Football the world’s most prevalent sport lately received partnership deals with the various organizations in the cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrency companies have convinced a number of a top football club to take sponsorship from them. These top clubs include clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain. If not sponsorship then such clubs have announced plans to launch ‘fan-tokens’ in order to increase money and recover their fan assignation and contribution experience.
With the beginning of football season in the month of August seven English premier league clubs including the 2016 champions, Leicester City agreed to a marketing corporation a crypto trading platform eToro. During the same period, Juventus and Paris Saint Germain which are two of most valuable football clubs announced their plan of launching their own fan tokens using frameworks that are to all intents and purposes, During the same period sleeve sponsorship deal was announced by Wolverhampton Wanderers with Cyprus-based crypto exchange Coindeal.
Meanwhile, Ronaldinho, previous world player of the year presented his Ronaldinho soccer coin via Twitter to his 18 m followers. The RSC scheme was industrialized by the Malta-based company, World Soccer Coin and it will subject as numerous as 1bn digital tokens for about 25 US cents each. The raised funds from investors will go towards a project such as giving football produce to underprivileged children and developing an escort gambling business. Brazilian Serie A club Avai in September announced its plans cryptocurrency in proposed $20 million ICO in partnership with Sparty co, a blockchain firm. While Cardiff City and Newcastle United in England announced their plans too about the partnership with Sparty co to raise much-needed funds through ICO’s.
Even though regulators have noticed a flurry of crypto-related activities within football circles particularly in the continent of Europe there has not been a single public statement indicating official stand on the trend so far. This does not, however, mean that they are not taking note of the situation.
According to financial times a leading media that covers financial news, despite the silence of watchdogs from around the globe, the impact of increased ICO popularity within the sport is really concerning, particularly with the morality of marketing with typically low information investors and corporate governance.
Prof Simon Chadwick of the University of Salford said:
The same 18- to 45-year-old affluent or emerging affluent individuals who attend sporting events are the same people with interest or curiosity. . . for novel forms of investment. […] It does raise an issue of governance in football, as well as issues of due diligence, ethics, morality, and integrity. The industry is so focused on signing talent. . . that there is a tendency to bypass what might otherwise be deemed acceptable governance standards.
As quoted by financial times.
Javier Paz, forex data source’s managing director stated that EU market regulator has stated will endure to highpoint overall ICO related asset risks to its consumers but it will not isolate the football industry for its involvement in ICOs.
Few soccer clubs have chosen meanwhile to sit out the cryptocurrency partnership rush voluntarily for reasons of reputational risks.
As per company’s senior executive at one of England’s leading clubs, the danger is that a [football club] endorses an ICO, lots of unsophisticated investors lose a lot of money when it dies and the only reason people have invested in that is because their sports team has promoted it,” the executive said. “We don’t want to wake up tomorrow and see loads of our fans losing money on a product that we have been endorsing.”
