Crypto Bros bought an English football team. It’s not going well.

The small town of Crawley in West Sussex is not synonymous with football in the same way as Manchester or Barcelona. It was the childhood home of England manager Gareth Southgate who played alongside 2005 X Factor winner Chico at the school, but beyond that Crawley is not known worldwide for its footballing pedigree.

Full disclosure: I grew up there. My PE teacher, Mr Bagnall, even used to play for Crawley Town FC. But I was never a fan – the only time I saw them play, they conceded four goals in 22 minutes.

In April 2022, Crawley Town caught my attention again when they were bought by WAGMI United after failing to buy Bradford City – WAGMI stands for “We’re All Gonna Make It”, a popular slogan in crypto circles. They are a consortium of American businessmen and web3 investors with no previous experience in football, including influencer Gary Vaynerchuk and Daryl Morey, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers.

WAGMI bought Crawley around the same time the NFT market started to fall and crypto investors turned to assets in the real world for stability. “We tried to use all the hype of the NFT boom. These online communities formed and people gathered and we thought, what if we bought these people a professional sports team?” explains Preston Johnson, WAGMI co-owner and former ESPN gambling analyst, from his home in America. “There were a lot of projects and companies that came out built on hype and really that’s all there was. It was empty promises and hype.”

Johnson tells VICE that they wanted to give the crypto community something tangible “that people can gather around every Saturday and root for.” They made great promises; promises to make Crawley “the internet’s soccer team”, give fans a meaningful voice, reinvent the broken way sports clubs are managed and boldly take League Two Crawley all the way to the Premier League.

“How?” you might ask. Have they discovered a strange trick the FA hates? Well no. As it turns out, running a football club is more difficult than they thought. American crypto bros parachuting into a League Two club and taking them to the Premier League has gone about as well as you’d expect. Nine months, four managers and half a season in and Crawley sit near the bottom of the table, fighting relegation.

Crawley Town owner and WAGMI United founder Preston Johnson (left), watches a match. Photo: Simon Dack / Telephotos / Alamy Stock Photo

Two weeks after taking over, manager John Yems was suspended for racial abuse, which Johnson seems to blame for all his current woes. But this was followed by a litany of unforced errors that paint a picture of overconfident Americans biting off more than they can chew. Either it is sell his star striker to a relegation rival or accidentally transferred with the entire squadLeague Two fans have seen this saga unfold, thank their lucky stars WAGMI didn’t buy their club.

WAGMI’s big idea is to mint NFTs to democratize the club to bring in money. They say they have sold 10,200 of these NFTs, raising around $5 million. Holders get a customizable image of the Red Devil mascot, an exclusive all-black kit and voting rights alongside season ticket holders. In their first and only vote, fans were given the chance to decide which position they would sign next and chose a midfielder.

This is apparently the future of football. WAGMI is convinced that blockchain technology will revolutionize the world and believes they are pioneers in this regard. “I think in five to ten years, most industries will use NFTS via blockchain first in some way, just because it’s more efficient,” Johnson predicts.

City, University of London lecturers Dr Andrea Baronchelli and Dr Francesc Rodriguez Tous warn that relying on NFTs to boost earnings could putting Crawley’s finances at risk: “The father […] there is no guarantee of long-term sustainability when it comes to raising funds, and if the project eventually collapses or slows down they will have little else in the way of raising capital.”

WAGMI is reinventing the wheel when it comes to democratizing football too. League One Exeter City has a supporters’ trust which bought around 54 per cent of the club in 2003 and has voting rights with the club’s board (Jeremy Corbyn proposed a similar idea in the 2019 general election). In Germany, clubs are required to have 51 percent of the club owned by fans, something more than 60 MPs called for in England last year. Supporters may not be able to vote on which player to sign next, but they have power over their club without having to buy NFTs.

WAGMI have been so focused on disrupting football that they have gradually alienated local fans with decisions including touchline favorites such as goalkeeper Glenn Morris and hiring Arsenal U23 manager Kevin Betsy, who managed one win in 12 league games before being sacked.

Other ideas have been labeled disrespectful. Last October, ahead of two important cup games, without a manager and struggling in the league, the owners flew into the UK. Instead of watching Crawley, WAGMI scouted the sidemen playing in a charity match the YouTubers had organised. The YouTubers were then invited to train with the squad and if they did well, play in the upcoming FA Cup match. One of the sidemen, Simon Minter, later revealed that they were indeed told they could play in the game if they wanted, but declined, knowing how they would feel if their club did the same.

Preston explains that this was a publicity stunt to “reposition ourselves as unique and different and non-traditional”, but fans were less than impressed. The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and one in which Crawley has a proud history. “Well, let me tell you, it started. It was like they were completely blind to what was going on, says Nathan, a lifelong fan in his twenties. He is speaking anonymously as he is worried about being banned from matches by WAGMI. – It is disrespectful to the players. It destroys the integrity of the cup because then anyone can rock up and play.”

From then on, the situation spiraled. In November, interim manager Lewis Young quit after eight years’ service when he was told he would not be offered the job permanently. Their next manager then resigned before a game against Stevenage after 34 days in charge. After being knocked out of the FA and League Cups, managerless again and staring at relegation, fans were furious at the end of December.

As if waving a red rag at a bull, Johnson flew in for the Stevenage game and joined the coaching staff in the dugout to show his support. Fans had been asking for meetings with the owners for weeks, and here one was sitting right in front of them.

Johnson says this is a decision he doesn’t regret, but supporters were boiling; the one time he left the bench he was met with angry taunts of “Sit down, shut up”. Later on Guardian reported that he had to ask an official how replacements work — something Preston denies. “He just looked like an absolute wally,” Nathan recalls.

Despite saying he understands fans’ frustrations — some WAGMI owners have received death threats — Johnson sees a funny side to it. “The day after the Stevenage match the World Darts Championship was on TV and someone was caught holding a ‘WAGMI out’ sign. Like at the darts championship, it’s fun. I think it’s so funny.”

Supporters of teams in lower leagues are not in it for the glory that comes with being a Premier League fan. They are there because they love their local club. IN IDaniel Storey previously wrote about his arrest at his beloved Bradford City can be “used as a petri dish, a real version of Football manager that you can quit without saving” by WAGMI. Unfortunately, his worst fears have come true for Crawley fans.

In 2021, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham FC, who currently sit in the league under Crawley. Nathan thinks WAGMI should take a leaf out of their book. “The fans were very skeptical, but they sat down with them and won them over.”

“It’s a tone-deaf arrogance … so many lies and empty promises,” he says. “If you’re going to try to repair any relationship, you need to start doing it now because it gets ugly very quickly. The WAGMI Out group is growing every day.” Popular podcast Football walk was more forthcoming with his advice. These crypto brothers, the hosts said, should realize “there’s only one option, and that’s to fuck”.