Atlético de Madrid – a Madrid-based football club currently playing the the Primera Liga – has reportedly teamed up with Socios.com – blockchain-focused firm – to develop a fan-targeted token ecosystem.

As stated via a press release on September 6, the partnership between Socios and Atlético Madrid will mark the introduction of an Official Fan Token utilizing the image of the club – through a so-called Fan Token Offering (FTOs) – which will take place in fall this year, in preparation for the next football season of Atlético. 

Socios is known to be a blockchain-based, tokenized app of the associates – a.k.a “socios” in Spanish – crowd-management concept of the 2 world renowned football clubs – Real Madrid & FC Barcelona. 

Socios.com is under the management of sports blockchain venture chiliZ – a company that receive the support of numerous giants in the crypto field – including Binance and OK Blockchain Capital.

The token – with the initial value stands at 2 euros – will serve as a means of voting for Atlético supporters, along with acting as a tool devoted to amp up fan engagement, via encouraging users to join in tokenized polls on the Socios via their mobile devices. 

Although the Socios platform provides facilitation for the fan token, it in fact operate on a permissioned side chain, unconnected to the platform, technically, where every membering football club of chilliZ will have the functionality of a node with proof-of-authority. 

The sidechain is powered by chiliZ’ native digital coin $chz – an ERC20 utility token that is in compliance with Ether.

Atlético will not be the first club to collaborate with Socios, with a number of high-profile clubs across the world have previously joined, including  West Ham United, Juventus and PSG.