RB Leipzig stands in front of a sporty mess in the end of the season. That would have worse consequences for the Saxons – especially financially.
RB Leipzig threatens a sporty fiasco at the weekend. After the missed Champions League qualification, there could even be the first season without European competition since the 2016/17 Bundesliga premiere. Because Leipzig crashed into seventh place in the Bundesliga last Saturday, which is not enough for an international competition.
After the 0-0 in Bremen, the Bundesliga club has no chance in fourth place with four points. “You get what you deserve,” said Leipzig goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi. The Champions League was actually the clearly explained goal of the club. “Such a performance,” hissed sports manager Marcel Schäfer, “a champions League candidate is not worthy.” Machner Christoph Baumgartner also became clear: “It hurts, there is pure disappointment.” You need to “talk nothing”, the situation is “brutally fucked off”.
In addition, the Europa League can hardly be reached. Because participating in the fifth in the table and the winners of the DFB Cup. BVB is currently in fifth place. Although the Saxons are only three points behind the “black yellow”, Dortmund has a much better goal difference, RB should catch up. And Leipzig doesn’t play in the cup final either. So there is almost only the Conference League, for which sixth place would be needed. The FSV Mainz 05 is currently there, just like Leipzig has 51 points, but has a better goal difference.
Leipzig remains motivated, the Conference League has proclaimed as a new goal. Christoph Baumgartner said: “Better to have any other competition than nothing. During the week, he has to watch the others during the week is the most crappy what there is.” However, Leipzig needs a victory against VfB Stuttgart and has to hope for a mistake by the Mainz against Bayer Leverkusen at the same time. In a victory of the zero five, it looks bleak for Leipzig.
Participation also has an impact on the association. In the resulting season, the Saxons still benefited from 18.62 million euros to participate in the Champions League and received a further 2.1 million euros in winning bonus with a win. As table 32. They also received 1.25 million euros from the placement bonus. If RB displaces the Mainz from sixth place and qualify for the Conference League, the numbers look different.
In the third smallest European competition, the starting bonus for each of the 36 teams is only 3.17 million euros – more than 15 million euros less than in the Champions League. In addition, there are only 400,000 euros per victory, 133,000 euros for a draw. The top eight teams in the league aphase each received 400,000 euros, the places of nine to 16 still 200,000 euros.
In the event of a final catchment, Leipzig can at least an additional 8.6 million euros over the knockout phase-and pack another 3 million euros when winning the Conference League. However, these numbers cannot be compared to the Champions League. And should the club not even qualify for the Conference League, the Super-Gau would be perfect.
Because Leipzig’s financial situation can be expanded. In the 2023 financial year, the Saxons achieved the third highest turnover of the Bundesliga (396 million euros), but also issued the highest liabilities (310.6 million euros). 100 million euros through the renovation of the Red Bull Arena, 200 million euros for the expansion of the football department, including and further debts at the Red Bull group. The partner had made Leipzig available several times. The losses from the missing European Cup qualification would tighten the situation.