Barcelona and Man City drop club crypto sponsors amid concerns

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Concerns over two cryptocurrency companies have led two of Europe’s major football clubs, Barcelona and Manchester City, to drop short-lived sponsorship deals.

Premier League champions City have suspended a deal with 3Key Technologies after concerns were raised about the limited digital footprint of the company and its executives.

Barcelona canceled a deal with Ownix ​​after a businessman linked to the company was arrested for cryptocurrency-related fraud.

Moshe Hogeg has been identified by Israeli media as one of the eight suspects detained, although police have not identified the high-tech entrepreneur and the owner of the team based in the capital Beitar Jerusalem. Hogeg’s lawyers, who could not be reached for comment, were cited as having denied the allegations.

Ownix ​​announced on November 5 that it was teaming up with Barcelona to launch non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which would be purchased using the digital currency known as Ethereum. NFTs have reportedly allowed people to purchase digital certificates of authenticity of virtual items related to the team’s history.

“In light of the information received today which goes against the values ​​of the club,” the Catalan club said on Friday, “FC Barcelona hereby communicate the cancellation of the contract to create and market digital assets NFT with Ownix ​​with immediate effect. ”

Hogeg is a well-known figure in Israel after purchasing Beitar in 2018.

What was less clear this week was who are responsible behind 3Key, which City announced as a sponsor a week ago. City had said the company would become an “official regional partner” in “decentralized financial analysis and advisory technology” without saying which region it was from.

The Times of London reported this week that founder Oliver Chen said 3Key was “in a start-up phase” ahead of a product launch in the coming months. Their company statement listed business executives without an obvious online presence.

“Driven by the club’s interactions with 3Key Technologies over the past few days,” City said in a statement on Friday, “Manchester City are currently conducting further investigations into 3Key Technologies and the partnership has been put on hold pending a satisfactory resolution of all such requests.

City said its sponsorship had “not been activated for any specific product or service in any part of the world.”

While City has said it “exercises due diligence with respect to all of its partnerships,” it is unclear how rigorous this has been given the media queries surrounding the internet for staff details. of the company.

Author Martin Calladine had pointed out on Twitter that “Unusually for a partner of a major football club, the company’s website did not contain contact details, registered office or company number. were only a few months old and their appointed staff had no digital footprints. ”

The contact form on the 3Key website was not working on Friday.

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