The Argentinean Football Association AFA partners with Upland to enter the Metaverse

Upland will allow Argentine fans to have a greater connection with AFA history, offering the ability to acquire digital representations of several league properties, including clubs, games, historical moments, and even tickets.

The Argentine Football Association AFA moves into the metaverse

The Argentine Football Association (AFA), the institution that manages the national soccer league, is entering the metaverse. The organization has partnered with Upland, a real-world mapping metaverse project, to allow its users to enter the metaverse and enjoy the benefits of a closer connection with famous teams and players.

According to a press release issued by the AFA, the Upland partnership will include digital representations of all the league’s teams, including players, tickets, games, historical moments and exclusive moments from the platform. It should also allow the league to attract younger, Web3-oriented fans, as well as digital collectors from the soccer world. The four-year agreement is the first AFA deal of its kind and aims to bring additional revenue to the Argentine soccer league through the sale of several licensed digital assets.

Secondary Markets

However, this metaverse experience will not only be unidirectional, as the platform will allow the resale of these digital collectibles by fans, establishing a secondary market. The Argentine Football Association hopes that this will improve the relationship that the institution has with its fans, and internationalize the national league after the national team won the FIFA World Cup, which was recently held in Qatar.

Claudio Tapia, president of the AFA, celebrated the partnership because it will take advantage of emerging metaverse technologies. He stated:

This agreement allows us to partner with the best creators of technology and new digital products, generating a new revenue stream for all participating clubs. We welcome Upland as a new business partner of our association and the Argentine Professional Football League.

Other soccer leagues around the world, and some of their teams, have already jumped on the metaverse bandwagon. Spain’s Laliga, the national soccer league in Spain, is already immersed in metaverse initiatives, having partnered with Globant and Dapper Labs to expand its presence in the metaverse and establish markets for licensed digital products.