Left-wing sports: The statement club: Red Star Leipzig turns 25

More than 500 fans came to the Dölitz sports park this Sunday afternoon. The queue in front of the club’s somewhat hidden home Red Star Leipzig is considerable shortly before kick-off. In the final spurt of the season, the “first” of the “stars” is concerned with staying in the National class. A match in the seventh league, opponent Wurzen is a direct competitor in the relegation battle and is also not particularly popular in the south of Leipzig due to various disputes off the field. That’s why the community of the left-wing, anti-fascist club is activated. Hardly any other club at this level has so many fans: the games of the first men’s team are the campfire for the club where everyone comes together.

Around 50 ultras from the Red Stars have prepared a special choreo and are shooting red and white streamers into the air on the east stand, which are carried away by the wind. Among other things, there is a banner hanging on the board with the inscription “Crackers out of the stadiums”. As a chant, “Never again Germany!” is sung to the melody of the Leipzig classic “All cops are pigs!” directed against RB Leipzig – the left’s battle cry against anti-Semitism, racism, nationalism and fascism.

And that’s what the Red Star and its now 1,900 members are all about, even 25 years after the association was founded in 1999 in the left-wing youth center Conne Island took place in the trendy district of Connewitz. No other club in Leipzig stands so clearly for left-wing values ​​and has such a defining role in social and political issues in sport and beyond as the RSL.

“The association still plays an avant-garde role, opens up lines of conflict, wants to show what doesn’t fit, and is a projection surface for other people,” says Conrad Lippert. The trained criminologist and sociologist has been there for 15 years and volunteers for public relations and security at the Red Star. “The club has grown immensely, binds people across spectrums and has now emancipated itself somewhat from football,” says Lippert. This is a “mega-positive development”, even if it is difficult to maintain the grassroots democratic approach with a plenum as the highest association authority, as in the beginning. In fact, due to the size of the club, many small meetings have now been formed within the sections and teams.

Niches for everyone

But even after 25 years, Leipzig’s eighth largest sports club still offers “niches where people can just try things out,” says Lippert. The Red Star is “no longer quite as punk rock as it was in the early years, but there are still a few punk pockets here.”

In the early years, the Red Star was also the target of physical attacks and attacks in the Saxon area, such as the attack by 50 neo-Nazis at the away game in Brandis in 2009, in which a supporter lost his eyesight. One Webdoc 15 years later, the event that had a decisive impact on the club is examined in detail and allows many of the protagonists from back then to have their say. Even today, Nazis still show their presence when the Red Star competes in Wurzen, for example. “There are still individual problematic situations, Nazis at the games, threats and insults,” says Lippert. But it is now extremely rare for two players to be physically attacked in the Bruno Plache Stadium, as was the case in the Leipzig A Youth Cup final last year.

Rather, the conflicts have been repeatedly discussed in sports law for many years Saxon Football Association (SFV). In the last few months, especially in the FLINTA* football teams. In 2022, the RSL women’s teams, which had previously been called RSLadies, became aware that this term was no longer appropriate. “We had trans people on the team who didn’t feel comfortable with the term ladies,” reports Andrea, who has been playing for the Red Star for 15 years. The binary system of men’s and women’s football excludes “a lot of people,” explains the 39-year-old. »There are many people who cannot find themselves in the system. But sport should be a space in which there is room for everyone – regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Fight with the football association

These spaces are created at the RSL; Since then, the women’s teams have competed under the acronym FLINTA*, which stands for women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people. “But that’s a long road, as we are in a pioneering role, at least in Saxony,” emphasizes Andrea.

Specifically, in mid-January – in the middle of the season – the SFV revoked previously granted playing privileges for five people from the FLINTA* teams in order to check them again. Since there was no person of trust in the association for a long time, Red Star was neither willing nor obliged to disclose this information to the passport office. The club asserted before the sports court that the playing rights should be restored until the situation was clarified.

But the passport office refused to implement the decision. The FLINTA* teams had to postpone two games due to the problem and then allowed the players to play without the approval of the passport office based on the court order. Although five playing rights have now been restored, the dispute with the SFV is still ongoing.

“Our anti-fascist and partly queer club does not fit into the image of the association,” says Andrea from the FLINTA* team. It is shocking how much ignorance and little willingness there is in the association to deal with political and social issues like this. »That does something to the people affected. It’s not just about a fine, but about people whose identity as a human being is not recognized, who are told: ‘You can’t play because of your sexual identity!’ Those are the big problems that trans, inter and non- binary people,” says Andrea. There is simply no discussion of queer realities in the SFV.

Football knows no gender

But the commitment of the Red Star forces associations and opposing clubs to deal with it. Before every game, Andrea & Co. talk to the opposing players about what it means to be a FLINTA* team. “We are doing awareness-raising work that the association has never done,” criticizes Andrea. There is applause from some opposing teams for taking this route; However, at away games, especially in the Leipziger Land, the FLINTA* teams also hear discriminatory, transphobic statements. »Everything falls apart if we win. Then it quickly becomes clear: Well, there are a lot of men involved.” It is difficult to travel to the surrounding area as a Red Star anyway. “If you then have trans people with you, that doesn’t make it any easier.”

From August 9th to 11th, the Red Star FLINTA* teams are organizing a big tournament under the motto “Football has no gender” with many other teams from Germany and some neighboring countries in order to network and exchange ideas , to strengthen each other and to take other women’s teams with us.

The Red Star has also become even more colorful and diverse in terms of sports. There are now 19 departments, including exotic ones like roller derby, where the »Riot Rocketz« play in the 2nd Bundesliga – the Red Star’s highest-class team – and also see themselves as a FLINTA* team. “Roller skating, wrestling and a sport for women – I was up for it, it worked,” says Mandy, a blocker on the team. The sport is also described as a mixture of ice hockey and American football on wheels. But there is neither a football nor a puck, the goal is for one runner to score the most points in the oval – the others try to prevent that.

From the DHfK to the Red Star

All team members have their own nicknames, like Mandy, who calls herself “Bärserk”. The Rocketz originally played for SC DHfK, the city’s largest sports club, but since the team’s political views in the political sport of roller derby fit better with the Red Star, the team changed clubs. “Just the fact of being at the RSL sends a message,” says Mandy. »Roller derby originated in a punky and rebellious manner, is now more professional, but is still very political and feminist.«

This also fits perfectly with the development of the Red Star Leipzig ’99 eV, whose slogan “More than soccer” is more appropriate than ever due to the broad political commitment and now also the diversity across sports.