Here’s Why these Leading Football Clubs Withdrew from their Crypto Partnerships

Both football giants, Barcelona, and Manchester City have announced a walkout from their respective short-term crypto partnerships, in lieu of potential commercial disasters. According to The Hindu Business Line, Barcelona detached itself from possible market exposure in a negative light because of the partner’s involvement in a crypto fraud. Meanwhile, Manchester City withdrew due to the lack of the company’s digital footprint, leaving the company’s status to be maliciously unclear, posing a potential future threat to Machester City.

Barcelona Crypto Partners’ Fraud

Barcelona suspended its crypto partnership with Ownix after Moshe Hogeg, a businessman who was linked with Ownix, was revealed as one of the detained suspects in a crypto fraud. Earlier this month, Barcelona had announced the launch of its NFT collection commemorating the team’s history, in collaboration with Ownix. However, this short-term partnership turned out to be rather short-lived.

“In light of information received today that goes against the club’s values…FC Barcelona hereby communicate the cancellation of the contract to create and market NFT digital assets with Ownix with immediate effect.”, according to the Catalan club’s announcement.

Manchester City’s Ambiguous Crypto Partner

In the case of Manchester City, the football club withdrew from its crypto partnership with 3Key Technologies after the unveiling of the company’s and its executives’ limited digital footprint. A partnership that was announced just a week ago, was suspended because of the ambiguous status of the company. While Manchester City was seeking 3Key Technologies to become an “official regional partner” in “decentralized finance trading analysis and advisory technology”, however, the company’s geographical location was never determined. Despite Manchester City’s history of conducting “due diligence in respect of all of its partnerships”, it has never expected to be in a situation like this.

“Prompted by the club’s interactions with 3Key Technologies in recent days…Manchester City is now conducting further enquiries regarding 3Key Technologies and the partnership has been suspended pending satisfactory resolution to all of those enquiries.” City said that its sponsorship had “not been activated in respect of any specific products or services in any part of the world.”