Phil Hay blasts Leeds United over ‘insidious’ May statement, takes swipe at NFT promotion
Phil Hay has slammed Leeds United for announcing fans can bid for a “limited series of NFTs” to raise money for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
On Monday [2 May], Leeds’ announcement was met with a lot of criticism from fans, who’d not long seen their side battered by Manchester City and come under serious threat of being relegated back to the Championship.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are a controversial subject and The Athletic journalist Hay clearly isn’t a fan of Leeds using them to make money for those who need it in Ukraine.
When asked about the announcement about NFTs, Hay said his latest episode of The Phil Hay Show podcast [6 May]: “The timing was weird.
“I don’t know why you would choose then to put it out with some of the terminology used in the actual piece itself.
“If you’re sitting around brainstorming about what to put in it, somebody might have said, ‘is that a good idea, is that the best way to term it?’.
“Raising money for humanitarian support in Ukraine is a good thing and they did actually make a lot of money quite quickly from it.
“More than anything, it’s the NFT aspect of it.
“I don’t know what it is at the moment but particularly online, NFTs and [cryptocurrency], the creep of it is just insidious. It’s like people constantly telling you this is a good thing and it’s clearly not for me.
“I wouldn’t want to tar everybody with the same brush but some of the people I see going on about crypto on Twitter in a really positive way are, as we would say in Scotland, absolutely strokers as far as I can tell.
“The whole thing just feels like the emperor’s new clothes. And I can’t help but feel there are far better ways to raise money for Ukraine.”
Ridiculous
Leeds’ statement is a bit of a joke if we’re honest.
It says a lot that the club is promoting something yet at the end of the announcement, they hit fans with a disclaimer, saying: “The decision to purchase NFTs requires careful consideration.”
Leeds United also said that potential bidders should seek independent advice if they need it and warned them to not buy any NFTs if they don’t understand them.
Why are Leeds doing this then?
If you’re effectively selling something (it’s just a stupid picture, by the way), why do you need to put a disclaimer?
Would the club do sell alcohol, tobacco or their own betting odds? Of course they wouldn’t because they’re things that can cause massive issues.
And this is the same, they’re promoting something they clearly know could cause issues for buyers.
We don’t understand this NFT nonsense. You can just screenshot an image of the NFT if you want, what’s stopping you?
In other Leeds United news, £90million worth of player exits are on the cards at Elland Road this summer.