John Terry has landed himself in controversy as regards what essentially is a sticker pack — only one sticker costs £900. The Premier League considers legal action against Chelsea's former captain.
The problem is that all the 9,999 stickers in the pack are NFTs, non-fungible tokens. Don't worry, we'll explain what that all means.
What are NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens have become extremely popular in the art world, with many artists selling their work for cryptocurrency.
NFTs are unique digital assets. Information about them is stored on Blockchain, thus making it easy to prove that a person who owns an NFT owns an artwork associated with the NFT in question.
Not only artworks could be stored as NFTs; they could be anything digital like music, videos, even tweets. Even this post could technically be an NFT.
What makes NFTs unique and can they be stolen?
Obviously, one can download and share digital art or music. So technically, you can download an artwork someone paid tens of thousands of pounds for. You can even download the pictures of apes that Terry promotes and keep them on your laptop or phone if you like.
But NFTs offer a verification method to prove that they are yours. As if you buy an LS Lowry painting, you can hang it in your room and it will be yours. Others could have reproductions but you will have the original.
What makes NFTs tricky is in digital art, there is no difference between an original and a reproduction. That's why many argue that NFTs are a huge bubble and a playground for the rich to spend their money.
What does football have to do with it?
NFTs have also become a thing in the gaming community. Football is joining up, with clubs promoting their NFTs.
Arsenal recently launched a fan NFT. The Gunners had to stop promoting it and remove the advertisement from their website and social media. The UK Advertising Authority deemed the ad 'misleading' as Arsenal did not provide enough information about what NFTs are.
The NFT John Terry promotes is called "Ape Kids Club", an off-shoot of another NFT, "Bored Ape Yacht Club". Eminem bought one piece of the Bored Ape Yach Club collection for £342,000.
The "Ape Kids Club" collection features 9,998 cartoons of footballers as baby apes. One image costs 0.5 Ethereum, or around £900 at the current exchange rate.
John Terry was announced as 'head coach' of the Ape Kids Club on January 19.
Here is Willian:
And this is Tammy Abraham, the most recent addition to the Ape Kids Club at the moment of writing:
Terry promotes these so someone buys these images as NFTs.
What does Prem want to sue Terry for?
The Premier League considers legal action against Terry is because some of the cartoons feature the Premier League trophy.
It cannot be promoted without the league's agreement and consent.
Curiously, John Terry has dismissed the Telegraph's report in his unique fashion.
"Must be true if Sam has written it… Absolutely plum," he tweeted.
