Cryptocurrency investors look south

What happened with the failed cryptocurrency bid for Bradford City?  The Athletic has been finding out.

WAGMI United is a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), a group governed by computer coding — usually in the form of crypto tokens. Anyone who holds these tokens can vote on matters related to the DAO. The decisions are carried out by automated contracts. 

They want to buy a club in League One or League Two, the third and fourth levels of the English football pyramid, and take them to the Premier League. That, believe it or not, is the straightforward bit.

They intend to do this by creating club-related NFTs — characters, kits, pictures, videos and so on — that they can sell to the “global community” of crypto traders and NFT enthusiasts. Their NFTs will be better than others already out there, though, as they claim they are offering fans a chance to effectively own a piece of the team.  Remember the web-based Ebbsfleet United MyfFotballClub fiasco?  After five years they were nearly bankrupt.

Collectively, the EFL’s owners pump in more than £400 million a season to keep their clubs afloat. This is why the league is vetting potential owners far more rigorously than it used to. These checks involve considerable exchanges of information, interviews and, most significantly, proof of funding to cover two full seasons.

Even so, could it happen elsewhere?  WAGMI have said they intend to finalise a deal in January.  Football is famously agnostic about the source of club owners’ wealth. As long as they have it, and they accumulated it without breaking the law, come right in.

So, there is no reason WAGMI United cannot find a club, do some proper due diligence, pass the EFL’s checks, engage with local fans and even use its expertise in the new digital economy to boost the club’s profile and turnover.

The Athletic understands the owners of League One’s Gillingham and League Two sides Crawley Town and Stevenage have also had Rupp-like conversations with the group that they may or may not have to deny at some point soon.