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Chelsea & Premier League investigating after legends John Terry & Ashley Cole use club’s badge & trophy in NFTs

CHELSEA are reporteding investigating after John Terry and Ashley Cole used the club badges in their non-fungible tokens.

The Chelsea legends have become embroiled in a legal argument with the Premier League after including digital versions of their winning trophies on the digitised art.

AP:Associated PressJohn Terry and Ashley Cole have found themselves in hot water[/caption]

TwitterTerry has been promoting his own NFT’s on Twitter[/caption]

Dozens of footballers and celebrities have been jumping on the cryptocurrency world craze, creating their own personalised NFT’s.

Blues legend Terry, who works as a consultant for the club at academy level, has been promoting cartoons of baby monkeys on his twitter page.

The blue monkey is surrounded by several trophies, including the Premier League one which is protected by a trademark.

Use of its image requires a licensing agreement with the Premier League if it is used in any commercial venture.

Both Terry and former Chelsea teammate Ashley Cole have been promoting the images, which also include the club badge and kits.

They are also protected by intellectual property law as well as the trophies themselves, because of a trademark.


It is understood that none of the art is affiliated with the club, or either competition in any way.

UEFA are also investigating the matter after discovering that both illustrations of the Champions League and Europa League trophies have been used in the NFTs.

NFTs are approximately sold at 0.05 Ethereum (ETH), which is currently priced at £93.79, plus an additional transaction fee.  

They are limited edition virtual items which can be bought and sold – but have their own unique code so copies cannot be made.

It works as a certification for ownership of a physical asset which means the NFT will effectively function like a rare trading card.

The NFT can take the form of a digital image, video file or other virtual asset and is unique, meaning if you buy one, you’re the only person with it.

However the use of trademarked images in the digitised artworks could cause a legal headache for the footballers.

The Premier League are understood to be liaising with their lawyers over the matter.

‘INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS’

A UEFA spokesman told the Athletic: “UEFA takes the protection of its intellectual property rights seriously and we are investigating this matter further. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.”

The ex-England teammates have both been endorsing the “Ape Kids Club” NFT’s on their social media.

The Ape Kids Club NFTs are an off-shoot of the “Bored Ape Yacht Club” that has risen to prominence in America.

Eminem has spent $461,868 (£342,000) on a digital illustration of the cartoon ape for himself.

Blues full back Reece James has also promoted his own “Mutant Ape” purchase, while Terry has linked Jack Wilshere, Willian and Marco Verratti while promoting the NFT.

According to the Telegraph, Cole has not yet entered into a contract with the creators of “Ape Kids Club”.

However the former left back retweeted an image of an NFT that included an illustrated image of the Premier League trophy.

Ex-Manchester United ace Wayne Rooney has also joined in on the NFT craze by selling digital artwork of himself for £40 each.

Cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance tokens can be extremely volatile, so your cash can go down as well as up in the blink of an eye.

Investing is not a guaranteed way to make money, so make sure you know the risks and can afford to lose the money.

Interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple has soared in the past few months.

Bitcoin‘s value has been boosted and hit record highs in 2021 after receiving backing from Tesla founder Elon Musk.

What is an NFT?

Here’s a simple guide…

NFTs are a hot new tradable item taking the internet by storm
The letters NFT stand for “non-fungible token”
If something is “fungible”, it can be traded for an identical counterpart
For instance, Bitcoin is technically fungible – you can swap one for another, and have the same thing
Physical cash is also fungible – you could trade one £10 note for another
An NFT is a totally unique digital token with no copies
Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, NFTs work using a blockchain
A blockchain is a public ledger of transactions recorded across the internet – and is totally unalterable
The NFTs on the blockchain can be traded like Bitcoin, but they’re unique by design
This gives them a special value, because each NFT is individual and unique
You can turn almost any kind of data into an NFT
People are selling digital artworks, songs and even tweets in NFT form
More elaborate NFT sales include virtual trainers/sneakers and even a virtual house
Importantly, NFTs are not physical – so if you buy an NFT object, you’re just owning a part of the blockchain and NOT a physical item

News Group Newspapers LtdThe Premier League are understood to be in discussion with their lawyers[/caption]

GettyCurrent Chelsea full-back Reece James has also joined in the latest crypto craze[/caption]