Fan groups slam UEFA crypto-token Champions League sponsor

Benevolence toward fans one day. Making money off them the next day.

Champions League organizer UEFA faced criticism on Tuesday for monetizing supporter engagement by partnering with a company that sells fan tokens through largely unregulated cryptocurrencies.

The commercial deal was announced a day after the Football Supporters Europe group praised UEFA for giving away 10,000 tickets to the Champions League final this season, with thousands of fans also able to attend the other European club competition finals for free.

England’s Football Supporters’ Association said the announcement showed the “good and bad of UEFA summed up in two days.”

Socios said it was becoming the official fan token partner of main men's competitions. Fans buying its blockchain-based tokens will be rewarded with “VIP trips” to the season launch events, the chance to visit UEFA HQ in Nyon, Switzerland, meetings with “legends," match tickets, merchandise and memorabilia.

Football Supporters Europe said it was “appalled” by the Socios deal with UEFA, which did not announce the sponsorship.

“It is a clear attempt to monetize football’s responsibility to properly engage with representative fans’ groups and their concerns," FSE said. “Since Socios began monetizing fan engagement through ‘fan tokens,’ they have met strong opposition from fans’ groups.”

The announcement from Socios included no disclaimers about the risks. In England recently, Arsenal’s promotion of Socios tokens were ruled to have broken advertising regulations and were banned for taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience in cryptocurrencies.

“UEFA’s partnership with Socios legitimizes risky investments in highly volatile and largely unregulated financial assets,” FSE said. “The...