Arsenal football club is in trouble for getting involved in crypto. for the second time now the club, which is based in London, has received a warning from ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). ASA claims that the club took advantage of its vast influence on the fans by not giving proper warning about what they were getting into.
Last year Arsenal through social media, email and the official website offered the fans a non-tradable token known as “$AFC Fan Token”. The token was to be used to give fans voting privileges and give them access to VIP facilities. The token was launched in partnership with Socios. ASA has already banned a Facebook post by Arsenal that promoted the token.
According to ASA, Arsenal was “omitting appropriate and prominent risk warnings.” For the fans to get hold of the token they need to use chilliz to purchase the token. Chilliz which is a cryptocurrency and the AFC Fan Token is not regulated by the UK government. ASA says that Arsenal may not primarily be promoting this cryptocurrency but still promote this token as a secondary product.
…the club took advantage of their consumers’ lack of knowledge and inexperience in crypto assets to mislead them by not stating that the NFTs were purchased with another cryptocurrency.
Read: New York AG’s Office After the Crypto Institutions
Arsenal response
Since then the club has added a disclaimer/ warning to its website allowing those who want to purchase the token to know what they are getting into. The fan’s token has become another way for the clubs, not just arsenal, to earn more revenue. The club gave a detailed warning saying
Although we only promote $AFC Fan Tokens as a tool to engage with the club, we recognize that a secondary market for trading does exist. As such, we remind you that: a) the value of crypto assets is variable and can go down as well as up; (b) crypto assets are unregulated in the UK, and (c) capital gains tax may be payable on any profits made on the sale of crypto assets.
