In a scruffy prefab at West Ham United’s coaching floor a bunch of unlikely lads are being primped and primed for a glamorous picture shoot. They are attempting out three new kits, sponsored by Umbro, in preparation for a tour of the US. Midfielder James Stevens has misplaced round 50lb over the previous yr – he’s solely 17 stone now.
Skinny balding winger Faisal Manji, who works as an funding adviser, has change into one thing of a intercourse image in latest months. Faisal and James play for a staff referred to as Hashtag United, which is mainly a bunch of previous schoolmates, a few of whom couldn’t get of their native Sunday League groups, with a number of luxurious add-ons (two ageing semi-professionals).
Hashtag United play actual soccer in an imaginary league and their matches are watched on YouTube by upwards of half one million folks – figures that the majority skilled groups wouldn’t dare dream of. The YouTube channel that exhibits their matches has virtually two million subscribers. Welcome to the weird new world of soccer.
Hashtag is a riposte to the decadent certainties of Premier League soccer, a surreal collision of sweaty custom and digital expertise that represents one thing very completely different to the fare on provide from soccer’s moneyed elite. Football is altering – and never in a means that might have been predicted or in a means that’s simply defined. Hashtag is the brainchild of Spencer Owen, a failed standup comedian who made his title offering soccer content material on YouTube – to the uninitiated, offering content material merely means telling and exhibiting folks stuff.
Owen is a likeable, fast-talking, wise-cracker who comes throughout as a bit extra of a geezer than he really is. He already had a million followers on his YouTube channel, Spencer FC, earlier than he dreamed up Hashtag United. The thought was as ingenious because it was barmy. Owen was satisfied that common folks wish to watch common gamers (ie roughly of their very own capacity) play common video games. He believed that we might relate to plumbers, attorneys, bankers and salesmen extra simply than we do to right now’s cossetted superstars.
So he determined that his new staff would play in a good stadium and be filmed to professional-ish requirements, and the match can be edited to a 20-minute highlights bundle for the world’s delectation. Most of his mates thought he had misplaced the plot, however it will be fun – they usually wished to play soccer. “Some people were like: ‘What an idiot, why are you paying all that money to film your mates playing average football?’ And I was like: ‘No I’m trying to build something here.’”
His mates hadn’t heard the half of it. Owen then informed them that they might play in a digital league primarily based on the pc recreation Fifa. Each season would consists of 10 video games, through which they might play groups with a typical theme – for instance, Sunday League groups and workers groups {of professional} golf equipment. They would begin in division 5 with the last word purpose of ending prime of division one. In division 5 they would wish 18 factors (ie six wins) to be promoted, whereas they would wish 24 factors to win division one.
So far so complicated? To additional complicate issues there can be no different groups of their league – the groups they selected to play wouldn’t be competing for factors, just for the glory of beating Hashtag United and being watched on YouTube. In different phrases, they might compete in a league of their very own – going up and down imaginary divisions relying on their outcomes.
To these of us used to conventional soccer, it’s laborious to get our head round. To most younger folks (notably boys) it makes good sense. This is simply the pc recreation Fifa delivered to life. Even extra astonishing than the idea is the truth that it has taken off. And how. Hashtag’s latest tour of America was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Owen insists Hashtag isn’t making a revenue as a result of the prices for every match (hiring the stadium, six cameramen, touring and so on) are so excessive and in the intervening time they’re investing all of the income again into the membership, however he admits that a number of the sponsorship offers run into six figures.
Like many soccer followers, Owen grew to become disillusioned with the elite recreation. “I have fallen out of love with it in recent years, on the back of the Fifa scandals and Qatar getting the World Cup and Russia getting it and keeping it despite their civil rights violations and homophobic behaviour. I feel the people in charge of our game should be standing up for us more and they don’t.”
He talks about breakaway golf equipment reminiscent of AFC Wimbledon and FC United that had been born out of followers’ despair with the golf equipment they as soon as cherished. But Hashtag, he says, wished to go a stage additional. “For me they’ve only done half the job because they’ve just dropped lower down the system which is still run by the guys who only care about money. Why not have a second system, which might not be about elite football but is there because we love the game?”
Even Owen struggles to clarify Hashtag’s success. At the start of every video he addresses the viewer: “Hello mate!” Perhaps that is the key. It feels that the present is individually tailor-made for every of us on the market. He tells me a narrative about when he was interviewing the Real Madrid and Wales star Gareth Bale.
“It was the day after Wales secured qualification for the Euros so Gareth Bale was the king of Wales at this level, all people wished to see him. They had invited a number of 15- and 16-year-old lads to come back down they usually got here operating on to the pitch and I assumed: ‘Oh God, Gareth is going to get swamped,’ they usually ran straight previous Gareth and got here to me. This isn’t me telling you this to boast, I used to be critically embarrassed by it.
“I said: ‘What the heck are you doing? Gareth Bale is here.’ Then one of them said to me: ‘Yeah but Gareth’s a footballer, you’re our mate.’ And I thought I kinda get it. Cos even me when I meet these footballers they are untouchable. No disrespect to Gareth Bale, who’s lovely, but you get five minutes with them, his agent is over your shoulder all the time checking what you’re saying, you’ve got to send the video to them afterwards for approval, and you feel you’re talking to a media-trained machine.” The humorous factor is Hashtag United additionally ask if they’ll see the video the Guardian is making about them earlier than it’s broadcast. We politely decline.
Hashtag United are usually not the one profitable YouTube staff. Last month, a charity match between Sidemen FC (a staff made up of video-gamers) and YouTube Allstars sold out Charlton Athletic’s 27,000-capacity Valley Stadium. Its typical occupants had barely managed to draw half that determine all season within the EFL.
Fifa 2.0
Fifa, soccer’s disgraced governing physique, accepts that the game is altering. Last October the brand new head of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, unveiled his imaginative and prescient for the way forward for world soccer. It was referred to as Fifa 2.0. This was Infantino, and Fifa, trying to wipe the slate clear – neglect Sepp Blatter’s regime, neglect the World Cups that landed in Russia and Qatar, neglect the bribes and corruption that poisoned the bidding processes for the 1998 (France), 2006 (Germany) and 2010 (South Africa) World Cups, we’re beginning once more. Football underneath Infantino can be greater, higher and richer than ever earlier than – oh sure, and cleaner. Only Fifa would dare give you such a hubristic title (the implication being that the reborn Fifa in contrast in scale with the second-generation web Web 2.0).
And but on the identical time there was one thing becoming concerning the title. Fifa 2.Zero acknowledged that digital expertise had modified how we watch, help and play soccer. Nowadays we have a tendency to look at it after we need to, and we work together it with it on our phrases. As Web 2.Zero grew to become outlined by user-generated content material and the expansion of social media, so has soccer.
Rather than simply watching it and listening to consultants hold forth, we’d somewhat chat amongst ourselves on Twitter and Facebook, cross on our pearls of footy knowledge on our personal YouTube channels, and even inhabit Ronaldo’s and Messi’s boots in digital video games that imitate the true factor. The thought of Fifa 2.Zero displays a really actual risk – that soccer as we all know it may very well be subsumed by the web, and overtaken by its digital model.
A small part of Fifa 2.Zero is devoted to the enlargement of eSports. Fifa is the joint licence holder of the eponymous video game (with its producer EA Sports), performed on computer systems by tens of hundreds of thousands worldwide. Fifa 2.Zero talks concerning the digital recreation’s success, and suggests that is solely the beginning. Competition within the digital recreation is changing into as fierce as in the true recreation – for standing and cash.
In 2016, greater than 2.3m players participated within the Fifa Interactive World Cup, with the winner receiving $25,000 in money. This determine is prone to mushroom over the subsequent few years. But what Fifa has its eyes on isn’t a lot its personal recreation as the opposite bigger, much more worthwhile eSports that now entice enormous dwell audiences. It mentions, with a touch of envy, that the 2014 League Of Legends World Championship on the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Korea drew 40,000 folks, “more than the typical English Premier League match”. The part on eSports concludes with the promise of ever larger bounty: “As the world of gaming expands, Fifa has a tremendous opportunity to mimic the production of global events on the pitch with enhanced production of virtual Fifa competitions.”
But some professionals see eSports as a menace. When the Premier League’s govt chairman, Richard Scudamore, was requested which league or sport he noticed as the primary competitor to the Premier League he replied digital gaming. He questioned aloud whether or not conventional sport may proceed to have interaction younger folks in the identical means interactive eSports had been doing.
While Hashtag United have been attracting greater than half one million to their matches on YouTube, figures for dwell soccer on pay per view have fallen – the numbers watching Premier League matches on Sky Sports had been down 11% on the midway mark of 2016-17 in contrast with the earlier season, and Sky’s figures have fallen 25% since 2010.
Sure, the digital choices are having an affect. But there’s something else at play, too. Disenchantment – the working man’s recreation that’s not accessible to the working man or girl, the most cost effective Arsenal season ticket costing £891 (really a reduce of £123 as a result of the membership did not qualify for the Champions League), Paul Pogba being transferred to Manchester United for £93.2m 4 years after being given a free switch, Lionel Messi not paying his taxes. As digital expertise has given us a voice, the world of elite soccer has change into ever extra alien. Football was fashioned and codified within the 19th century. And it nonetheless works on the 19th/20th-century mannequin of giving (a product) and taking (our cash). But that doesn’t work for the younger era.
Unsurprisingly, younger folks don’t relate to the lives of footballers. More worrying, many younger folks don’t even relate to the lives of conventional followers who go to soccer matches. The thought of shelling out a minimal of £30 to look at a Premier League match is each bit as alien as Pogba’s switch charge. Who must go to soccer or put money into Sky and BT Sport after we can live-stream matches totally free, compensate for highlights in actual time on our iPhones, and play extra attention-grabbing simulacres of the true factor on our computer systems?
‘Don’t Forget To Be Awesome’
Over in South London supporter-owned AFC Wimbledon is prospering. The membership was based 15 years in the past by irate followers of Wimbledon FC after the membership determined to relocate to Milton Keynes, 56 miles north of Wimbledon. AFC began with folks shopping for season tickets for a membership that didn’t but exist, made its debut within the ninth tier of soccer and is now gliding stratospherically within the third tier of English soccer. More unbelievable, although, is that this scrap of a membership, with its old style followers and old style values, is on the reducing fringe of the digital revolution. Like Hashtag United, AFC Wimbledon is the embodiment of Football 2.0.
The membership is funded by the American writer and Fifa participant/commentator John Green. What’s extra the digital model of AFC Wimbledon, a staff Green created generally known as the Wimbly Womblys, subsidises the true factor. Ivor Heller, the membership’s industrial director, talks concerning the first time Green made contact with him. AFC followers had introduced an enormous anti-homophobia banner to the earlier dwelling match and it went viral.
The New York Times printed an image of it, which Green noticed. He had already clocked AFC Wimbledon, admiring the way in which it had come into existence as an act of fan solidarity and revolt in opposition to corporatism. “He loved the fact that we had started from ground level zero. We had absolutely nothing. We had no ground, no league to play in, but we still raised £80,000 in a week by saying if we get money we’ll start a club.”
Heller is a tiny robust man, with a touch of Joe Pesci and a way of the absurd. Which he has wanted. “John said he had a way of funding sponsorship by a YouTube channel and I didn’t even know what a YouTube channel was at the time. I certainly didn’t know people were making money out of making films about themselves. Then when he said he was going to play Fifa and change the name to Wimbly Womblys, I was like: ‘OK I know you need an imagination to be an author, but surely this is potty.’” Green took the guts of the AFC Wimbledon staff to create the Wimbly Womblys and added a few surprises. “He’s got two John Greens in there who are married to each other so all the time he’s thinking about breaking down stereotypes.”
John Green’s followers are referred to as Nerd Fighters. Heller explains that they’re real nerds, championing fellow nerds and underdogs. Hence the attraction of a membership like AFC. Green requested the Nerd Fighters to design a brand for AFC Wimbledon, they usually got here up with the not solely catchy Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. The brand was added to their package, with a DFTBA badge on their shorts. For AFC Wimbledon there’s a virtuous circle between the true and digital worlds. The DFTBA brand has now been included into Green’s digital Wimbly Womblys with its pair of married John Greens.
Priced out
Now the massive boys are attempting to get in on the act. Many of Europe’s largest soccer groups have began to put money into digital groups. Schalke, Ajax and Wolfsburg are a number of of the groups who’ve signed up their very own e-footballers. The French Professional Football League, in partnership with EA Sports, introduced the primary European eSports soccer league final yr — e-Ligue 1. Paris Saint-Germain are main the way in which, having signed up an entire squad of e-footballers.
Manchester City, in contrast, have simply began to dip just a little toe into the world of eSports, with a single signing, Kez Brown. But they’re nonetheless forward of the sport in contrast with most different Premier League golf equipment. Apart from City, solely West Ham United have signed an e-footballer.
British soccer golf equipment, particularly, are anxious concerning the ageing profile of energetic supporters. In 2014-15, the typical age of grownup followers attending a Premier League match was 41. To put this in context, the average age of supporters on the Stretford End at Manchester United’s Old Trafford was 17 in 1968. Not surprisingly, there’s a direct correlation between the age of followers attending matches and the astronomical rise in costs. In 1992, the final season of the previous First Division, the average ticket price was £7.56, whereas the typical value of the most cost effective Premier League ticket in 2015 was £30.95 (inflation of 401% whereas the cumulative inflation charge within the UK for the 23 years is 91%).
Going digital
Diego Gigliani is senior vice-president of media and innovation at City Football Group. Like most individuals related to right now’s world City, he’s sensible and urbane. We meet on the prime of a glass skycraper within the centre of London. This is the worldwide headquarters of City Football Marketing and it couldn’t be additional faraway from the back-to-back-terrace homes of Maine Road, which was Manchester City’s dwelling for 80 years. But that is City Football Group, the holding firm – not merely Manchester City. City is the model, and Manchester City are simply one in all its golf equipment alongside New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos and Uruguay’s Club Athletico Torque.
Like all folks on the enterprise finish of soccer, he worries about the place the subsequent era of followers will come from. He has to search out new methods to draw followers – after which have interaction them. Engagement is the phrase that everyone returns to, whether or not at Hashtag United or Manchester City. The apparent means of participating is thru social media – so soccer golf equipment encourage gamers to make use of social media to create a way of shared house with followers.
But these interactions are for the already transformed. The greater query is how one can entice followers who’ve by no means heard of Manchester City. And that is the place Kez Brown is available in. “In the US many kids start liking the professional football game by playing the console-based game,” Gigliani says. “We thought a natural next step was to have a player representing Manchester City in competitive gaming tournaments.”
Gigliani hopes that youngsters enjoying Fifa will begin supporting Manchester City once they see that Brown represents City in main Fifa tournaments. “We see it as an opportunity because we know people engage in Fifa the game and the players and take more interest in the league as a result. It’s a fundamental premise of how fan creation can begin and develop. You may start to follow a club then you become expert on the players and their strengths by interacting with the game every day.”
One of the attention-grabbing issues concerning the prime Fifa gamers is that they are typically media pleasant – many like Brown have their very own YouTube channels and are extra relaxed speaking to the general public than actual footballers. Not surprisingly, in addition they are typically extra accessible than prime Premier League gamers.
But I’ve been attempting to speak to Brown for months, and every time I ask Manchester City give you one other excuse – he lives in York, he’s shy, he’s younger, he doesn’t like doing media.
I say to Gigliani that it’s simpler to get an interview with Manchester City supervisor Pep Guardiola than their eSports star, and ask why that is so. Gigliani is about to reply when the press officer steps in and insists we modify the topic.
So I do change the topic – and ask whether or not Brown can be anticipated to make use of Manchester City gamers when representing City. No, Gigliani says, he’s free to make use of whichever gamers he likes. In Fifa Ultimate, the gamers with most worth are typically the good legends reminiscent of Pelé. How does he suppose followers would react if Brown had been to signal, say, George Best and Bobby Charlton to move up the assault? Gigliani laughs. “Mmmm. Difficult question …”
Again the press officer intervenes. I seem to have hit a nerve. “This isn’t how the game works right,” he says. But it’s precisely how the sport works, I say. “He plays in a Manchester City kit as Manchester City. Can we move on?”
Now I’m actually bewildered. We are speaking about the potential of avatars of veteran Manchester United gamers representing Manchester City in a digital recreation, and I’m being closed down as a result of the query is just too delicate. Manchester City is my membership, I’ve loved the success cash has introduced, however absolutely that is the form of company management that’s driving followers away from elite soccer?
I resolve to look elsewhere for a prime e-footballer to speak to, and some days later find yourself in a sleepy west London suburb on the dwelling of Tassal Rushan, higher generally known as Hashtag Tass.
Tass is a brilliant younger man with phenomenally nimble fingers and a huge footballing mind. Put the 2 collectively, and also you get an e-footballer who performs the sport how Guardiola would love his Manchester City facet to play – quick, intricate, with one-twos and triangles performed from goalkeeper to the six-yard field until a ahead scores with a tap-in.
Tass performs for Hashtag United. That’s one other factor about this topsy-turvy new soccer world. Hashtag United may be a jumped-up Sunday League staff however they’ve already signed up numerous the world’s greatest e-footballers to play for them as a result of they perceive the digital world so significantly better than conventional soccer golf equipment. Tass is paid £1500 a month to signify Hashtag they usually take a share of his winnings. Hashtag United may be all about reclaiming the grassroots in the case of actual soccer, however in the case of the digital model that is huge enterprise.
Tass’s mom tells me she thinks she has failed as a result of he’s enjoying Fifa as a substitute of going to school. But she additionally realises that her son is doing remarkably nicely for himself. In January, he received 119 out of 120 video games (“That one defeat still itches at me”), was ranked No1 on this planet and was topped regional champion in Paris, successful $30,000.
Make no mistake, it is a full-time job. Between Friday and Sunday each week he performs 40 league video games on his Xbox One – taking over between six and eight hours every day. He takes Mondays off, then practises on the opposite days.
This is a high-pressured world the place you’ll be able to fall from grace with a single defeat. In May’s Fifa 17 Ultimate Team Championship Final in Berlin, the place the highest prize rose to $120,000, Tass was crushed within the semi-final. He had one final probability final weekend to qualify for the Fifa Interactive World Cup on dwelling territory in London this August and secured a spot, incomes a possibility to win a prime prize of $200,000 – the largest ever prize. Hashtag United get 15% of his winnings.
Tass was a promising younger footballer who modelled himself on Thierry Henry. But, like so most of the folks I converse to, he grew to become disillusioned with the sport – not due to the cash and inaccessibility however due to its emphasis on brute energy. “There’s a certain mould of player that Sunday league coaches always want you to fit; being big, being strong, not looking at technical ability first.”
Little surprise he was drawn to Fifa the place he may very well be as technical as he favored. Tass is a typical millennial. Rather than merely consuming soccer passively as we did up to now, he regards himself as a pro-sumer or co-creator. He doesn’t need to merely watch his favorite footballers on the tv, he desires to manage them on his console.
As we speak, he performs in his tiny bed room, offering a operating commentary. “Ooh, Gullit’s injured. But that’s standard. This is a goal. Oooooh! I’m making false promises.” And on a regular basis you hear the click-click-clicking of his console. “Ooh! Nice. How’s he got that? Jesus! Not too bad! There we go. That was a driven shot, where the ball gets hit low and hard rather than a normal shot … oh he’s left! He’s rage quit.” Rage quitting is when gamers cease mid-game as a result of they’ve had sufficient.
Watching him, I start to grasp why eSports is taken into account by many to be a daily sport – it’s all about hand-eye coordination. The pace of his recreation is astonishing as is the variety of issues he has to consider concurrently. Tas, who’s 22, says he most likely peaked by way of response time at 17 or 18, however his expertise provides him the sting over most different gamers. He provides his life to the sport, and is exhausted. “For the past four years I’ve been putting the hours in, trying to be the best and it takes a mental toll on you. It’s a 24/7 mental worry.” Does he get bored? “Yes, I honestly do. Maybe I do miss out on things in life.”
Does he contemplate himself to be a sportsman? “If other people want to say that I don’t mind that at all.” In a technique, he says, he is aware of he’s not a daily sportsman – he has by no means been much less match. “In recent years, I’ve not really been doing any exercise. It’s not healthy, particularly when you’re sitting still in a position for so long. I’m not happy about it.”
What he’s pleased about is the professionalisaion of eSports. Tass says investing in Fifa gamers makes good sense for the highest soccer golf equipment – probably enormous returns for a tiny funding. “There is a percentage of people who play Fifa who don’t enjoy the real game so it would be bringing them in, saying: ‘Look we’re supporting your game.’ It’s engaging with a younger generation.” Would he be tempted if a prime staff got here in for him? “I can’t comment as I play for Hashtag United,” he says coyly. He focuses on the sport. “That was a decent goal! Finally! My opponent was getting a bit dizzy off the build-up, he thought we weren’t going anywhere, then one pass to Messi and Ronaldo finishes it.”
At 22, Hashtag Tass is already pondering of life post-Fifa. “After the age of 25 I’d assume I wouldn’t want to carry on doing it, even if I’m still winning.” I ask him what his final ambition is, anticipating him to say that he desires to win the Interactive World Cup. But he’s planning means forward of that. “Being a successful YouTuber would be the long-term goal.” Tass began his YouTube channel a number of months in the past, offering suggestions and commentary on Fifa. He already has greater than 100,000 subscribers.
In February it was introduced that Fifa matches can be proven on tv for the primary time, and in April BT Sport started to broadcast the Fifa Ultimate Team Championship Series. Last month Tottenham Hotspur introduced that they had been investing in eSports – not gamers this time, services. The new Spurs stadium will host main eSports occasions (the whole lot from Fifa to the common shoot-em-up occasions), with the hope that they are going to entice capability crowds and earn as much as £3m per occasion.
Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport Enterprise at Salford University, thinks it’s inevitable that digital soccer goes to change into an enormous spectator sport. “As the 21st century progresses I think the digital version of tournaments is going to be as big as if not bigger than the physical version of the tournaments.”
‘There’s no love’
This new soccer world is messing with my head – the combination of the true and the digital, the Sunday League gamers with the profitable Coca-Cola sponsorship, the era of Fifa stars enjoying for enormous sums who by no means go away their chairs, the Premier League golf equipment scared to reply questions concerning the potential lineup of their digital staff, the true staff funded by their digital avatars, the younger youngsters who can replicate one of the best of Messi however have by no means performed in a park themselves.
Back at Hashtag United, Spencer Owen can be pondering of the long run – and how one can develop his soccer membership. We are actually in a gymnasium with a bunch of hopefuls who’re competing for the best to hitch the Hashtag staff. This is Hashtag’s Got Talent meets the X-Factor. Incredibly, there have been 20,000 candidates – most of them much better than these enjoying for Hashtag and plenty of signed as much as soccer academies – and now they’ve whittled the numbers right down to the final eight.
When I converse to the boys I can inform they’ve been handpicked by Owen and his crew – they’re good lads, with a little bit of character and the ambition to change into YouTube stars in the event that they don’t make it in soccer. And like Owen most really feel alienated from the elite recreation.
Seventeen-year-old Jack Durkin says: “There’s no love, no loyalty in professional football. It’s all business based. I do A-level PE so I know about the money side. I’d love to be a professional footballer, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to be portrayed as a bad person – I want to be seen as a role model.” Durkin ultimately finishes runner-up and fails to get a spot within the Hashtag squad.
There is one thing so refreshing about watching these youngsters encourage one another even when they know that finally solely one in all them can win the prize. As an alternative choice to the cut-throat world of the Premier League, it couldn’t be extra interesting.
And but on the identical time there’s something else happening – one thing extra understanding. Yes Spencer Owen is reclaiming soccer’s grassroots, however he’s additionally repackaging it for the digital age. In its personal means, the Hashtag model is each bit as subtle as that of Manchester City. Just go to the web site to have a look at the membership’s merchandising. Indeed, Owen is usually the person the massive golf equipment go to for recommendation on how one can conquer the digital world.
Owen’s brother, Seb Carmichael-Brown, performs in midfield for Hashtag and is the membership’s industrial director. He is aware of precisely why Hashtag has attracted sponsors reminiscent of Coca-Cola. “Eyeballs, simple. People are now consuming video format. They are switching off from television. The Wall Street Journal shows even over 18-year-olds are dropping 30% year-by-year on hours watching television. So it would be eyewatering what those figures would be for under-18s. If a brand is looking to target 16-25 year-old males in the UK that’s our core demographic. We have about 15m of them watch the channel every month. Coke gets much better returns investing in people like us than traditional TV.”
As for Hashtag United, the brothers imagine that is simply the beginning. They are hoping that Hashtag will likely be topped champion of their digital division one, after which will probably be time to maneuver on to greater and higher issues. “We now have long-term plans for Hashtag, which may involve moving out of this division structure,” Owen says. There is even a risk that Hashtag will flip skilled and look to hitch the Football League.
The irony is that grassroots revolutionaries Hashtag United already look like attempting to emulate the top-flight golf equipment in opposition to which they’re reacting. Perhaps there may be an inevitability to it as boundaries between the digital and actual worlds of soccer change into ever extra blurred.
- Main picture from Fifa 18/EA Sports