Germany: RB Leipzig incorporates its professional football section as a company

RB Leipzig (2.Bundesliga, German second division) has divided its professional football section and its U-15 and higher youth teams from the club's association to incorporate them as a limited liability company (GmbH, Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung), decided the club at the general meeting of club members on 01/12/2014. The company is named RasenBallsport Leipzig GmbH.

This decision of RB Leipzig, founded in 2009 by Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder and owner of the Austrian energy drink brand Red Bull, follows the requirements made by the DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga, the German Professional Football League) upon the issuance of professional license for RB Leipzig on 15/05/2014.

While the club does not respect Germany's "50 + 1" (see below) -- a situation that, in theory, is incompatible with obtaining a professional license for the Bundesliga and the 2.Bundesliga -- the DFL granted a license to RB Leipzig, provided that the club undertook to amend its logo (so it appears less conspicuously like the Red Bull brand), to change its governance structures to gradually incorporate…