Football & Fan Tokens – What Potential UK Financial Regulation Could Mean For Sports Clubs

Tuesday, 07 March 2023 Author: Chris Mort, Kim Sofroniou, Rhodri Thomas

The UK Treasury has recently published a consultation paper which proposes extensive changes to the regulation of cryptoassets in the UK (the Consultation).1

For those in the sports sector, that fan tokens should fall within the scope of the proposed regulatory regime will be of interest. The broad nature of the Treasury’s proposals has the (in the authors’ view, somewhat surprising) result that operating a platform for trading fan tokens, or arranging deals in fan tokens, could become a regulated activity within the scope of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Such a role for financial services regulation would have seemed extraordinary in the days of trading football stickers in the playground or baseball cards on eBay.

This article examines the new potential regulation, looking at:

A brief introduction to fan tokens
Why is the UK Government calling for fan token regulation?
What would the proposed regulatory solution look like and what could it mean for sports organisations?

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Tags: Crypto | Fan Token | Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 | Football | Regulation | UK

Written by

Chris Mort

Chris is a Partner in Freshfields' Corporate and M&A team. Chris advises companies across a range of sectors on raising equity in the public markets and on public company M&A. He also leads our Sports and Gaming practice.

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Kim Sofroniou

Kim is a Senior Associate in Freshfields’ disputes, litigation and arbitration team. Her practice covers a broad range of contentious cross-border commercial matters and investigations. She has significant experience of complex, large-scale disputes before the English High Court, acting for both Claimants and Defendants.

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Rhodri Thomas

Rhodri Thomas is a partner in Freshfields’ Dispute Resolution group. Rhodri acts for a range of national and international sports governing bodies, teams and individual athletes on regulatory issues and disputes.