Chelsea & Premier League investigating after legends John Terry & Ashley Cole use club’s badge & trophy in NFTs
CHELSEA are reportedly investigating after John Terry and Ashley Cole used the clubs badge in non-fungible tokens shared online.
The Blues legends have also reportedly drawn the attention of the Premier League after including digital versions of trophies in images shared online.
Dozens of footballers and celebrities have been jumping on the cryptocurrency world craze by creating their own personalised NFTs.
NFTs are digital artworks which have a unique code, meaning that they can only be owned by one person.
Blues legend Terry, who works as a consultant for the club at academy level, has been promoting NFTs which he owns featuring cartoons of baby monkeys on his Twitter page.
In one NFT owned by the ex-England captain, a blue monkey - wearing a captain's armband as Terry did 580 times for Chelsea - is surrounded by several trophies, including the Premier League's which is protected by a trademark.
Meanwhile Cole has retweeted an image of an NFT that featured the Premier League trophy.
A licensing agreement with the Premier League is required for the competition's trophy to be used in any commercial venture.
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Both Terry and Cole have been promoting the images, which also include the club's badge and kits - which protected by intellectual property law because of a trademark.
It is understood that none of the art is affiliated with the club, or either competition in any way.
The Premier League are seeking advice from their lawyers, MailOnline reported.
UEFA are also investigating the matter after discovering that both illustrations of the Champions League and Europa League trophies have been used in the NFTs.
NFTs are approximately sold at 0.05 Ethereum (ETH), which is currently priced at £93.79, plus an additional transaction fee.
They are limited edition virtual items which can be bought and sold – but have their own unique code so copies cannot be made.
It works as a certification for ownership of a physical asset which means the NFT will effectively function like a rare trading card.
The NFT can take the form of a digital image, video file or other virtual asset and is unique, meaning if you buy one, you're the only person with it.
However the use of trademarked images in the digitised artworks could cause a legal headache for the footballers.
The Premier League are understood to be liaising with their lawyers over the matter.
'INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS'
A UEFA spokesman told the Athletic: “UEFA takes the protection of its intellectual property rights seriously and we are investigating this matter further. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.”
The ex-England teammates have both been endorsing the “Ape Kids Club” NFTs on their social media.
The Ape Kids Club NFTs are an off-shoot of the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" that has risen to prominence in America.
Eminem has spent $461,868 (£342,000) on a digital illustration of the cartoon ape for himself.
Blues full back Reece James has also promoted his own “Mutant Ape” purchase, while Terry has linked Jack Wilshere, Willian and Marco Verratti while promoting his NFTs.
According to the Telegraph, Cole has not yet entered into a contract with the creators of "Ape Kids Club".
However the former left back retweeted an image of an NFT that included an illustrated image of the Premier League trophy.
Ex-Manchester United ace Wayne Rooney has also joined in on the NFT craze by selling digital artwork of himself for £40 each.
Cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance tokens can be extremely volatile, so your cash can go down as well as up in the blink of an eye.
Investing is not a guaranteed way to make money, so make sure you know the risks and can afford to lose the money.
Interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple has soared in the past few months.
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Bitcoin's value has been boosted and hit record highs in 2021 after receiving backing from Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The Sun has contacted Chelsea and the Premier League for comment.
What is an NFT?
Here's a simple guide...
- NFTs are a hot new tradable item taking the internet by storm
- The letters NFT stand for "non-fungible token"
- If something is "fungible", it can be traded for an identical counterpart
- For instance, Bitcoin is technically fungible – you can swap one for another, and have the same thing
- Physical cash is also fungible – you could trade one £10 note for another
- An NFT is a totally unique digital token with no copies
- Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, NFTs work using a blockchain
- A blockchain is a public ledger of transactions recorded across the internet – and is totally unalterable
- The NFTs on the blockchain can be traded like Bitcoin, but they're unique by design
- This gives them a special value, because each NFT is individual and unique
- You can turn almost any kind of data into an NFT
- People are selling digital artworks, songs and even tweets in NFT form
- More elaborate NFT sales include virtual trainers/sneakers and even a virtual house
- Importantly, NFTs are not physical – so if you buy an NFT object, you're just owning a part of the blockchain and NOT a physical item
