Published on August 8th, 2022 | by Ben Lockwood

BFCST Update: Hex Sponsorship Deal

In the days following Friday’s announcement of the club’s new sponsorship deal with crypto currency HEX, it became clear that a significant amount of supporters had reservations about the football club entering in to such a partnership.

These reservations only intensified yesterday as clarity around who brokered this sponsorship deal, and which individuals were genuinely involved, grew.

BFCST spoke with the club on Sunday morning, and followed that up today seeking an update to the four areas we believe are of most concern to Barnsley FC supporters.

Who is our sponsorship deal actually with? Which parties from HEX, and which parties from Barnsley FC, agreed the partnership?
What due diligence was taken regarding the history of the company? Focusing on the numerous online claims that this is a Ponzi scheme, or a hoax, and the risk that supporters might invest their own funds in something that is tipped to fail?
The online HEX community are extremely active, to the detriment of the online experience for our own supporters. Whilst the club can’t do anything to stop people interacting online, is this a behaviour the club want to be associated with given its negative effect on the fan base?
Linked to question one, some individuals are claiming they brokered the deal to sponsor the football club rather than Richard Heart the founder of HEX. These individuals have questionable views and opinions that none of us would want associated with the football club. How can we distance ourselves from these people and views if we continue with HEX as our main shirt sponsor?

The club responded this lunchtime by telling us, ‘Barnsley Football Club is aware of images currently circulating on social media and is investigating the background to these posts. Barnsley Football Club does not condone any form of abuse. Further comment will be made when appropriate.’

BFCST weren’t aware of this sponsorship deal at any point prior to the announcement. However, we have been working with the FSA to create guidelines around crypto currency sponsorship in football, and last month we voted in favour of passing the below motion.

Motion 3: Cryptocurrency in football

Many football clubs are entering into partnerships with cryptocurrency providers, including those with product offerings that encourage fans to purchase cryptocurrency backed tokens that provide so called ‘engagement opportunities’ with their clubs.

It is further noted that cryptocurrencies are a high-risk investment product not currently regulated in the UK.

This motion calls on the FSA is to develop a plan of action to address the proliferation of these schemes across football that includes the following activity:

Engagement with the Football Association, Premier League and Football League to work collectively on the introduction of common self-regulatory standards for any cryptocurrency partnership entered into by a football club, and to;
Develop an information awareness campaign for football fans advising them of the risks to their capital of investing in cryptocurrencies
Lobbying activity to the Government (DCMS and Treasury) to call for the introduction of statutory regulation of cryptocurrency *as it relates to football
Calls upon football clubs that do have partnerships to with cryptocurrency partners to ensure that they undertake due diligence before entering into those arrangements and to meet with the Supporters’ Trusts and fans groups to discuss all marketing and promotional activity before it us undertaken to ensure high levels of consumer protection.

More info on the FSA and the work on crypto currency can be viewed on the website - https://thefsa.org.uk/

We’ll continue to update supporters when we have more information.