Bradford City chairman Stefan Rupp to take legal action over WAGMI United claims

Rupp received an emailed offer to buy the Bantams on Thursday but said that after seeing the response of fans he decided that as its custodian, it was not in its best interests to hand over control to WAGMI United.

The group, which include businessman Daryl Morey, president of National Basketball Association side Philadelphia 76ers, businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and TikTok personality Bryce Hall, have made it their ambition to buy an English lower-league club despite having little knowledge or experience of the game. They are looking to use a new model based around cryptocurrency to take a team into the Premier League.

Cryptocurrency is a controversial source of revenue in football, with a number of clubs in England and on the Continent, including Leeds United, selling virtual "fan tokens" which have met with resistance from supporters groups largely because the market is so volatile and unregulated, and the benefits (beyond those of financial speculation) to fans are so limited. WAGMI's scheme would have gone further.

But their tactics have annoyed Rupp.

When the owner/chairman rejected their offer on Saturday WAGMI released their to-date only tweet which said he had "rescind(ed) our purchase agreement" and claimed there had been "productive and confidential negotiations with Mr Rupp to purchase Bradford City since early November". This ran counter to his version of events, and he has now asked his legal team to set the record straight as he sees it.

“It is with anger and regret I am further compelled to speak on a firmly closed matter, yet I feel I must to correct the glaring inaccuracies it contained," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The statement published carried a number of assertions which could generously be described as being wide of the mark. It included claims which sought to undermine my truthful message to our supporters, employees and partners when rejecting their bid on December 17.

“It is right and correct it be known that I have acted properly throughout my short dealings with WAGMI United LLC and rejected their proposed deal to protect the proud history of Bradford City AFC.

“Sadly, the actions of WAGMI United LLC have detrimentally brought both my integrity and the club’s reputation into question. It is for this reason I have instructed my lawyers to explore all possible legal redress forthwith.”