An open letter to football
Football Club DAO Manifesto
We believe football is a beautiful game that brings the world together and connects us all. It’s one of the few things in life that can bring us collective tears of joy, even in times of pain.
Scoring a goal feels as good as it does because it takes a team, staff and stadium of fans to push towards the back of the net. And when a team finally puts one in the back of the net, every contributor shares a moment of screaming celebration together.
THAT is the feeling we are looking to consistently bring to the lives of our members, and the world, with Football Club DAO.
We are a global network of football DAOs, starting with a social club, so that each member has immediate ownership in a self-governed community with no borders.
A DAO is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Under this structure our members from around the world will help shape the full mission and roadmap (Goal Map) with us together.
Does that mean you have to care about crypto or even know what a DAO really means to be in the club?
Nope. The club is for those who love football and hate that billionaires run our game. We’re using crypto technology as a transparent, secure, efficient way to run a global organization that is governed by its members.
Football Club DAO has been founded upon 2 initial long-term goals:
Become the largest football social club in the world and serve as the global launchpad for football DAOs and communities
Buy and run a pro football team
We know (and hope) we aren’t the only DAO that will buy a football team, and we love that there are other projects with that goal.
We believe the thing that makes our club the first of our kind is that instead of an initial fundraise or a run for immediate purchase of a team, our main goal is building out the most passionate global football community, where we will launch tons of incredible products and experiences for the football world along the way.
And while we are proud to be the first with our specific community vision, for us, the competition isn’t with other football DAOs, it’s all of us against the single-owner billionaire status quo in football. At Football Club DAO we are much more focused on taking the steps to running a successful DAO-owned pro football team than we are on being the first DAO-owned team.
We are implementing a progressive decentralization strategy for our social club as we feel it offers an organization or society its greatest chance at thriving for years to come. This allows for faster early growth and innovation, helps diverse ownership flourish, and creates a clear path toward regulatory compliance before we attempt to buy a team. It also gives time for our veteran members to teach the football fans who aren’t savvy in crypto, DAOs, team ownership, or even navigating a voting system. The social club DAO will incrementally become more decentralized until we achieve substantial decentralization. For the DAO folks, without going into too much detail in this manifesto, yes we see many sub-DAOs in our future. Our team-buying fundraises will be launched as new DAOs with customized structures, and members of the social club will be able to build and partake in these various projects that we launch.
In 10 years, when there are hundreds of DAOs getting ready to buy teams, we want to not only be their launchpad but also be one of the early examples they look back on to model after.
We will take risks, try new things and break down barriers. Football Club DAO is proud to be a pioneer in connecting blockchain technology to football experiences and communities. We also know what being a pioneer comes with: sometimes we will win big and sometimes we will lose learn.
You don’t need a perfect season to win the cup, and we know our journey will be far from it. Shaping a new frontier will come with a few spikes to the shins, but no one gets handed a championship trophy wearing a clean jersey.
At Football Club DAO, we live every day and make every play with our Starting 11 Values in mind:
1 Football is for everyone. At our club, it doesn’t matter your age, where you come from or what you look like. From hardcore fans and players, to those who only tune in for the World Cup, the beautiful game has something for each us to enjoy.
2 We are here because we love the game and want to be a part of spreading the joy of football across the world for generations to come. We don’t care how much money you have, if you have a substantial way to contribute and align with our values, we will ensure you can be a part of the club regardless of your ability to invest money.
3 Go for goal. Members will actively collaborate together to build out our community, participate, and propose/vote on projects and structures that get us closer to our goals.
4 From the moment you arrive here, you'll never walk alone. We make sure all club members feel like they are joining a true football family the moment they arrive. We protect and defend each other from harm like we would our own brothers and sisters.
5 If you haven’t failed you haven’t tried. Embrace failure and don’t be afraid to propose ideas that might fail. We don’t sh*t on other peoples ideas or attempts. Failure is only a failure if you don’t learn from it and try again. Keep going!
6 Strongest and fastest-learning members are expected to teach and encourage newer and less experienced members to grow. Members who consistently help and encourage others to improve the speed and strength of the weakest members will be acknowledged with MVP and Team Captain roles.
7 Remember that even though we thrive and live on the pitch, your health comes first. Look out for each other and know when to come up for air and take a breather. We need our squad at full strength all the way through the championship… luckily the roster is deep.
8 Trash talk is fun but footballers know that actions speak louder than words. Remember that some people are already speculative of the concept of building digital communities. Be a good representative of FC DAO both here and irl to show the world our value. The community will not tolerate bullying, hate, or harassment of members. Take the bullsh*t elsewhere.
9 If you came to a DAO to flip or get rich quick, this isn't the DAO for you. We are building a football-first global community for passionate fans of the sport who want to come together and one day own a real life team. If that feels like a fit, lace up your digital cleats, we’d love to have you.
10 We don’t need or want you to shill this membership or token to everyone you know. That doesn’t help us achieve our goal. There are billions of football fans worldwide, and we are confident that organic growth to fans of the game is the best strategy to success.
11 Have fun and spread joy. Think of Football Club DAO as a symbol of hope throughout your every day and let it be a reminder to be happy. Our hope is to help everyone find and bring more joy to the football world well before we even buy the team. The team will be the cherry on top! Plus, studies show you play and work around 33% more effectively when happy too.