The management readily agreed to the request for a sports club to be set up, because Bayer's plant was isolated in a "no-man's land" between the Cologne suburb of Mülheim and the village of Wiesdorf, with no infrastructure and no facilities for the creative use of leisure time. Thus, it was on July 1, 1904 that the "Turn- und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co." was founded - the first Bayer sports club of any kind to be established in Germany.

As the company grew, sports became increasingly important: the initial commitment to purely recreational sport almost inevitably led to participation in sport at the championship level, as Bayer athletes naturally strove to improve their performances. The company readily responded to its employees' demands for an ever wider range of sporting activities, and eventually developed into one of the biggest funders of sport in Germany.

The initial commitment to purely recreational sport almost inevitably led to participation in sport at the elite level, as Bayer athletes naturally strove to improve their performances. Today, Bayer's sports clubs in Leverkusen alone have a membership of about 17,000. Three of the company's other German plants - in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Krefeld-Uerdingen, and Dormagen - also have their own sports clubs. Altogether, there are 26 sports clubs with about 50,000 members, all of whom practise and compete wearing the Bayer cross.