Is This The Richest Club In Non-League?

ra Bedford is the first Bitcoin football club they have dreams of playing in the Premier League but can a non-league team powered by cryptocurrency actually work we're going to find out the risks involved how easy the match day experience is using only Bitcoin and how they attracted $4.5 Million worth of investment but who is the man behind this unique football club and what was the first thing he did when he bought the club back in 2021 the first thing I did was change the name in the badge I thought be quite stunny to be it's brilliant cuz it's like like if you think the burnout this I just think that's quite funny quite like the idea one day in the FA Cup people draw out ra B it's like a five side team and then the badge dra is like I I go to the US a lot in the Raiders I went to a Raiders game at Oakland I've been to the vas it's it's just brilliant it's black it's rock and rock and roll they play Metallica they've got skull and crossbones they've got like an anarchist approach it just suited me and I I was actually surprised no other team in the UK have done it so how have done it in Germany I was like great we'll do that we sell so much merch last season our first Seas sold over 100,000 pound of merch sold 2,000 jerseys step 6 105 2,000 jerseys and so if a football club is going to be successful as to be a business the brand is part of the business it needs its own identity yeah it needs own identity look we're R kiss you I don't I don't care for Authority I don't give a the FAA really I don't care about the I don't care about the local CS or than there I don't care how much has to change the infrastructure of the football club in terms of the stadium stuff to meet the requirements to go up the leagues how far ahead you you have to plan that not too much like we have to put that standard grading and a couple of other bits and if we get promoted by March next year we'll have to have turn Styles a couple other bits the ground grading here we can we can do step three step two we might be able to sweat step one but I'm not sure but that doesn't matter cuz we're already working on develop a new ground anyway we just got find the site we get the planning uh completed but yeah we're already thinking about that what did the manager say to you that he needed to get this team promoted Rob is an absolute professional he was a professional he played for forest green played for stevenage as a professional he said I to do what you want to do I have to run this like a professional CL these are what I need in terms of facilities infrastructure equipment and we've provided every everything we can now we haven't got all of it yet but we need a training center you know we're still training on SC 3G pictures we want our own training center but there's a list and I try and deliver everything but ultimately Rob needs a budget for the teeth budget for his backing St facility services and professionalism absolute professionalism and so start of each season I just go what do you need to get promoted to be compl he tells me Rob says to me one game at a time so if I'm like oh you know the game we've got against L6 he's like no tree that's all I'm thinking about is tree I'm that with seasons on a season a tie so I've fully planned next season I've brought in the sponsors I've run the budget if we win the league today I'll sit down with Rob tomorrow and I said what do you need for next season yeah and I'll make sure come preseason GA it Rob What attracted you to this football club at ra Bedford firstly I'm from the area so that's a big ball obviously my playing career was away from here so to get a management opportunity in your hometown has been great and then honestly meeting with um P Emma Tom at the time it was a no-brainer really to come board and be a part of was an exciting J as you can see today what was the biggest obstacle in the beginning when you took the ra I think probably everyone wants to beat you you're sort of everyone sort of big game that's what you want that's what you're in for why would you be in it otherwise you want to be the team that everyone inspires to be that means you're doing something right do you feel that pressure of the success that's sort of expected to come with a club like R the journey that they're on with Peter and everyone in the investment do you feel that as a a manager comes on your shoulders a you be lying if you don't if as a human you feel pressure there's excitement there's nerves and all those different kind of things um and then for me managing it myself first look at myself manage that sort of nerves and pressure and then hopefully sort of deliver to to the lads look it's normal to feel like that it is that's a good thing if you don't have that then that means you haven't got that Competitive Edge that sort of winning mentality the best have those nerves have that those pressures and it's how you deal with it and that's what ultimately will get you up the level hopefully you can gain promotion today I know you take it one game at a time but what would you need next season from Peter to look at getting back to back to back promotions um good question for for me it's not so much Pete just carry on what he's doing he he's he's helping me he's there for me if I have questions the relationship's really good and that's it really I'm not I'm happy with what we've got yes there would have to be some improvement elements really wouldn't need to be to be drastic um it's not happy with the direction the Cs going in it doesn't need any wholesale changes or anything like that so for me it's the continue building what we are doing now ra Bedford are the first Bitcoin powered football club yes what are the big risk there's no there's no no look without Bitcoin this club still works you can come you can buy a ticket buy a boie but buy a burger I don't take the M we can still put squad on our shs so there's no risk with bitco that it's like this lack of understanding Bitcoin which is quite common PR we get a lot of people take the Mout about oh the Bitcoin team s your Bitcoin and the funny thing is is like happening is that I wish they understood Bitcoin I don't know a single person who's done the work and understand Bitcoin understanding money understanding government Bor debt and inflation who then goes H you know a Bitcoin thing is it for me once they get it they're in all these people here I say you people here already they come from all around the world America has going from Minneapolis second year in a row uh Brazil Switzerland Austria Germany they all get it they're all here what brings you to rail Bedford uh I came here from a conference I found out about the team here yesterday uh and was just blown away by the passion that that Peter has for it and everybody here so we had to come through and support hey two reasons two reasons we were here for the conference yes but part of the conference being coming to this game was one of the reasons we came where you came we have the jerseys at home in Canada we have real Bedford Jersey hanging on the wall Peter's a bitcoiner we're bitcoiners so we support bitcoiners that's why we're here is this your first game in England it is first game in England not mine not mine it's there and how does this compared to football back where you guys are from in Toronto um right now the Stadium's a little bigger in Toronto I'm not going to lie but real bedford's on the right path the passion the passion here the passion how far can this club go all the way Prem League Prem League what brings you to Rial Bedford Bitcoin Bitcoin brings me here and I'm glad I came where have you come from so uh I'm Brazilian but would come every Saturday is this your first football match yes it is but yeah I know that we are going to win today s one's my M my bat and I'm all in as you can see so and how's your non- league experience been so far my non- league is it's amazing I'm loving it I can easily come all Saturdays I'm I'm all already I'm seeing where have you come from today to watch this game uh Minneapolis Minnesota how much are you enjoying your non- league experience non league is the best this is amazing I love football what is it you like about Ral Bedford I love the story the whole story behind Peter McCormack uh growing the non League football giving back to the town supporting to kids the entire package and how much do you love Bitcoin yeah that's my wife how do you spend your Bitcoin at the club on a match day if I want you to buy a hoodie yes how do you price up what a hoodie is worth and does that ever change in terms of Bitcoin going up and down well all you do is is you go in and you put the amount in £55 yeah press charge you'll pop up a QR code work out the amount of Bitcoin to charge SC it's really easy and what we do as a club is all the money we take pounds we use that to operate the club yeah and everything we take in Bitcoin we leave in a treasury and we don't touch it it's pression for a play again we get rid of the from the club we're holding the Bitcoin that's key appreciated could we see rail Bedford bu a player using Bitcoin of course I mean look if another club turned around we went Inland they said but we going to get paid in Bitcoin we could theoretically I'm not going to do it cuz I want to keep our Bitcoin I don't want to give I want to give rid of shitty bouns if a player wanted to get paid in Bitcoin is that something you can do later down the line we Conor OAS who played for us last year we paid him in Bitcoin that's awesome it's just look it's if you want Bitcoin pay would you ever like to be paid your football salary in Bitcoin oh absolutely absolutely it seems to be the new thing that's going to take over so yeah buzz it I think I'd do part of it I wouldn't do all of it just cuz then I have assurances of of knowing where some of it is if that makes sense I personally don't know enough about Bitcoin so I need a few lessons on it before committed to it but yeah I don't again I don't see why not I'm not sure cuz I don't know a lot about it probably Sterling that's a tough question is it high or low right now it's 59,000 a Bitcoin at the minute yeah I mean I'll probably get like 0.1 but yeah I take Bitcoin I don't mind man I just I just get paid more more that's what I say be hard working you'll get paid more what' you know about Bitcoin nothing absolutely nothing everyone laughs at us takes the out of us yet we have probably the most well capitalized Club at T football we get to we'll get the end of the season our bigcoin treasury has about you know 4 and Bitcoin in what that £260,000 yeah you just don't touch it and that do you know what at 5 years time that might be a me volti an asset yeah and and and and people are trading in and out but it will go up like directionally forever and how do you deal with the haters depends what type of hater like you know some of the when the people who moan about the money in the game just I guarantee you everybody who hates what we're doing if they've never heard of us and I'd come in and bought their club and done this love it because they've got you we've gone from 40 people a day come to again we'll have 800 people day uh we've gone from a club that had no money to a club that's had back-to-back promotions ladies suffer their league uh that's probably one of the high most high-profile clubs in the league it's just it's just a hate I hate what something else is doing their nearest Rivals Bedford town are quite literally a Stones throw away and it's fair to say they don't have the best of relationships us doing what we're doing was forc them to pre and make their product better because they've got to compete so we're good for them and they're good for us because we're trying to chase them and you can go to any Town competition is good it's good good for customers it's good for pricing it's good for business so you don't want monopolies monopolies are terrible and so yeah look I was having I want two good teams there a point this season where three Bedford teams top the league we top the league they top the league and our ladies top the league yeah that's brilliant for Bedford now two it's I Our Ladies cuz they but they don't get it and they've been absolutes complete in the background they've been trying to get our leas remov they've been in the area of the bear and it's you mentioned the convention that a lot of these fans here today went to last night where yeah you revealed a huge investment how big is that for the football club and what do it mean moving forward $45 million into a ninthe foot Club it's incredible how did you do that looks some of it's luck look let's start with a luck bit 8 years ago I decided to start a podcast yeah I buying Bitcoins I just been to bitcoin so that bit was luck and during that I just got to know Cameron and you know who are supremely rich right that's the luck bit I think the next bit is there's this alignment between Bitcoin and our football club so if we want an investor and they're into Bitcoin we natural fit and the next thing it was know convincing them this is a good investment so I I I said I think essentially last two years it's been proved I can do it we've done it we've done it sustainably I haven't put any money in our club has made a profit for the last few seasons based on its income yeah versus its out it's a profitable business right but that will be harder in the higher lims I proved I now to win leagues so I just went back I said I know the form it's 70% the budget on your team it's 20 25% your manager it's 5% that's that's the that's the foot out with I need more money to like make this success do you want to be co-owners in this club and I me they get the investment but it's also a lot of fun to them I think the other thing is like as a startup you think is an investment it's a good opportunity bedford's a population 174,000 we don't have a team in the football league Burnley are in the Premier League they've got a population 90,000 yes so so Bedford can support te in the football league he can support him in the Premier League so I went to them and said here's here's an investment pitch I think I can do it with this club they believe me they understand the conviction we align on bitcoin we align on the vision then we're go let's go for it so the club just got a huge investment of $4.5 billion what would you spend $4.5 million on treating kids my little boy is seven he's always want a Lamborghini uh move out probably yeah what kind of house did you buy the big ones I don't know making the world a better place I don't know i' give it to the players I'm joking I think the stadium around here maybe a bit at the clubhouse could he doing up apart from that Pete knows where he's going to put it this club right here I would seriously I think it's amazing everything they done for me as I said to you before I think done for a lot of me personally man I think I'll put it in Bitcoin fancy a bit of that I think do you know a lot about bcoin I know nothing about it what' you make of the investment it's massive massive news for the club I think it's I think the talks of it swamping the Rex some investment and stuff like that so it's a massive day for the club and who knows what we can achieve they announced the huge investment recently $4.5 million how much of that we be asking for to invest in players and things like that that money is yeah isn't going to come into the budget that's me and Pete have had that conversation that is for the town and people will won't believe it I know that um we'll get all the stick they'll say oh it's going into the budget all that kind of thing but it actually isn't what he wants to do in terms of community Training Center helping the youth that the fund uh but uh underprivileged children can't get um the sports they want he's going to help people and and and for me that's a big thing how tough is recruitment at this level yeah of course it is especially with the fact that everyone knows or the club is trying to build so you can get uh the wrong types that that want to come and play for Club but that's down to me the STA to to work that out meet players two or three times before we sign them to learn their personalities and to learn about ourselves we have a list of what we want um and then we hopefully go and get that but first of all for me it's learning about the characters how can you translate your skills what you've learned playing professional football into non League I think that's probably where managers go wrong they try and sort of relate to when they were a pro all those different things it's just helping the boyes being honest just just just I've I've dipped into non- league as well at the back end of my career when I finish so I understand how hard it is to work and play football that's many choos the Thursday Saturday is Relentless and sometimes you look now when you're getting games called off some teams are going back to back for me it's just I set standards that I suppose might may be a little bit higher at times in terms of the commitment I expect and twice a week training whereas some some clubs are only once a week but no I I don't think my background of being refeshing footb isn't why S I can't relate that to the boys they they they have to trust me I trust them and it comes as as a mutual way and what would promotion mean today yeah we're relying on another result as well so um for us it's is to win the game and then see what the result is elsewhere um obviously it' mean a lot with Pete's sort of event that happened yesterday and the fact that there is going to be a bigger crowd it it would be huge for the for the football club for me and the players it is a another game that we've just got focused today my own personal Ambitions are to go into fulltime management where I was as a player and that's that's a that's an ambition I'm in a f field so I'm taking each game as it comes hopefully we can get a promotion um and then we plan again for a step forward how long will it be until we see ra Bedford in the football league F hopefully we got up today and I think we can go I think we can win step forward next year yeah gets harder than step three two and one theying their own issues of being part-time versus full time every team is professional you know has a budget I mean you saw Rex they outs spent everyone their first in National League they didn't go up yeah they lost in the playoffs it's hard I said if we could do it in 10 years that' be incredible achievement and so really it' be eight more years to do four more promotions yeah and like I think that's kind of realistic cuz you're like you giveing yourself two goals at each one the first one okay if you don't do it but what did we learn how do we do it next year but I think if you've got the money for The Bu for the team and the manager I think you should be able to do each division in both mate thank you so much for your time forward to the journey

Channel: Location Football

Views: 28,597

Keywords: Non-league, Real Bedford fc, bitcoin football club

Id: sdFw6t7kMA8

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024