Barcelona and Manchester City pull out of partnerships with two crypto projects

Two football clubs—Barcelona and Manchester City—have pulled out of partnerships with their crypto-sector partners. The Catalan club NFT-marketplace Ownix, while the British club ended its deal with analytics company 3Key Technologies.

On November 4, Barcelona and Ownix announced that the football club would release on the marketplace its own NFT collection. It would feature key moments from the club’s 122-year history.

On November 18, FC announced the immediate termination of the contract.

“In light of information received today, which conflicts with the club’s values, FC Barcelona announces the termination of the contract for creating and selling NFT digital assets with Ownix,” the statement reads.

The club made the same decision amid the arrest of the founder of the ICO startups Sirin Labs, Stx Technologies Limited (Stox) and Leadcoin Moshe Hogeg on suspicion of cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering and sex-related crimes. He provided advisory services to Ownix.

Following Barcelona’s statement, the NFT marketplace said it had no involvement in the matters under police investigation. Ownix emphasised that the contract with Hogeg was terminated at his initiative — he is not a shareholder of the company and does not participate in its activities.

1/5 Following several posts about Mr Moshe Hogeg, Ownix states that it has nothing to do with the matter. Moreover, Ownix says it will terminate the consulting agreement with Mr Hogeg, in accordance with his request and what had been coordinated with Ownix.

— ownix (@Ownix_nft) November 18, 2021

Manchester City, in turn, suspended its partnership with {{AOPEN_4}}3Key Technologies{{ACLOSE_4}}, announced on November 12. The club also removed the press release from its site — available via the Wayback Machine Wayback Machine.

As part of the current agreement, 3Key was to be the club’s {{AOPEN_5}}official regional partner{{ACLOSE_5}}. It involved marketing collaborations, with plans for joint promotions and events.

3Key positions itself as a provider of technology-analytics solutions and consulting in the DeFi space. However, the public has raised several questions about the firm.

According to The Times, founder {{AOPEN_6}}Oliver Chen{{ACLOSE_6}} stated that the company was “a startup at the stage of a product they will launch in the coming months” and that the partnership with the club was aimed at regions outside the United Kingdom.

CEO statements list four other top executives at 3Key, but there are no public references to them online. The company has a website and a page on Twitter, but there is no information proving its legal status.

Daily Mail journalist Martin Calladine attempted to locate the individuals named by Chen. He managed to reach the head of the company, who promised to provide corroborating information within 24 hours. He then asked for another 24 hours, but missed that deadline.

At this stage, the only explanation that now makes sense to me is that 3Key simply isn’t an authentic firm. How City came to partner with them remains unclear.
3/

— Martin Calladine (@uglygame) November 19, 2021

According to Daily Mail journalist Martin Calladine, Manchester City has paused product launches tied to the partnership until it is satisfied that all regulatory requirements are met. The club will continue examining 3Key’s activities.

Manchester City suspend partnership with «3Key», a start-up cryptocurrency firm whose executives do not seem to appear on internet searches. Partnership was announced last week. pic.twitter.com/Hi02Z2IxAR

— Jack Gaughan (@Jack_Gaughan) November 19, 2021

In May 2021, Manchester City released a NFT collection to mark the club’s Premier League title.

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