RB Leipzig are to abolish their self-imposed €3 million salary cap within the next couple of years, the club's sporting director Ralf Rangnick has said.
Leipzig have been the Bundesliga's surprise team so far this season and are level with Bayern Munich on goal difference. They can go top of the league if they draw against Bayer Leverkusen on Friday night, ahead of Bayern's clash with Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
However, the club are already planning for the future, and Rangnick has now told dpa that they are set to pay higher wages in the future.
"The so-called self-imposed salary cap has not been written down anywhere," Rangnick said. "And even though we have declared it an unwritten law for us, it's not valid for the next five years. In this respect, we will develop."
The 58-year-old added that this will not only mean that new signings could earn more, but could also be a measure to reward those players currently enabling Leipzig to challenge at the top of the league.
"Those, who have got us where we are now, should also have the chance to profit from it," he said. "This will automatically happen because there will be contract talks at one point.
"That's why we want to approach the one or the other player in time to upscale the employment contract. In the course of this, we will adjust the wages because of our sporting development."
Although they are heavily funded by Austrian soft drink company Red Bull, and recorded a negative transfer balance of €50m this summer, the biggest of all German clubs, it had not been expected that they would be able to challenge the German top clubs like Bayern and Borussia Dortmund.
Earlier this week, Leipzig were criticised by Cologne sporting director Jorg Schmadtke, who said that they are not "a normal newly promoted club."
While last month, Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Rudi Voller was also highly critical of the salary cap.
He said on Sky: "They like to belittle themselves. Even if they were to say that their wages were in the top eight of the Bundesliga, it would not be a problem. We all know that they are not a typical second division side winning promotion."