With tensions building in Old Trafford between football legend, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Erik Ten Hag, manchester united chooses instead to focus on breaking into the Web 3 space.
Manchester United are launching a new collection of NFTs – "digital collectibles which the club and its followers will cherish for years to come".
Why are they doing it? What are the drawbacks? And what does it mean for fans?
📝 @josephmdursohttps://t.co/ftYSLWCke8
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) November 14, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo has been in contention with both his coach and his team. Pulling antics off the pitch, leaving before his team celebrated their wins, and training alone. Ronaldo seems to have been struggling on the pitch, and his behavior on the bench isn’t helping his case.
Yet, instead of focusing on mending the world-class player, Manchester united seems to be interested in breaking into the NFT space instead, gifting their fans unique digital assets.
The project is run on Tezos, a sustainable and advanced blockchain that already has a $23.7 million deal with the club. The project aims to positively impact the lives of Manchester fans. They also launched a community set to educate their users on the rewards of affecting the real world through digital art.
Fans who possess these NFTs would be able to join Manchester United’s discord community, which would allow them to interface with the club, its players, and hundreds of other things fans love to do best.
According to Phil Lynch, the CEO of the club, it is a whole new option for fans that relied on traditional ways of collecting match programs, badges of clubs, or even stickers. Now they get to have digital keepsakes.
The first set of NFTs would be airdropped to fans, free of charge. Subsequently, NFTs would be worth around 30 pounds. Though some have applauded the idea, some users believe that the timing of the launch is lacking.
1) The obvious one is that crypto is tanking around the world, the huge FTX exchange just collapsed, this industry is becoming toxic and discredited. Here's what has happened to the Tezos token since United signed the deal in Feb. pic.twitter.com/lHqAwXsQtG
— Joey D'Urso (@josephmdurso) November 14, 2022
With the collapse of FTX, a giant in the crypto space, prices have been diving face-first into the ground. The industry is toxic and riddled with scammers. And taking into account the efforts Liverpool made to release NFTs and build their community, it is expected that Manchester United would meet the same fate.
This would all come down to if both Tezos and Manchester’s commercial team, can build a community worthy of fans’ attention.
