Facing challenges to raise money through bonds, Sporting Clube de Portugal (SCP) is looking at the potential of launching an initial coin offering (ICO).
"We are looking closely at an ICO. We're having meetings about it. There is a great value potential in the Sporting brand," SCP Vice-President Francisco Salgado Zenha was quoted in a report by the Dinheiro Vivo, a local news outlet.
He clarified, however, that "nothing concrete" has yielded out of the discussions the subject.
The pronouncement comes amid SCP's nearing completion of a bond issue in which the company promises stakeholders a 5.25% gross annual yield rate.
The popular football club eyed hitting €30 million or $34.2 million–the amount it has to repay investors for another bond issue maturing November 26.
To date, the club has raised €26 million or $29.6 million, a few hundred thousand dollars away from its target.
If it does launch an ICO, SCP will join the likes of Brazilian football club Avaí and French soccer giant Paris Saint-Germain who had already officially announced their plans.
More recently, Newcastle United and Cardiff City, both also cash-strapped like SCP, noted they were in touch with decentralized sports investment and funding platform SportyCo, looking at issuing their own digital tokens.
SportyCo is currently a partner of Avaí, the former helping the latter's ICO materialize.