Bitcoin Football: The Real Bedford FC Story
Football has become the establishment. Thirty years after the publication of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, the gentrification of professional football in England is no longer limited to executives. Where once middle-class enthusiasts – like Hornby – were an exotic presence, today all of gaming culture is awash in the instincts of do-gooders.
The demotic power of football in the 1970s and 1980s has completely dissipated. Like the Glastonbury Festival or the Labor Party, Premier League football has largely decoupled from individual affiliations, tastes and preferences. In the past, working-class supporters ignored, defied or resisted the authorities. Now official club supporter groups are calling for greater government regulation.
You could say that's a good thing. Football is less of a specific culture, with its biases, parochialisms and ugly blind spots. Instead, the Premier League is a money-making machine, a soft power juggernaut and a skillfully managed global media phenomenon. Without this, UK PLC would be significantly diminished. But we also need to be clear about what has been lost.
It is this belief that some things are not for sale, a commitment to community building, that Peter McCormack has been trying to rekindle since joining Real Bedford FC last year.
Artwork by Onkar Shirsekar"When my grandfather or my grandfather's grandfather was interested in football, teams were formed around ideas," says McCormack, president and owner of Real Bedford. “It may have been a group of miners, or a printing press. »
But where football clubs of the past may have been driven by industrial pride, civic one-upmanship or Arnoldian elevation, Real Bedford is a Bitcoin-based club. It is a move towards the potential of new technology and a new form of money, to bring real value back to football.
“We are a community of people from Bedford and beyond who love football and monetary sovereignty,” says McCormack. "And we're a community of people who do best when we're not embarrassed."
Not the kind of sentiment typically shared by the Premier League social media team.
Since completing his takeover of the Spartans South Midlands Division One club in 2022, McCormack has injected ideas, energy and investment. He renamed the club – they were previously known as Bedford – and they adopted the skull and crossbones as their emblem. The club is now sponsored by Gemini, a crypto exchange, and their kits have adopted the orange and black color scheme associated with...
Football has become the establishment. Thirty years after the publication of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, the gentrification of professional football in England is no longer limited to executives. Where once middle-class enthusiasts – like Hornby – were an exotic presence, today all of gaming culture is awash in the instincts of do-gooders.
The demotic power of football in the 1970s and 1980s has completely dissipated. Like the Glastonbury Festival or the Labor Party, Premier League football has largely decoupled from individual affiliations, tastes and preferences. In the past, working-class supporters ignored, defied or resisted the authorities. Now official club supporter groups are calling for greater government regulation.
You could say that's a good thing. Football is less of a specific culture, with its biases, parochialisms and ugly blind spots. Instead, the Premier League is a money-making machine, a soft power juggernaut and a skillfully managed global media phenomenon. Without this, UK PLC would be significantly diminished. But we also need to be clear about what has been lost.
It is this belief that some things are not for sale, a commitment to community building, that Peter McCormack has been trying to rekindle since joining Real Bedford FC last year.
Artwork by Onkar Shirsekar"When my grandfather or my grandfather's grandfather was interested in football, teams were formed around ideas," says McCormack, president and owner of Real Bedford. “It may have been a group of miners, or a printing press. »
But where football clubs of the past may have been driven by industrial pride, civic one-upmanship or Arnoldian elevation, Real Bedford is a Bitcoin-based club. It is a move towards the potential of new technology and a new form of money, to bring real value back to football.
“We are a community of people from Bedford and beyond who love football and monetary sovereignty,” says McCormack. "And we're a community of people who do best when we're not embarrassed."
Not the kind of sentiment typically shared by the Premier League social media team.
Since completing his takeover of the Spartans South Midlands Division One club in 2022, McCormack has injected ideas, energy and investment. He renamed the club – they were previously known as Bedford – and they adopted the skull and crossbones as their emblem. The club is now sponsored by Gemini, a crypto exchange, and their kits have adopted the orange and black color scheme associated with...
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