The most hated football club in Germany

The rise of Germany’s most hated football club, or how consumerism might be ruining sport: RB Leipzig, a German football team, has been hugely successful in its eight-year existence. The BBC World Service’s Tim Mansel investigated the rise of the club, “widely derided in much of Germany as the creature of a multinational company more interested in selling cans of energy drink than winning football matches.” The “RB” in team’s name officially stands RasenBallsport, which translates roughly as “lawnball,” but everyone knows that it really stands for the club’s owner, Red Bull — which wasn’t allowed to slap its name onto the club. Leipzig, despite its impressive success, remains hated throughout most of Germany and seen as ruining “football culture.” Mansel also suggests the controversy surrounding RB Leipzig shows some divisions between the east and west parts of Germany (runtime 27:20).