Egypt-based football club Al Ahly joins FIFA’s NFT marketplace
Al Ahly Football Club becomes the first African football club to join FIFA Collect
Egypt’s Al Ahly FC has become the first African football club to join FIFA Collect, the global football NFT marketplace launched by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
The club plans to offer digital collectibles to its fans as part of efforts to grow its digital presence and fan engagement.
The details
- FIFA announced the development in a blog post on the FIFA Collect website last week, adding that it was honored to have one of the world’s most successful clubs on its collectibles platform.
- With the partnership, Al Ahly will now list digital items representing its identity, history and players on the FIFA Collect platform for purchase by its fans.
Key quote
- Amir Tawfik, Al Ahly’s CEO, said:
“Our collaboration with FIFA Collect ... marks a pivotal step in our digital transformation strategy by introducing a new dimension of fan engagement that is immersive, innovative, and global. Through FIFA Collect, fans can own a piece of Al Ahly history, access exclusive digital collectibles, and celebrate key moments from the club’s iconic journey — all in a way that feels personal and modern.”
Some background
- FIFA launched its NFT marketplace FIFA Collect in partnership with blockchain software firm Modex in 2023.
- The platform digitizes iconic football-related moments and items belonging to football clubs and national teams.
- These digitized art forms are then put on sale on FIFA Collect for football lovers to purchase, own and trade iconic historical pieces from the football teams they love.
- At its launch in 2023, FIFA issued some of its NFT collectibles on the Polygon network and the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
- At the moment, the FIFA Collect platform is hosted on the Algorand blockchain. However, the football body has signified imminent plans to migrate to its own Ethereum-compatible FIFA blockchain before the end of the month.
