Football is like a drug. I'm missing the atmosphere in the stadium. The chants, the emptions, my friends on the stand. Unfortunately during Covid-19 lockdowns professional football matches happen without fans. It hurts to watch your favorite team only on the TV screen. Without fans professional football is soulless and heartless. By now money has become more important than the sport itself. On the one hand I'm concerned about the constantly ongoing processs of commodification. On the other hand not every part of this development must be bad. Some clubs experiment with new forms of participation. Here blockchain technology offers remarkable avenues, not only for professional football clubs but also for fans.
Tokenization and participation
Some professional football teams are organized as a club. Its members and fans not only support their team they are an important voice. Fans are included into the decision-making process of the club. In Germany the 50+1 rule prevents that clubs are bought up entirely by foreign investors. In Germany the football fan culture is very vivid and passionate. Every club has a fan organization which is supported by the club. These groups represent the interests of the fans. Their voice is important and has weight, for example in political debates. Some fangroups fear to become marginalized by sole investor or shareholder interests if the 50+1 rule would be softened.
The biggest football clubs are more or less owned by rich foreign investors (Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United etc, FC Chelsea etc.). Despite that, blockchain technology gives fans the opportunity to participate in their club's decision-making process. Socios.com offers Fan-Tokens (ERC20-Standard) based on the Ethereum blockchain. Fans can buy, collect and trade tokens of their favorite club. Fan-Token hodlers have access to special merchandise offers and they can have a say in decisions like the official stadium song or the design of the jersey. Some clubs even allow Fan-Token-hodlers extensive rights to voice their opinion. For example fans of the Cypriotic football team Apollon Limassol have voted upon the tactics and line-up of their team on matchday. The fanbased decision overruled the head coach and turned out to be successful. Apollon won the game 6-0. "We want to have a close relationship to our supporters and represent them in our best way", said the head coach.
The following football clubs offer Fan-Tokens on Socios.com: FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray Istanbul, AS Roma, Club Atlético Independiente, Trabzonspor Istanbul, Apollon Limassol, Young Boys Bern, Sint Truidense V.V., Novara and Istanbul Basaksehir
Non Fungible Tokens
Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo, everbody knows these football superstars. Thanks to trading cards company Panini I collected pictures of my football idols in my childhood. There are books and museums full of Panini pictures. Most probably collectors can earn a small fortune with rare Panini football stickers or trading cards. Non Fungible Tokens are the new Panini pictures, which can be found on platforms like Sorare or blockchainfootball.co. On Sorare fans can collect Non Fungible Tokens of their favorite football clubs, they can buy and trade virtual trading cards and manage their own team. Sorare is based on Ethereum. Clubs like Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus and many more can be found on Sorare.
Bets
The odds for gambling are in favor of blockchain. An peer-to-peer gambling system makes the classic role of a bookie obsolete. Blockchain gambling platforms accept new forms of payment such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies. However, there are a lot of different companies or casinos. Before you sign-up and start gambling, it maybe helpful to do some research on crypto gambling. Note as well: Gambling can be addictive, extensive use is not recommended.
Ticket sales
Fraud and ticket scams are a problem many professional football clubs fight against. For example Ajax Amsterdam has announced that it will sell blockchain secured tickets. In the future tickets for an Ajax match are unforgeable and can be more easily distinguished from black market tickets. Ajax uses the mobile ticket platform TIXnGO. In September 2020 Ajax Amsterdam tested this new blockchain-based ticket platform. Ten thousands fans received successfully their tickets through TIXnGO.
