On Friday, FIFA, the rights owner of World Cup football video, announced it plans to offer digital video collectibles for both the men’s and women’s world cup. While the platform to be used is that of FIFA’s official blockchain partner Algorand, it was notable that the announcement omitted any reference to the term NFTs or non-fungible tokens, which may be because some perceive NFTs as scams.
Details about the NFTs are still thin on the ground, but the FIFA+ Collect platform will launch later this month. It will include collectible video moments, art and imagery.
“Fandom is changing and football fans around the world engage with the game in new and exciting ways,” said FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai.
The initiative is a win-win for the World Cup organizer. Not only does it tick the box for FIFA’s partner Algorand, but it also acts as a high profile promotion of its FIFA+ video streaming platform, the free-to-watch initiative launched in April. FIFA+ plans to stream 40,000 matches a year, including 11,000 women’s football. While it will include some high profile leagues, the broadcasts will be limited by existing TV or video licensing deals.
It’s conceivable that FIFA could drop some or all the collectibles for free. To date, most leagues have chosen to license moments to third parties such as Dapper Labs (NBA, NFL, UFC) or OneFootball.
Apart from Algorand, Crypto.com is also a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Qatar in November. Crypto.com reportedly recently pulled out of negotiations with UEFA over an almost $500m sponsorship of the Champions League.
