Crawley Town have become the first EFL League Two club to be owned by a cryptocurrency group after WAGMI United bought them for £5 million.
As reported by The Guardian, Crawley Town FC have been taken over by cryptocurrency group WAGMI United, who are ready to bring ‘Web3’s most innovative ideas’ to revolutionise the EFL League Two club.
WAGMI stands for ‘We’re All Gonna Make It’, a popular expression amongst cryptocurrency enthusiasts. WAGMI United are a United States-based consortium that had previously expressed an interest in buying Bradford City, only to see their efforts fail. However, they have now acquired a controlling stake at Crawley Town in a deal worth £5 million from Turkish steel magnate Ziya Eren.
Crawley are currently 13th in the League Two standings, 13 points shy of the playoff spots, with just seven games remaining. Recent accounts had also revealed that the club were in debt of around £500,000.
However, the new owners have big ambitions for the fourth-tier outfit, with promotion being one of their targets. At the same time, WAGMI United also intend to get fans more involved in the decision-making process at the club by offering them NFTs.
WAGMI UNITED COMPLETE TAKEOVER OF CLUB
Crawley Town Football Club can today confirm that investment group WAGMI United LLC have purchased Ziya Eren’s controlling shares of Crawley Town Football and Social Club Limited.#TownTeamTogether?
— Crawley Town FC (@crawleytown) April 7, 2022
Speaking after the takeover, Preston Johnson, one of WAGMI United’s founders, said, “Crawley Town Football Club is a club with more than 125 years of rich history that we revere and respect. However, a conventional approach to ownership hasn’t worked, and the club is losing hundreds of thousands of pounds while fans suffer through year after year of uninspiring results on the pitch.”
“We think the club can do better and our fans deserve better. Sports are supposed to be fun and bring communities together. At Crawley Town, we’re going to shake up the status quo, try out some new ideas, and build a worldwide community of fans,” he added.
Johnson and co-founder Eben Smith are both NFT enthusiasts, and plan to introduce a system wherein WAGMI sells the digital tokens that will allow the buyers to take part in club-related decisions while also boosting the revenue of the team at the same time.
Currently spending their seventh straight season in the fourth-tier of English football, Crawley Town fans will be hoping that the new ownership leads the club into a new and successful era.
Featured Image Courtesy: Paul Wilkinson from London, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons
