The club now known as FC Red Bull Salzburg traces its origins to 13 September 1933, when it was formed as SV Austria Salzburg from the merger of two local sides. Its early prominence came in the 1990s, when it took three Austrian league titles and reached the 1994 UEFA Cup final, losing to Internazionale.

In 2005 the energy-drink company Red Bull bought the club, rebranding it and switching the traditional violet and white for red and white, a change that prompted a section of supporters to found a breakaway club. Since then Salzburg have dominated Austrian football from the Red Bull Arena in Wals-Siezenheim, just outside the city, winning a long sequence of Bundesliga titles and domestic doubles and becoming regular participants in the UEFA Champions League. Because of UEFA and FIFA sponsorship rules the side appears in European competition simply as FC Salzburg, with a modified crest.