The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority has said that the English football club Arsenal has broken advertising rules. The violations have to do with a post on the club’s official website and Meta page.
English football club Arsenal has broken advertising rules by promoting a cryptocurrency token for fans, according to the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The Arsenal fan token was promoted incorrectly via a web page and a Meta post, according to the watchdog.
Specifically, the football club had “failed to illustrate the risk of the investment,” according to the ASA, and “must not appear again in the form complained about.” Arsenal has said that it had stated that there were financial risks involved and would go for an independent review of the matter.
The Arsenal fan token has the ticker $AFC. The ASA says that violations had to do with the promotion of $AFC on Arsenal’s official website and the club’s Meta page. The ASA said that there were issues concerning irresponsibility and the misleading of viewers with these two posts.
One of the key statements by the ASA was that football clubs must clearly inform viewers that fan tokens are crypto assets, and also saying that,
“the value of investments in crypto-assets was variable and crypto-assets were unregulated.”
The U.K. has been very cagey about cryptocurrency and related advertisements in the country. The ASA banned several advertisements a week ago and issued a red alert on cryptocurrency ads.
Club tokens extremely popular
Sports has long been seen as an industry where crypto assets have been touted as having tremendous value. It taps into the collective spirit of fans of teams, and can greatly benefit those who support their clubs or teams fiercely. Fan tokens have already brought in millions to football clubs.
The English Premier League, the NBA, and the MLS have all sought to work cryptocurrencies into their brand. Several football clubs, from Barcelona to Juventus, have also released their tokens. Many of these have been released through sports-focused crypto platform Socios.
It is unlikely that fan tokens will fade into obscurity. If anything, they are only set to grow, but there is no doubt that regulators will begin enforcing rules and restrictions.
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