The Devil Inside

Lucas Radebe recently went to Lady Elizabeth Hastings Primary School in his new role as Leeds United Club Ambassador. “It means the world,” the visiting legend told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “Having been at the club, and played for the club, and to now serve them in this way, working closer with the club with the different programmes and the foundation, it’s absolutely brilliant.”

On Leeds United’s website Radebe was photographed smiling and engaging with young fans on community and diversity, in front of the Premier League’s No Room for Racism banner while wearing a training top bearing the Red Bull logo. Aside from the ethics of whether an energy drinks brand should be seen in a classroom when research links them to harmful effects in children — disrupted sleep, increased anxiety, poor concentration and reduced educational outcomes — there are deeper, darker reasons why Red Bull’s presence here is problematic.

Routinely described as an energy drinks manufacturer when it’s a marketing and media company, Leeds United’s shirt sponsors and co-owners Red Bull GmbH also operate an array of other lifestyle brands in addition to the one it’s synonymous with. Red Bull Media House GmbH is a subsidiary based in Salzburg, established in 2007 by Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz to handle the company’s global content production. It publishes print magazines like The Red Bulletin, Bergwelten and Terra Mater plus online platforms Carpe Diem and Speedweek, covering topics ranging from sports, outdoors, nature and wellbeing.

Right next door to Red Bull Salzburg’s stadium in the city’s Wals-Siezenheim suburb lies the headquarters of ServusTV, Austria’s biggest privately-owned broadcaster. The German-language station was launched by Red Bull GmbH in 2009 and named after a colloquial greeting dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among exclusive live sports and wholesome programmes showcasing Austrian culture and folk traditions, ServusTV’s output has also gained notoriety for being politically aligned with the views of its billionaire founder.

In a rare interview with Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung in 2017, Mateschitz spoke of his opposition to the German and Austrian governments’ immigration policies. In quotes celebrated by the US far-right platform Breitbart, Mateschitz warned against the “destabilisation of Europe”, labelling the “refugees welcome brigade” as hypocrites and casting doubt on the 2015 European migrant crisis, saying, “It was clear from the start that most of the people weren’t refugees.”

I first learned of these words, and of ServusTV, in a 2019 article by football journalist Felix Tamsut for Deutsche Welle. He noted how Mateschitz had ‘criticised the so-called international elites and political correctness, phrases often employed by populist politicians’, and how his opinions compromised community work at RasenBallsport Leipzig. Fans there had previously faced sanctions for defying the club and displaying banners opposing Islamophobia. “We will not approve banners with political messages,” club CEO Oliver Mintzlaff said in 2017. “That’s not what a stadium and a football match are for.”

Red Bull GmbH distanced itself from the words of Mateschitz, Austria’s richest person, but today, even after his 2022 death, their own actions speak volumes.

In 2016 Ferdinand Wegscheider became ServusTV’s Programme Director with sole responsibility for the channel’s budget and output. He oversaw the development of in-house productions featuring conspiracy theories and right-wing ideology. His own weekly show set the tone for where ServusTV was heading, with Saturday evening monologues drawing the attention of the Austrian courts and media authorities with contrarian hot takes on themes such as climate change, vaccination and gender.

Meanwhile, a raft of ServusTV discussion shows welcomed the far-right opposition parties now making significant gains in Austria and Germany. Under freedom of speech, platforms were also offered to the views of European extremists responding to topics often posed in the form of questions, most notably when Austrian neo-fascist Identitarian leader Martin Sellner was invited to discuss, “How dangerous are our Muslims?”

Anti-fascist journalist Michael Bonvalot declined an invitation to appear opposite German far-right activist Götz Kubitschek in 2019. “Such programs make neo-fascism socially acceptable and debatable,” Bonvalot posted. “The entire discourse is shifted to the right. Anyone who takes part in such a panel becomes complicit — because the concept only works if there are opposing voices.”

More recently, eerily in line with Mateschitz’s Kleine Zeitung interview, last month Swiss right-wing politician Roger Köppel’s show Der Pragmaticus cried “Europe’s reaching its limit”. Citing a survey commissioned by its own magazine (also backed by Red Bull Media House GmbH), it stated a “large majority of Austrians” demand human rights reform to remove refugees’ legal protections.

In September, the 65-year-old Wegscheider stepped down as Programme Director, but his show is due to stay on air. In an internal memo, Oliver Mintzlaff (now CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments, including Leeds United) thanked Wegscheider: “Without you, ServusTV would not be where it is today.” Reports anticipate a major restructure at Red Bull GmbH, in which ‘all media channels and brands of the Media Brand Network are to be bundled under Servus Media’.

Whether the network will take a new political direction or not remains to be seen, but just this month the channel again faced criticism for the tone of its reporting on Zohran Mamdani’s election. “24 years after the Islamist terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center,” a newsreader said, “a Muslim could become mayor of the city of New York for the first time.” It’s a typical dog-whistle from ServusTV, which has spent almost a decade actively platforming conspiracy, extremism and hate as ‘fact’, ‘debate’ and ‘satire’.

All this plays out between commercials for Red Bull and its related brands, because as with everything Red Bull GmbH does — because it’s why it exists — ServusTV is primarily used to advertise at will. It is not conventional media but propaganda, a complex and sophisticated marketing instrument just like its football clubs.

Leeds United deserve better associations than these, and Lucas Radebe certainly does. Having grown up under apartheid and played football in England, he has campaigned tirelessly against racism in his adopted city and beyond, receiving the FIFA Fair Play Award in 2000 for supporting multiple anti-racism initiatives and his community work with children in South Africa.

When he deservedly became Club Ambassador, the amount of people expressing online beliefs that his secret, special announcement would be somehow Red Bull-related revealed how gaslit Leeds United has become by the company’s reputation and marketing strategies. Sitting in a Wetherby primary school sharing in kids’ brilliant work on the theme ‘Greatness Comes from Everywhere’, Radebe couldn’t possibly be aware that the global brand he’s wearing has, at least outside Austria and Germany, such little-known links.

What due diligence did Paraag Marathe do on the club’s sponsors and co-owners he describes as “great partners”? Are 49ers Enterprises and its investors aware of Red Bull GmbH’s media activities and what they enable politically? Is this the side of history fans want to be on, after fighting against 1980s racism and fascism in the stands at Elland Road?

Since Red Bull GmbH acquired just under 10% of Leeds United in May 2024, I’ve written extensively on their negative effects on its identity and now, its integrity. While anxiety exists over what the future may bring, looming large over our football club is a brand that already overshadows and undermines much of what Leeds United is, and the great work that it does. ⬢