The most hated club in Germany earn their chance to compete in the Bundesliga

In football, tribalism is rampant, and battle lines are drawn on a weekly basis. At times, friends become enemies with the sound of a whistle, but in Germany, that feeling of contempt has often been focused on one club: RB Leipzig.

Owned by energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, the company purchased the license of fifth division club SSV Markranstädt in 2009. Instantly changing the badge to denote two charging bulls, they were forbidden from calling the team Red Bull. Instead naming the team RasenBallsport (lawnsport) Leipzig, or RB Leipzig for short, you would not be scolded in Germany for thinking the acronym stood for something else.

Furthermore, the team’s kit contains the Red Bull logo and is cast in the colours of red and white, mirroring the visuals of sister clubs FC RedBull Salzburg, and the New York Red Bulls.

Ambitious in their intentions, Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz outlined his plans upon purchasing the club, “We are developing RB Leipzig with the aim of playing in the Bundesliga in three to five years,” he said in 2011. “We also want to get into the Champions League and be successful there, which is something you can only achieve with a club that plays in one of the top leagues.”

At the weekend, his first objective was completed when the club recorded a 2-0 win over Karlsruher SC to earn promotion from the 2.Bundesliga. Working under the guidance of Ralf Rangnick, the former Schalke and Stuttgart coach initially arrived at the club as sporting director in 2012 before taking over as head coach in May 2015. Reportedly handed a €100million transfer budget when he first joined the club, such a vast sum quickly earned them criticism.

“The media and other sports directors and other coaches recognise we do it differently but the supporters outside Leipzig don’t like us, and try to reduce it to a case of us having more money than the others,” Rangnick said in a 2014 interview. “But the question is how we use the money. We invest the available money in the staff, trying to get the best possible people to work with the players, giving them highly talented players who they develop into top class players.”

Considering Germany is so virtuous about fan ownership in football, RB Leipzig have understandably ruffled feathers. The 50+1 ownership rule dictates that the association or club has to have a controlling stake, and that commercial interests cannot gain control. There are exceptions to the rule, such as Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen, both of whom originated as works sporting clubs. Elsewhere, Hoffenheim - who were guided to the top flight by Rangnick and broke transfer records in the second tier - are ran by de facto owner Dietmar Hopp.

Although RB Leipzig operate with a membership model, their unique approach has once again upset outsiders. Becoming a member of a club in Germany is typically inexpensive. Bayern charge €60 a year, and currently have just shy of 300,000 members. RB Leipzig charge €800 a season, with a €100 fee for first time members, and reserve the right to reject an application without reason. Currently they have around 300 members, although only 17 are voting members, with many holding ties to Red Bull.

Consequently, the club have faced resentment, and even protests during their rise up the German football pyramid. In 2014, when they travelled to face Union Berlin, they were met with a 20 minute silent protest. Home fans were handed black ponchos, and a pamphlet that stated: “Football culture is dying in Leipzig – Union is alive. Today’s opponent embodies everything that we at Union don’t want from football. A marketing product pushed by financial interests […], players with euro signs in their eyes.”

Supplemented by a banner inside the stadium, the two clubs from East Germany were seen as the antithesis of each other. As Philip Oltermann wrote for the Guardian, “In theory, RB Leipzig’s players should have acclimatised to being the most widely loathed team in German football.”

Choosing to invest a sizable sum into RB Leipzig, the owners have opted for a long-term approach. At the start of the season they purchased Davie Selke from Werder Bremen, a talented young striker that was performing well in the top flight.

Continuing a trend, the club have largely sought to purchase young players, with their goal next season to be the youngest team in the Bundesliga, "We only sign players who are between 17 and 23,” Rangnick said in 2014. “Players are starting and ending their careers earlier than 10 or 15 years ago. The average age of the first team is around 24 and 25, so we have reduced the average age by four years over the last two years.”

Elsewhere, the club have spent €30million on setting up a state-of-the-art academy. Hiring Frieder Schrof to oversee youth development, Schrof was instrumental in bringing through Stuttgart youngsters like Mario Gomez and Sami Khedira, “In some areas, we are now better positioned like other professional clubs,” Schrof said in an interview. “Overall, however, we are still in our infancy.”

The first team is no longer at that stage. For all the talk of disdain among German football fans, the locals appear to have taken to the team. They drew an average of 25,000 fans at home in the 2014-2015 season, with that number jumping to almost 30,000 for the current campaign. With more expected in the Bundesliga next season, some hold fears that their presence in the top flight could cause issues for fans traveling to games.

“Leipzig has invested so much in infrastructure in the last two or three years - something that other Bundesliga sides haven’t done as effectively,” Ross Dunbar, editor with Deutsche-Welle tells Yahoo Sport UK. “The worry I have for their supporters is that they could face backlash at certain away venues. It’s unfair to pick out names, but there are particular Bundesliga clubs with aggressive, confrontational ultra groups. Leipzig has already received more than just abuse in the 2.Bundesliga. Will the team hotel be a target for ultras? Will away supporters be targeted? Will fans boycott? It’s not clear.”

However, some see the club as a beacon of light for East German football. The last time the region had a team in the Bundesliga was 2009 with Energie Cottbus. One time UEFA Cup finalists Lokomotive Leipzig went bankrupt in the early 2000s after just one season in the unified German top flight. At city rivals Sachsen Leipzig, after two decades bouncing between the third, fourth and fifth tiers, bankruptcy was also the outcome.

To critics, RB Leipzig erode the foundations of German football’s fan first model. Meanwhile fans of the club see it as a sustainable outlet for football in Leipzig, with the riposte often being to study Hoffenheim’s owner Dietmar Hopp, and Hannover 96, where the club is slowly moving into the hands of Martin Kind.

Regardless, Germany’s most hated club will now have a chance to compete in the top flight. Perhaps only then, with the eyes of the world watching, will we see whether they are the most hated club in Germany.