Rummenigge wants financial fair play to apply to all professional German clubs

"The RB Leipzig issue and all of these debates could be solved quickly if the financial fair play rules of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) were requisite for receiving professional licences in Bundesliga. The problem would then solve itself," said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the president and CEO of Bayern Munich (Bundesliga), speaking to the German newspaper Sport-Bild on 05/08/2014.

RB Leipzig (RB stands for Rasenballsport, or "ball sport on grass") was built on the ashes of a local club in 2009 by Dieter Mateschitz, the owner of the Austrian energy drink group Red Bull. The club, promoted to 2.Bundesliga in 2014-15, does not respect the "50 + 1" rule, which prevents private shareholders from holding a majority of the voting rights in German professional clubs that are managed by companies. This club is not partially owned by an association, like most German clubs; it is 100%-owned by seven individual investors who are all Red Bull employees.

Compliance with this rule is usually mandatory to acquire a professional licence in the first and second German divisions…