Liverpool Football Club (LFC) recently announced that they will be releasing an NFT collection called “LC Heroes Club”. According to forbes.com, the NFTs will be based on many of the players and managers on the team, and are expected to bring in a lot of revenue for the company.
LIVERPOOL FC AND SOTHEBY’S
For some people, professional athletes are much more than celebrities. They can be heroes to their fans. With this in mind, Liverpool FC, one of the world’s most famous Premier League clubs, is diving headfirst into the world of NFTs. The football club’s NFT is a collaboration with the renowned auction house Sotheby’s.
LFC is one of England’s top teams and a European football behemoth. The club has won 19 league titles, six European Cups, one FIFA Club World Cup, seven FA Cups, nine League Cups, three UEFA Cups, four UEFA Super Cups, and even fifteen Charity/Community Shields.
LFC has over 300 Official LFC Supporters Clubs in over 100 countries worldwide. This NFT collection will create an opportunity to drive fan engagement from their already-loyal fan base.
All LFC Heroes Club NFTs will be generated, purchased, and distributed through Sotheby’s Metaverse, which is powered by Web3 commerce marketplace Mojito. It’s also the first time in Sotheby’s 278-year history that the auction house has collaborated with a sports club. The collection will utilize Polygon Blockchain, an energy-efficient Blockchain.
THE LIVERPOOL FC NFT COLLECTION WILL HAVE TWO CATEGORIES
The ‘LFC Heroes Club’ NFT collection includes illustrations of 24 Liverpool players, bringing their individual and superhero-like characteristics to life. As reported by cryptotimes.io, the NFTs are available for purchase over three days from March 30 to April 1. Supporters who own an LFC NFT can gain access to an LFC community forum, “unique” experiences, virtual hang-outs, competitions, and LFC retail discounts, raising funds for the LFC Foundation.
The LFC Foundation, which strongly supports charitable organizations and community projects, will receive half of the auction proceeds. Furthermore, 10% of sales from the “Heroes” edition NFTs and 10% of all future royalties will be donated to the foundation. Here are the collections:
LEGENDARY 1 OF 1 NFTS
The “Legendary” 1 of 1 NFTs, which consist of 24 legendary heroes, each portraying a team member with superpowers, will be available for purchase through a live auction. Bids begin at £75 (around $100), and the highest bidder will receive an NFT in both animated and still image form. With this collection, the LFC Foundation will receive half of the auction proceeds.
HERO NFTS
The second sale will include limited edition “Hero” NFTs and offer them for a fixed price of $75 each. Each Limited-Edition Hero NFT features a different LFC player or manager, with his own unique characteristics. The NFTs will be created with a generative art algorithm that creates NFTs with mix-and-match features, resulting in genuinely unique pieces such as CryptoPunks or Bored Apes.
The traits range from the typical “Match Mode” to the less common “Fresh Mode”, to the extremely rare “Super Mode”. Buyers will not know which NFT they receive until it is transferred to their wallets.
These NFTs will be priced at around £56 each, with the club emphasizing that these NFTs are not to be viewed as investments, and that there will be a limit on the number of blind packs of NFTs that can be purchased. The club discussed this with the Advertising Standards Authority before the launch, and the NFTs can be bought with debit cards rather than cryptocurrency.
THE LIVERPOOL FC NFT RELEASE IS CONTROVERSIAL
Liverpool FC has released its NFT collection already, and 50% of the raised amount will go towards charity purposes at the LFC Foundation. But, according to Caoimhe O’Neill and Joe D’Urso of theathletic.com, the club could earn “more than £8.5 million” from selling their NFT collection, and some people claim that the club is launching NFTs for investment purposes by releasing over 170,000 NFTs. The club denied these allegations.
The announcement for the release also was met with some opposition on various social media outlets. At this point, it’s normal to have some people opposed to NFT releases, given the controversial nature of the space. LFC will have to be mindful of the fans’ reception in the future.
FINAL THOUGHTS
LFC is one of England’s top teams and a European footballing behemoth. It’s currently the world’s most famous Premier League club, and the fact that it’s diving headfirst into NFTs says something about the emerging field.
If fans want any of these NFTs, they should act fast.
