Author reacts to ‘catastrophic’ Tottenham announcement with Leeds United example
Author Martin Calladine has criticised Tottenham for introducing fan tokens, citing Leeds United as an example of its many pitfalls.
Tottenham announced their move into the blockchain technology market in a statement on their official website on Thursday [28 September].
The tokens are digital assets, which can be traded directly on crypto exchanges with no real benefits for the fans despite being sold that way.
But as pointed out by Calladine – the author of ‘Fit and Proper People’ and ‘The Ugly Game’ – their value can swing wildly, leading to big losses.
“There are, IMO, many problems with fan tokens both in principle (charging fans for what should be free) and practice (evidence of price manipulation by traders, undemocratic structure, pointless polls etc), but the most notable issue had been the catastrophic loss of value,” he posted on Twitter [28 September].
Calladine added that the value of Leeds’ tokens have dropped from £2 to 32p already.
Moneymaking scheme
This is a complicated subject, but many of those with a good understanding side with Calladine’s view of things.
Indeed, West Ham fans hit out at their own club when they rolled out a similar initiative in 2019.
Two years later, Leeds became the latest Premier League club at the time to give it a go, using a long-winded statement to justify the moneymaking scheme.
The proof is very much there to see that those who were persuaded to jump on board have made a loss as things stand.
As Calladine stated, the scheme takes advantage of supporters by effectively making them pay for things that should be free.
One such example is voting on meaningless club polls, as AC Milan did previously. Perhaps because the likes of Milan, Barcelona and PSG were all on board, Leeds felt it was the way to go.
Two years on, though, and it has proved to be anything but.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites have ‘gone back to the Marcelo Bielsa days’ with a behind-the-scenes adjustment.