Member-only story
Football and Blockchain: can they “kick it off”?
Authored by Mikaela Kantor and Iacovos Kouppas
As much as the last three months have been immensely informative and we have all developed new skills in our efforts to keep ourselves busy: be it banana-breads, gardening, dog-walking or hosting excellent “Houseparties”, there’s one thing that we have all, more or less been missing: live sports events. The rush of cheering for (or against!) your team in a stadium, indoor swimming pool, rugby field or basketball court lights a spark to the brain like no other.
With the virus bringing everything to a halt, sporting events were among the first ones to be paused, postponed or even cancelled with countries like the Netherlands calling it a day for the entire season in football and associations like England Handball Association “erasing” all matches played in handball courts between September 2019 to March 2020. International organisations like UEFA frivolously attempting to “keep things going” with matches commencing on national level as of June 01 while the 2020 Football European Championships and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed (for the first time in history, albeit the cancellation of the Games during World War I and II) for 2021.
It can be safely argued that the football industry is one of many that make the “world go round” not only due to its huge global fan-base but also due to its constantly increasing financial value, with the European football market estimated to be worth over 30 billion Euros. Many are those who depend on the football sector, ranging from the clubs and players themselves down to your local pub hosting football viewing sessions with free Coronas (innuendo intended). It would therefore be inevitable for the football sector not to be influenced by the technology world and even more so, by blockchain.
The potential applications of blockchain technology into the most popular sport on the planet are numerous, ranging from utilizing blockchain and cryptocurrencies for faster and safer financial transactions between the clubs and supporters, to even ensuring compliance with GDPR regulations.
