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Football

30th Nov 2021

Premier League pledges to investigate links between cryptocurrency and clubs

Callum Boyle

There is a growing fear from the Premier League about the lack of regulation in the industry

The Premier League has promised to investigate the ongoing links being made between clubs and cryptocurrency firms as a result of fears over the lack of regulation within the industry.

As reported by The Times, several fans’ groups from around the league are concerned that supporters will be encouraged to purchase products using ‘electronic money’ in the hope that the value of the product will increase over time.

There are also fears that it may encourage younger children to use the platform themselves. The Times also state that the Premier League have confirmed they currently have no concerns over clubs forming partnerships with cryptocurrency companies.

In a recent meeting, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, said that they are committed to investigating the “issue and will speak to the Premier League’s chief commercial officer to look into the issue in more detail”.

However, despite committing to explore the issue, the league has admitted that it is considering forming a partnership with a cryptocurrency platform to provide fans with ‘digital tokens’, known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

There are several high-profile players who now promote the use of NFT’s including the likes of Paul Pogba – but largely it is clubs themselves.

Teams such as Southampton and Watford are heavily involved, whilst the likes of Everton, Manchester City and Leeds United have all signed big-money deals with the Socios platform recently.

Man City were recently involved in controversy after forming a partnership with 3Key Technologies – a platform that was created to manage the cryptocurrency accounts of clients, but they soon revoked the deal after it emerged that as many as five people who were named by the company as chief executives were nowhere to be found on the website.

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