Smart Contract Transfer Platform (SCTP)

Introduction:

One aspect of football that could benefit substantially, along several dynamics, is the way in which players are bought and sold between clubs, 'The Transfer Market'. The design laid out below is a smart contract platform that enables Clubs to buy and sell players utilizing smart contract technology. Smart Contracts are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met (1) this means that the concluding result of a Smart Contract becomes immutable and will be stored on the ledger. For further understanding of the concept of Smart Contract, Blockchain or Distributed Ledger’ let me direct you to any of the following sources as opening literature on the the subjects:

• Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System, Satoshi Nakamoto (https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf)

• Ethereum Whitepaper, Vitalik Buterin, (https://ethereum.org/whitepaper)

• What is Blockchain Technology, IBM (https://www.ibm.com/topics/blockchain)

The important facts to understand are the below:

• In a blockchain network data becomes immutable. It cannot be altered or deleted so when a transaction occurs a record of it occurring will exist forever.

• Blockchain networks allow parties to transact safely between each other without the need for a central intermediary.

• The technology does not have to be linked to crypto currency. Whilst the SCTP utilizes the technological concepts that have allowed for Bitcoin etc to come into existence it is in no way related to it.

If anyone reading this has any questions on the above please feel free to raise them directly via the contact page. Discussion on this topic is something I am very open to. Blockchain’s reputation in Football has taken a hard hit due to its synonymity with crypto currencies the criticism of which (2) is not without validity. Blockchain as a concept has a tendency to get lumped into the same bracket as crypto currencies and therefore when skepticism surrounds one, by association it pollutes the other. If this blog can in any way help to untangle that web it would be one of the more positive outcomes I could hope for.

The design that I will walk through here is a hypothetical platform that I am naming the Smart Contract Transfer Platform (SCTP). The functionality that I describe below could be built using existing development tools available publicly. Consider this a generic example of how a peer to peer, inter-company DLT based player transfer exchange platform MIGHT work. The functionality laid out is based on best guess requirements from publicly available information. The nuances of the transfer market have been highly simplified to make the design digestible. Feedback from anyone with additional insight is highly sought after so that the design can be iterated on, for anyone who has anything to offer by way of insight into the technicalities of the interactions between parties please reach out via the contact page.

The workflows that I have tried to design the platform to capture are the below:

• The legal obligation a player and a club have to each other during the players contract.

• The initiation of communication and negotiation process between clubs during the exchange of a player.

• A players legal obligation transferring from one club to another AND the resulting cashflows of such a transaction.

As previously mentioned, please allow for the workflows to be highly simplified, the purpose of the SCTP design is to serve as a jumping off point for the Case Studies which focuses on the detail of the design in a very specific area to show how the technology could solve for the problem.