The press spokesman for RB Leipzig said there were still two outstanding questions. But when Oliver Mintzlaff, head of the Bundesliga club, had answered the first one, he got up and left the room. Almost immediately. And that was probably the ultimate proof that Mintzlaff’s nerves were in pretty bad shape. So bad that he was at least close to tears at times.
One reason: the partly violent criticism of the lukewarm behavior of those responsible in Leipzig after the Russian representative Spartak Moscow was drawn to them in the Europa League on Friday. “You can’t say that we’re a club that ducks away,” insisted Mintzlaff, 46 – hardly that he had taken an unscheduled seat in the press conference for Leipzig’s cup game at Hannover 96. Alone: He himself had only commented on Monday. When there was no question that the European football union Uefa would exclude the Russian teams and RB would go through without a fight against Spartak. Or also: long after the Poles, Swedes and Czechs had made it clear that they would not play against Russia in the World Cup qualifier.
RB refers to Uefa, but the club would have been free to create facts themselves
Until Monday afternoon, when Mintzlaff announced that a cancellation was expected, the following official RB position applied: “We would have liked other circumstances”, as Florian Scholz, the commercial director of sport, was quoted on Friday in the club channels. But you would compete. “We are the only Bundesliga club still represented in three competitions and we want to get as far as possible in all of them, because our goal as a still young club is to establish ourselves in the top 20 in Europe,” said Scholz. On Tuesday, Mintzlaff said that “you wouldn’t do it like that anymore”. And he emphasized that he had asked Uefa behind the scenes to make a decision – namely its President Aleksander Ceferin. He informed Uefa: “We cannot play under the conditions. And we are now asking Uefa to support us here.”
But Ceferin pointed out that the decision was made by Uefa as the organizer of the Europa League, said Mintzlaff. You bowed to that. “If that hadn’t been the case, we would of course have made our own decision,” Mintzlaff claimed. Only: Leipzig would have been free to create facts themselves. To show at least a similar attitude as the Poles, Czechs and Swedes, for whom the possible participation in a World Cup was at stake because of the upcoming games against Russia.
“Our clear approach was, also in close consultation with Uefa and DFL (German Football League), that we let Uefa cancel it. I see that as a completely right step in retrospect,” assured Mintzlaff, who was last coached by Domenico Tedesco had to be represented as RB spokesman. With the difficulty that Tedesco was a coach at Spartak Moscow until mid-2021 and maintains personal ties with the players and club employees there. On Sunday, still full from the Bundesliga game against Bochum, he was asked about the complex issue and spoke out against a boycott. On Tuesday he said of the Russian team’s exclusion: “I welcome the decision.”
Mintzlaff criticizes the media: “How sick is that?”
Mintzlaff, in turn, made fun of the media. “If I were a journalist, I would have asked: Why is there still a football game at all when there is a war? That’s the question,” he said. He himself emphasized that the war “occupies us all extremely,” and that he was also emotionally affected. “Of course, when you read so much shit, sometimes you ask yourself: how sick is that?”
By this he meant, according to reports, criticisms that he registered on the Internet. “Then they always shoot quickly. And then the question for me is: what do I want to achieve with it? Do I want to serve the cliché that RB Leipzig is just a construct and just wants to make money? And just push his brand want? Then I can only shake my head, “said Mintzlaff. Russia is a relevant market for the Austrian energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, where large increases in sales have been achieved in recent years. Upon request, the Bundesliga team denied any influence by the group headquarters in the Europa League cause.