Crypto firm WAGMI United in email bid for Bradford City

On Thursday evening the Bantams told The Yorkshire Post they had not received an offer to buy the club despite reports in America that they were in advanced talks about a takeover.

By yesterday morning the owner of the League Two club said he had received an offer, but there had been no talks.

“Despite various reports claiming a change of ownership is imminent, I can confirm it is not,” said Rupp in a statement.

“Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a representative of the WAGMI United group with an offer to purchase Bradford City AFC. That is all I have received, nothing more, and no further action has taken place.”

According to The Washington Post, WAGMI’s strategy revolves around using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain – to create a new model of sports club ownership. The aim is to “outspend opponents” and invest in analytics to win promotion to the Premier League, which the Bantams played in from 1999 to 2001.

WAGMI includes businessman Daryl Morey, president of National Basketball Association side Philadelphia 76ers, businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and TikTok personality Bryce Hall, but they have little football experience.

NFTs are digital assets that can be bought or sold despite having no tangible form, effectively certificates of ownership – but not shares – available to all supporters although research by the BBC suggests most are owned by speculators. Values rise and fall significantly but, largely unregulated, NFTs can become worthless.

Owners are given privileges such as the right to vote on what music their team runs out to.

A number of top English and European clubs including Leeds United, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have similar schemes despite widespread opposition from fans groups.

PSG’s fan tokens are widely regarded as football’s best such investment but their value had fallen from a high of £42.02 to £10.32 yesterday afternoon. Manchester City’s were trading at £6.61 from £24.62 four months ago. Leeds tokens were only launched in August, but had dropped from last month’s high of £4.53 to £3.78.

As the scheme is still in its infancy, WAGMI United will hope to buck that trend.

Today’s League Two game at Carlisle was postponed with the Bantams unable to field a team because of the number of players who had tested positive for Covid-19 or awaiting test results.