The winners of this year’s Ballon d’Or, the
top award for individual footballers, will receive digital tokens to go with
their gleaming trophies, the organisers told AFP on Thursday.
The France-based award, run by the Equipe
media group, has feted the beautiful game’s best players for 66 years,
bestowing on them global acclaim and a trophy in the shape of a golden
football.
But this year Equipe is seeking to move
into the crypto sector, offering a range of digital tokens (NFTs) — free for
the winners but with hundreds more being sold to the public.
Sport is awash with NFT projects as
organisers, clubs and players seek to cash in on their fame.
The tokens are pieces of computer code
stored on a blockchain, the digital ledger that holds information about digital
assets.
They can be linked to a piece of art, a
video game avatar or a real-world object, as with the Ballon d’Or.
NFTs are generally bought by people who
hope to sell them on at a profit, their value based on supposed scarcity and
collectability.
But the whole of the crypto sector has
suffered a rout this year with the value of currencies and assets such as NFTs
taking a pummelling.
Nevertheless, Equipe said the Ballon d’Or
NFTs were part of a longer-term strategy.
“This first collection will be followed by
others as the Ballon d’Or, and more broadly the Equipe and Amaury groups, wish
to project themselves in a sustainable way into the world of web3, the new age
of decentralised internet,” said the media group.
Equipe said it would auction three NFTs
that would give the holders “VIP access” to the awards ceremony on 17 October,
followed by hundreds more after the ceremony.
Karim Benzema, the France and Real Madrid
striker, is runaway favourite to win the men’s award this year.
Appropriately enough, he launched his own
NFT collection earlier this year.
- AFP