Spain’s La Liga, one of the most watched soccer leagues in the world in Europe, has revealed that it is looking to take advantage of Web3 technology next year.

The Spanish top flight has announced plans to implement a ball tracking system used to score goals using Web3 technology. The system, which will be available through Gol-Ball, an external company, will validate these balls to ensure that fans can purchase them through official markets or raffles.

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The system is scheduled to start operating after the Qatar World Cup ends. The system will be used to recover the balls used in each match and to distinguish the specific balls used to score each of the goals, a practice that did not exist before as the balls were not separated or treated as something special.

Samuel Eto’o, the Barça legend and LaLiga ambassador, highlighted the importance of this new scheme. etho said:

“Throughout my career as a footballer you were usually given a ball only after scoring a hat-trick, but you were never sure it was the ball you actually scored any of the goals with. If we could have identified the ball that scored the goal, my teammates and I would have loved them all.”

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Why LaLiga wants to validate goal balls

According to the official press release published, La Liga explained that these goal-scoring balls would be available to all fans through “fan engagement mechanisms” to be revealed later on January 8.

This signals the creation of subsidiary markets for these balls, which could be shared with fans through raffles or paid participation, opening up new avenues of participation and revenue for the league.

On this new link, Oscar Mayo, executive general director of LaLiga, stated:

Andrés Rodríguez, CEO of Gol-Ball, also stated that fans could have these balls as a digital representation, hinting at the issuance of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). La Liga has also been involved in launching NFT-based platforms before, establishing a partnership with Dapper Labs in October for the launch of La Liga Golazos, a memorable moment NFT platform.

“We replace the auction and bidding of a few with the collaboration of many. We are proud that all of our fans can have access to these collectibles, both in their physical and digital forms. This is what inspires Web3: If we contribute a little among many, we can achieve much more than when a single person puts everything”, says Andrés Rodríguez,

According to Gol-Ball™ CTO Fede Giuliani, who has experience with four unicorns: “The concept of goal ball did not exist. We invented it and registered it through a series of patent applications that will allow fans around the world to have access to this new collectible. We have called it Goal-Ball™”.

This is an impressive development for the soccer sector in the world. LaLiga has taken the first step. Perhaps other popular leagues could do this or similar projects to increase fan engagement if successful.

It remains to be seen how blockchain technology can influence major international football competitions such as the World Cup, Euro Cup, Copa América and the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations. Crypto investors who are soccer fans will be eager to buy balls that are used to score memorable goals for their favorite teams or their favorite players.