Atletico Madrid could become Leeds United sister club as Red Bull confirm landmark deal — Leeds United News 15/1/25

Adam Williams

We need to talk about Red Bull. At every other outpost in their multi-club empire, their motivations are pretty unambiguous. At Leeds United? Less so.

When the energy drinks titans purchased an as-yet unspecified stake in Leeds last summer, they became the seventh club in their portfolio and the first that they have bought into on a minority equity basis.

Paris FC have since joined the Red Bull stable too. The world’s fifth richest man, Bernard Arnault, brought them on board in his £75m takeover of the Ligue 2 club, with Red Bull securing a 15 per cent stake.

Every other club is majority-owned and bears the ‘Red Bull’ or ‘RB’ prefix. Essentially, they are used as brand exposure vehicles to help flog more cans of their caffeine and taurine-laced drink.

“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” was the mantra they adopted when they bought a Formula One franchise in 2005. Their data shows a direct correlation between sporting success and sales.

Clubs in the Red Bull network also shares resources and are have centralised finance and commercial departments.

Players and other personnel are traded within the network too, with a defined hierarchy. RB Leipzig sit at the top and there is a clear development pathway throughout the group.

But where do Leeds fit into that pyramid, if indeed they fit into it at all?

Yes, the Whites are a billboard for Red Bull. The Championship-record front-of-shirt deal shows that.

But if it was just advertising space that they wanted, why take an equity stake on top of that? If it is around 10 per cent, it will probably have cost them in the region of £40m.

That’s a lot of money to invest on top of £8-10m for the shirt deal in exchange for precisely zero formal influence at board level.

The same question applies to Paris FC. What are Red Bull looking for with this new round of minority acquisitions, an investment model sometimes labelled the most expensive season ticket in football?

There are a number of potential answers – more on that later.

For now, Red Bull’s aggressive expansion phase shows no signs of slowing down, with Spanish giants Atletico Madrid the latest club to have formed a link with the multi-club moguls.

Following Red Bull’s part-takeover of Leeds, the company went on a virtually unprecedented buying spree of sponsorship contracts.

Six of these came in the Premier League, with West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Everton and all signing official energy drinks partnerships.

If Leeds are promoted this season – and Daniel Farke’s side are currently first in the Championship – that will put Red Bull in the unusual position of funding Leeds’ direct rivals.

Further afield, Red Bull acquired a new club in Japan in late 2024, plus commercial deals in the Saudi Pro League, with the Paris FC being their biggest investment in the final quarter of the year.

Now, Red Bull have started 2025 with another blockbuster deal.

On face value, the firm’s new two-and-a-half year deal with Atletico Madrid is a straightforward sponsorship, albeit probably their most high-profile yet in football.

However, FootBiz, the newsletter authored by some of the best informed people in football finance, has suggested that a more formal link could later materialise.

The partnership was framed as a “get-to-know-you period” ahead of what could potentially turn into an equity investment.

If that transpires, Atletico would effectively become Leeds’ sister club, alongside Paris FC, Leipzig, Salzburg, and the other clubs in the network.

It is highly, highly unlikely, however that it would be a full takeover, with a Leeds-style minority investment far more probably.

So what is the masterplan with this new-fangled strategy?

Just a few weeks ago, Leeds briefed local press that Red Bull had no immediate plans to increase their stake in Leeds.

That leaves open the possibility that the could one day target a full takeover from 49ers Enterprises, using their minority stake as a foothold, but let’s take it at face value for now.

Red Bull’s sports investment started out as a marketing strategy, but it is now much more than that.

While not all of its sports enterprises generate regular profits, Red Bull at least break even across football and generate a surplus in other sports.

It may be therefore that they will one day flip these assets for a profit – a strategy known as ‘capital appreciation’. In layman’s terms: buy low, sell high.

But with minority investments, there is a limited number of buyers given that there is no clear way to extract cash from the business and not much room for operational input.

Sometimes, minority investments are about access and influence.

Co-owning one of English football’s biggest clubs gives owners yields huge cultural capital, which can be a pathway for a business to gain influence politically and economically.

Either way, Red Bull are not in the multi-club racket to make friends in football, and their intentions are not altruistic.

For fans concerned with preserving Leeds’ unique identity, that does not bode particularly well.