Quick take:
- The NFTs will feature past and future football stars from Argentina’s football history.
- Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez, and Rodrigo De Paulis are among the footballers in the collection.
- The AFA Icons NFT collection drops tomorrow at 12pm EST.
The Argentina Football Association (AFA) has partnered with NFT platform, Ethernity, to launch the AFA Icons NFT collection in celebration of the upcoming Finalissima 2022.
Finalissima is a cross-continental football match between the most recent European Cup and Copa America winners, Italy and Argentina. Set to drop tomorrow at 12pm EST, the NFT collection will feature past and future football stars from Argentina’s football history.
The AFA Icons collection will consist of two series in different designs, each representing iconic moments and heroes in Argentinian football history. The first series pays tribute to three legendary players who are no longer active: Diego Maradona, Claudio Caniggia, Sergio Goycochea.
The second series features Lionel Messi, Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez, and midfielder Rodrigo De Paul. Martinez helped score the winning goal at last year’s Copa America. The pricing and rarity tiers of the NFTs have yet to be revealed.
Ethernity will use its Chainlink VRF randomiser to select one lucky buyer to participate in a raffle to win a signed jersey. Buyers of the AFA Icons collection will gain early access to AFA’s next NFT drop, which will be released prior to the World Cup this autumn.
This is AFA’s second partnership with Ethernity. AFA partnered with the NFT platform for a commemorative collection when the national team won Copa America. Additionally, Ethernity launched an NFT series titled “The Messiverse,” which awarded one lucky fan with a signed jersey. “The Messiverse” dropped 75 pieces of four different NFTs, with the most expensive one going for a minimum of $3,790.
The AFA launched a fan token through Socios last year. Through the partnership, the platform sponsored Argentina’s main football tournament named Torneo Socios this past season. In March, Messi inked a $20 million global ambassador deal with digital fan token app, Socios, to appear in its publicity and promotion campaigns.
However, the AFA signed a five-year deal with Binance for its official fan token, naming rights and global sponsorship in January. Apart from the global sponsorship, the two other rights were legally exclusively granted to Socios under a previously signed partnership with AFA. According to Socios, the partnership with AFA was meant to be for three years.
In response to AFA’s deal with Binance, Socios claimed a breach of contract and is taking legal action. Despite that, Binance announced on Twitter that it is proceeding as the AFA’s sponsor.
Stay up to date:
