Manchester City is officially the first English football club to use cryptocurrency. The Club recently had a launch of their own digital fan token. The announcement is out on the club’s website, Socios.com, and Chiliz. It allows their football fans worldwide to secure VIP rewards and voting rights with the CITY token.
Socios is also in partnership with other top football clubs like Juventus, AC Milan, Barcelona, and Paris Saint-Germain. These Clubs also own and place their tokens on the Socios platform. The worth of the fan tokens of these clubs is presently over $400 million. This whole platform is run by Malta-based crypto project Chiliz.
What does Manchester City have to say about the new development?
The Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships Sales, City Football Group, Stephan Cieplik, in his statement said’,
“We are excited to launch the new Manchester City Fan Token, which will provide another opportunity for our fans all over the world to get even closer to the Club they love. Fans will have access to fantastic competitions and VIP experiences and be able to vote on Club initiatives.
“Every existing registered Cityzen will also be eligible for a free token so they can access the full range of benefits and rewards.
“We recognize the significant interest in blockchain and the opportunity it provides us to engage further our global fanbase and we are confident that the Manchester City Fan Token will prove a popular addition to our digital line-up. We’ve been extremely impressed with how Socios.com has led the way in this space with other European clubs, and we are confident that we have the right platform to succeed and grow together.”
The Club also has some plans in play to partner with digital entertainment company Animoca to make blockchain games and collectibles. This will be the first time that Animoca will be creating football-related digital assets.
$CITY tokens are fungible
Man City’s designs on the digital asset world have a two-sided scope. The $CITY token is a fungible token. This translates to the fact that Socios token can be used for trade like other cryptocurrencies. All the registered fans of the club, popularly known as Cityzens, have access to one free $CITY token.
This should be a fresh beginning for the club’s bookkeepers. The club was under close scrutiny following a two-year ban from European club competitions for “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions.” The Club made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year. The Court reversed the ban and cleared the club of the charges.
