Are Dortmund Fans Right To Be Upset With Jürgen Klopp’s Red Bull Decision?

For Borussia Dortmund supporters, it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to Jürgen Klopp. ‘Kloppo’, as he’s affectionately known, was given the manager’s role at Signal Iduna Park in 2008 and remained in post for seven years. During his time there he won two Bundesliga titles, two DFL-Supercups and the DFB-Pokal, as well as getting them to the final of the Champions League.

They adored him at the Westfalenstadion, giving him a heroes welcome earlier this year when he returned as one of the managers for the charity game for two of his former players. Now they have turned against him, but what has he done to upset them so?

Red Bull is the Antithesis of What Dortmund Stand For

Nowadays, it seems somewhat quaint for a football team to be believed to ‘stand for’ something. With the likes of the United Arab Emirates owning Manchester City and seemingly being determined to tear football apart in the chase for success, as well as Saudi Arabia using its Public Investment Fund to purchase Newcastle United, the idea of football clubs having morals seems ridiculous.

Yet supporters of Borussia Dortmund believe that their club stands for something more than just the desire to win at all costs. Perhaps that comes from the club’s origins, being formed by a group of players at a team sponsored by the Catholic Church.

Given Borussia Dortmund's complete rejection of the Red Bull model of club whitewashing, and Jurgen Klopp's long history there, it's a bit disappointing and dispiriting to see him lead that project as its flagship employee.

— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) October 9, 2024

Obviously we’re not going to spend too long considering what morals the Catholic Church can sing about, exactly, instead focussing on Dortmund. When it was announced towards the end of the 2023-2024 campaign that Der BVB would be sponsored by a military weapons manufacturer called Rheinmetall, supporters protested against it, in spite of the fact that it was likely to damage the club’s chances of winning their Champions League match against Real Madrid.

Rightly or wrongly, fans of Die Borussen see the club as being about doing things the right way, which is why they dislike Red Bull’s business model intensely.

Klopp’s New Role Makes Him the Face of ‘Whitewashing’

The major criticism that most Borussia Dortmund fans have of Red Bull is that the drinks manufacturer has circumnavigated the 50+1 rules in German football from the very outset. The idea behind the rule is that it gives the members of the club, which are made up of supporters, the control over electing the board. Red Bull found a way around that in a manner that has left most Bundesliga lovers angry and frustrated.

The idea of one of Dortmund’s favourite sons turning around and joining a team that the supporters have actively despised ever since its creation is not something that anyone can really get on board with.

It would doubtless have upset fans of Der BVB if he had become the manager of one of the Red Bull clubs, but to become the ‘Global Head of Soccer’ positions him at the forefront of everything that Red Bull are trying to do. It essentially means that Klopp will help to turn all of the Red Bull teams into the best versions of themselves, which, if he succeeds, will lead to them dominating football.

That ‘whitewashing‘ is what supporters of clubs with ‘tradition’ fear the most, in spite of the fact that Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga almost every season. The notion that Klopp might Red Bull achieve success is too painful to even think about.

Is the Criticism Fair?

Jürgen Klopp might well find himself wondering what, exactly, all the fuss is about. Although the German will have been well aware of the distaste for the Red Bull model felt by most Dortmund fans, the reality is that no club is perfect. Even if you ignore the fact that Dortmund are sponsored by a weapons manufacturer, you can simply look at the club’s financial model to see that it isn’t leading any sort of virtuous existence.

Dortmund became the first, and so far only, football club to be floated on the German stock market, making it a prime example of a side that is funded by outright capitalism.

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Then there is Klopp himself. Whilst those who know of him predominantly as the Liverpool manager might not realise it, German football supporters will be more than aware of the fact that he has been happy to associate himself with any brand that would pay him money. He has advertised everything from investment schemes to Peloton bikes and Erdinger beer.

Though many might want to put him on a pedestal, he has never wanted that position. When he held his very first press conference at Anfield he said, “If you want to portray me like Jesus but then the next day say ‘no, he can’t walk on water’, then we have a problem”. Klopp isn’t the messiah, but Dortmund fans think he’s a very naughty boy.  Whether it will damage Klopp’s standing with fans in the long term remains to be seen, only recently people were talking about a second coming but things change quickly in football.