.


Fronted by a bland but imposing building which looks like a book depository or an archive full of Cold War secrets, it's a spectacular view as you reach the promenade on top of the old Zentralstadion terraces before descending into the arena itself via connecting pedestrian bridges. The curved roof of the stadium and the tubular supporting steelwork above the contours is reminiscent of the Amex Stadium in Brighton and inside the oval shaped ground, a deep lower tier rings the pitch in a continuous sweep. The double-tiered East (Sektor A) stand running the length of the pitch is where you'll find all the club offices, players tunnel and dug-outs and is identical to the West (Sektor C) stand opposite save for the obligatory row of executive boxes and press area. The ends behind each goal are single-tiered affairs and opaque cladding behind both these stands protect fans from the wind and rain that blow through the open concourses. For surrounding residents, the cladding also acts as noise insulation as the stadium aims to meet noise level restrictions of 70 decibels by day and 55 decibels in the evening. 

The front rows of the lower tiers are three metres above pitch level which can create some unusual sightlines but the view onto the pitch is generally good from all around the stadium.


Apart from hosting RBL's matches, the stadium was home to 3.Liga side Hallescher FC for a handful of matches during the 2010-11 season whilst their own Kurt Wabbel Stadion was being renovated, and between 2005 and 2007 it was the venue for the DFL-Ligapokal (German League Cup) final.

And, if you are going to watch a concert in Germany, then you could do a lot worse than head to one at the Red Bull Arena as particular attention has been paid to improving acoustics within the venue - something the likes of Genesis, Bon Jovi, Depeche Mode, AC/DC, Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen can all attest to.

 BUYING TICKETS 

Ticket Office:
Website: www.tickets.rbleipzig.com

Telephone: +49 (0) 341 124797777
Email: service@rbleipzig.com

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Average Attendance:
2023-2024: 45,175 (Bundesliga)
2022-2023: 45,643 (Bundesliga)
2021-2022: 22,124 (Bundesliga) *
2020-2021: N/A *

2019-2020: 28,807 (Bundesliga) *
* Season affected by COVID pandemic

Expected Ticket Availability

Die Roten Bullen's rapid rise up the leagues, European football and current standing as one of the strongest challengers to Bayern München's high-profile dominance of the Bundesliga will ensure a good number of matches are likely to sell-out. However, with advance planning, you should be able to secure a ticket through Leipzig's online shop which offers both German and English language versions.

RB Leipzig operate a Secondary Ticket Market which is geared towards ticket holders who can't make it to a particular match and want to offer up their ticket for re-sale through the official channels. Tickets are then made available to anyone who didn't heed our advice and have left things late. Information regarding availability can be found here.

After buying a ticket, you're then going to have to download the new 'RBL Ticket' app following Leipzig's decision to do away with traditional paper ticketing and make the whole process of getting into the Red Bull Arena an entirely digital one. Launched at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, the app is now the only way to access your match tickets and after setting up an account, your ticket purchase appears with a QR code that is scanned at the turnstiles. You're also given an individual entrance time slot to prevent queues at the turnstiles. You can download the 'RBL Ticket' app on either the App Store or Google Play Store and find out more about how it all works on the RB Leipzig website here.


Leipzig have really gone to town with their pricing structure and introduced no fewer than six (!) match categories (A-F). In addition to that, there's another 9 categories (1-9) depending on where you want to watch the action from. With so many variables, it's obviously a little tricky to say how much your visit to the Red Bull Arena will cost but (very) broadly speaking, full-payers should expect to pay anywhere between €22 - €70 for a seat and €16-18 to stand on the terraces (Blocks 24-32 at the southern end of the stadium) with marquee games against Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund being the most expensive.

Discounts are given to club members, students, children, people with disabilities etc. Lap Tickets (Schoßplatzkarten) - which can be collected free of charge from the 
RB Service Centre or at the 'RBL Fanhaus' at the southern end of the stadium (Am Sportforum 1, 04177 Leipzig) a couple of hours before kick-offallow children (aged 0-3 years old) free entry but it doesn't entitle them to a seat of their own and, as the name suggests, they must sit on a parent's lap instead.

Information about visiting the Red Bull Arena for fans with disabilities can be found at:
www.bundesliga-reisefuehrer.de 

 GETTING THERE & AWAY 

Stadium Address:

Am Sportforum 3 
04105 Leipzig

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BY CAR:
If you're coming by car from the north along the A14 Halle-Dresden autobahn, take the Leipzig-Mitte exit and follow Maximilianallee (B2) for about 5 miles in the direction of Leipzig/Zentrum as it becomes Rackwitzer Straße and Brandenburger Straße. At the junction with Willy Brandt Platz, turn right and follow the road as it becomes Tröndlinring, Ranstädter Steinweg and then Jahnallee. After about a mile, turn right on Am Sportforum to arrive at the Red Bull Arena.

From the East, leave the A14 at the Leipzig-Ost (26) turnoff and follow Permoserstraße/Adenauerallee (B6) for about five miles before merging onto Brandenburger Straße towards the city centre. At the junction with Willy Brandt Platz, turn right
 and follow the road as it becomes Tröndlinring, Ranstädter Steinweg and then Jahnallee. After about a mile, turn right on Am Sportforum to arrive at the Red Bull Arena.
 
From the west along the A9, take the Leipzig-West junction (17) and head along Merseburger Chaussee / Merseburger Straße (B181/B87) for about five miles. Turn left onto Rückmarksdorfer Straße and follow it for about 2 miles as it becomes Hans-Driesch-Straße. After crossing the Landauer Brücke (Landauer Bridge), you'll join onto Am Sportforum and the stadium will be on your right.

Heading from the south along the B2 as it becomes Wundtstraße, turn left onto Karl-Tauchnitz Straße and follow it for a mile. At the Herzliya-Platz roundabout, take the third exit onto Edward-Grieg-Allee / Marschnerstraße before going straight onto Am Sportforum and arriving at the stadium.

If you do decide to drive, it's worth noting that the Red Bull Arena is located in an 'Environmental Zone' which means only vehicles that comply with emission standards are allowed anywhere near or you'll risk a €40 fine. Drivers are also going to lose precious lifetime in the usual matchday traffic chaos and unless you're a 'VIP' or Permit Holder, even when you do finally arrive at the stadium you're going to have a job finding somewhere to park up. It's probably best therefore to follow club advice and use Leipzig's Park+Ride schemes at:

 

Leipziger Messe (Georg-Herwegn Straße 4, 04158 Leipzig)

Schönauer Ring (Jenaer Straße, 04205 Leipzig)

Plovider Straße (Miltitzer Allee 42C, 04205 Leipzig)
Lausen (Krakauer Straße, 04207 Leipzig)

Völkerschlachtdenkmal (An der Tabaksmühle 21, 04277 Leipzig)

PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
From the central tram stop outside Leipzig's Hauptbahnhof (Europe's largest train station in terms of floor area), Trams 3 (Direction: Lausen), 7 (Direction: Böhlitz-Ehrenberg) and 15 (Direction: Miltitz) make the short journey to the Waldplatz and Sportforum Süd stops from where it's only a 5 minute stroll to the turnstiles. Alternatively, jump on Tram 4 (Direction: Gohlis) and hop off at the Sportforum Ost stop.

With a valid match ticket, you can travel to and from the Red Bull Arena on public transport within the entire Mitteldeutscher Verkehrsverbund (MVB) travel network free of charge for four hours either side of the match.


WALKING DIRECTIONS:
You can reach easily reach the Red Bull Arena on foot and it will take you about 30 minutes or so to cover the one and a half miles from the Hauptbahnhof. Come out of the station, turn right onto Willy Brandt Platz and follow the road as it becomes Tröndlinring, Ranstädter Steinweg and then Jahnallee. After about a mile, you'll come to the junction with Am Sportforum. Turn right here and you should be able to see the stadium roof which will guide you the final few hundred metres.

BIKE DIRECTIONS:
Like many other clubs in eco-friendly Germany, RB Leipzig have joined the climate revolution and encourage you to get on your bike by providing 500 free and secure parking spaces on the Festwiese (Festival Grounds) outside the Red Bull Arena. The bike park opens two hours before kick-off until 90 minutes after the referee has blown the final whistle.

 FAN SHOP, MUSEUM & STADIUM TOURS 

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FAN SHOP:
The main fan shop is on the forecourt (Fanshop am Stadionvorplatz) outside the Red Bull Arena (Friedrich Ebert Straße 122, 04109 Leipzig; 10am-6pm, Mon-Fri; 10am-4pm, Sat; open on matchdays from 3 hours before kick-off; tel: +44 (0) 341 124797777; email: service.rbleipzig@redbulls.com)

There's another fan shop at:

RB Fan Shop in Petersbogen (Peterstraße 36-44, 04109 Leipzig; 10am-7pm, Mon-Sat; tel: +44 (0) 341 124797777; email: service.rbleipzig@redbulls.com)

STADIUM TOURS:
Go behind the scenes with a whole range of guided 60-90 minute tours. You can tour the stadium at night, during the day, give yourself motion sickness with a 360° VR tour or see the build-up behind the scenes on a matchday. Goalkeeping coach Perry Bräutigam - an RBL ever-present since their 2009 inception - will show you around recounting anecdotes from his time at the club and if you have a specific interest in the current revamp of the Red Bull Arena then they've even got a tour for you.

Information about all the tours, schedules and how to book can be found 
here

 FOOD & DRINK OPTIONS 

With the city centre so close, many fans head there in search of pre-match pub grub and beer before making their way out to the ground. One of our favourite bars in Leipzig, and the whole of Germany, is the Bayerischer Bahnhof (Bayrischer Platz 1, 04103 Leipzig; 12pm-10pm, Mon-Fri; 11am-10pm, Sat-Sun) - an old train station converted into a micro brewery and restaurant serving over 100 varieties of craft beer. Locals also head for the best GOSE beer in town at the Ratskeller (Lottestraße 1, 04109 Leipzig; 5pm-10pm Mon-Thu; 12pm-11pm, Fri-Sat; 11am-4pm, Sun)  although be aware of the early closing time on a Sunday !

For live football on big screens, cheap beer and a free chat with some of Leipzig's support, make your way over to the Joseph Pub (Josephstraße 44-46, 04177 Leipzig) or the Kildare City Pub (Barfußgaßchen 5-7, 04109 Leipzig) which, you've probably already guessed, are both Irish-style pubs in the city centre. 


Outside the stadium itself, fast food kiosks do a roaring trade at the pre-match party on the Festweise as the air fills with wafts of sausage, beer and the occasional plume of cigarette smoke. After every Bundesliga home win, the carnival atmosphere is ramped up a few notches as RBL encourage fans to not only be happy, but also merry by dropping the price of beer to €3.50 a pint. Prost !

There's no surprises regarding menu options inside the ground, but cash isn't going to be much use to you if you want that half-time sausage and pint of Ur-Krostitzer, Leipzig have made the Red Bull Arena a completely cashless venue and payment can only be made using credit and debit cards or via Apple Pay, Google Pay etc on smartphones.

OTHER CLUBS IN THE AREA

BUNDESLIGA: 1.FC Union Berlin
 

BUNDESLIGA 2: 1.FC Magdeburg, Hertha BSC
 

3.LIGA: Energie Cottbus, FC Erzgebirge Aue, SG Dynamo Dresden

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