RB Salzburg

Salzburg's biggest club was not always red. It began in 1933 as SV Austria Salzburg, formed through the merger of FC Hertha Salzburg and FC Rapid Salzburg, and wore purple and white for over seventy years. That changed on 6 April 2005, when Red Bull GmbH, under Dietrich Mateschitz, bought the club, renamed it FC Red Bull Salzburg and swapped the old colours for red and white. Supporters who objected to the takeover broke away and revived the old identity under the original name, SV Austria Salzburg — the split still defines the Salzburger Derby, the fixture that carries more weight locally than any European night at the Red Bull Arena.

Since the rebrand, the club has won the Austrian Bundesliga title seventeen times, the ÖFB Cup nine times and the Austrian Super Cup three times, a record no other side in the country can match. The purple-and-white era also had its moment, with three domestic titles won as Austria Salzburg in the 1990s before the takeover.

Fans and press know the team as Die Roten Bullen, or the Red Bulls in English. Home games are played at the Red Bull Arena in Wals-Siezenheim, a ground whose listed capacity shifts with the occasion: the top tier closes for Bundesliga fixtures, cutting the crowd down from the full 30,188 to a smaller Bundesliga-day figure, while European nights open it back up.