Crawley Town: US cryptocurrency investors WAGMI United complete takeover of club
- Published
WAGMI United LLC failed in a takeover bid of Bradford in December, before turning their attention to fellow League Two club Crawley
League Two club Crawley Town have been taken over by a group of US cryptocurrency investors.
WAGMI United LLC last year failed in a takeover bid of Bradford City, where they had aimed to rely on non-fungible tokens [NFTs] as an ownership model.
The group said it wants to "empower fans to take a personal stake in telling their team's story and shaping its future" at Crawley.
The Reds are 13th in England's fourth tier, with 51 points from 39 games.
The club's chairman and owner Ziya Eren, and chief executive Erdem Konyar, are to leave the board with WAGMI co-founders Preston Johnson and Eben Smith taking over.
"Crawley Town Football Club is a club with more than 125 years of rich history that we revere and respect," said Johnson., external
"However, a conventional approach to ownership hasn't worked and the club is losing hundreds of thousands of pounds while its fans suffer through year after year of uninspiring results on the pitch.
"We're going to shake up the status quo, try out some new ideas, and build a worldwide community of fans new and old that can be excited to cheer on the Red Devils together - stretching from West Sussex to anywhere in the world with an internet connection."
Johnson and Smith will assume roles as club directors and have also pledged to allow fans to decide if they continue in those roles, should they fail to achieve promotion to League One by the end of their second season - a target which they say is "about 50/50".
It is not clear whether the group intends to introduce NFTs at Crawley, in the way that was intended at Bradford.
Daryl Morey, president of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and TikTok personality Bryce Hall are all part of the group.
First team manager John Yems said: "This is an exciting time for the club.
"Let's hope that we can continue the good progress we have made and take the club forward."