Red Bull has added to its astonishing array of sports properties by launching a new soccer club in the German city of Leipzig.

The company, which also owns Red Bull Salzburg and the New York Red Bulls soccer clubs as well as the Red Bull and Toro Rosso Formula One teams, will reportedly invest €100 million (US$138.6 million) in the venture, which will see Red Bull Leipzig compete in the fifth tier of German soccer next season as it begins its quest to reach the Bundesliga.

If it does so it will fill a vacuum in the city, which has a population of more than 500,000 but no top-level soccer team. Red Bull is also believed to have taken control of the Zentralstadion, the city's 45,000 capacity stadium, which was used in the 2006 Fifa World Cup.

"Red Bull is not coming to Leipzig in order to take something away - quite the reverse," said Markus Egger, managing director of Red Bull Soccer.