Crawley Town signed a player based on a supporters’ vote on which position to strengthen, it has been revealed.
The League Two club was taken over by ambitious US cryptocurrency investors in April and appointed highly-rated Arsenal youth coach Kevin Betsy as first-team manager in June.
And after a vote on Friday 15 June, where fans and NFT holders got to decide whether they wanted a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker, the result demanded a midfielder – and the fourth team obliged.
Crawley signed a player based on a fan vote on which position to strengthen, it has been revealed
The League Two club was taken over by ambitious US cryptocurrency investors in April and appointed highly-rated Arsenal youth coach Kevin Betsy (pictured) as manager in June
The voting weight was allocated half to holders of the club’s NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and half to season ticket holders – who number almost 1,000 – although not all season ticket holders participated.
And last Wednesday, Crawley announced the triple signing of midfielder Jayden Davis, plus defender Ben Wells and forward Moe Shubbar.
New owners WAGMI United – short for “We’re All Going to Make It”, a popular rallying cry in cryptocurrency circles – were estimated by the Washington Post to have paid up to around £16m for the club, having previously failed to buy Bradford.
And despite having no experience in football, they aim to use transparent and open decision-making to run the club, with NFT holders given a special Adidas-made Crawley shirt, and the right to call on matters on the pitch as signing players.
Co-owner Preston Johnson said that while some NFT owners “were not as informed”, Crawley had provided selectors with “data analysis” and “reviewed previous signings, while maintaining that decisions to select players in the team still fall to management.
But it still offers more meaningful participation than the fan tokens offered on the ‘Socios’ platform by other football clubs, which include votes on what soft drinks clubs should have or what music should be played over the stadium speakers.
WAGMI has also cut ticket prices by 30 per cent, with the sale of 10,000 NFTs to more than 5,400 buyers raising around £3.9m, compared to Liverpool’s around £1m, and has introduced a seven-strong fans council with ‘direct access’ to the owners.
Johnson added: ‘A lot of NFT projects are just speculation with no real tangible backbone, no real true story. Do you have a football club to root for every week? It is a backbone that people cling to.
“If we can bring that to this crypto audience, especially if we’re actually able to achieve promotion and move up the ranks of the English Football League, then that’s an even bigger story that people all over the world can be a part of.”
They call themselves “the football team of the internet”, with the idea that anyone with an internet connection can follow them, as they try to build a remote global community of fans.
Crawley have also signed a deal with a major streaming platform that will give them access to a fly-on-the-wall documentary cataloging their first season in charge.
It’s a long and difficult road to promotion and eventually the Premier League – but it certainly looks like more people will be along for the ride.
