WotC Is Sponsoring A Football Club, For Some Reason
Yes friends it’s true, Wizards of the Coast is sponsoring an EFL League 2 team for the 2021/2022 season. A heretofore untapped partnership.
Wizards of the Coast announced yesterday that it will be sponsoring the Leyton Orient FC for the 2021/2022 season. Leyton Orient, an East London soccer team in the fourth division of the EFL are the second oldest soccer club to play in London, having started in 1896. As Wizards announced via their Magic EU account, they will be the official gaming partner of the FC.
We're super excited to announce that we're now the official gaming partner of @leytonorientfc for the 2021/22 Season!
We sent Ajani down to the Orient ground to check out this very different plane… pic.twitter.com/qareepBaSH
— Magic Europe (@Wizards_MagicEU) September 1, 2021
And they kicked it off with a full-on cosplaying Ajani done up in socceer gear as well, ready to see how it’s done in this plane. Ajani here, is being portrayed by MCroft07, a London-based artist and “Xtreme Makeup Athlete”.
As for what the sponsorship means for Leyton Orient FC? Magic trademarks and logos will appear on their training kits for the 2021/2022 season, and it doesn’t take a marketing graduate to guess that it wouldn’t be out of the question to see some Magic-branded sportswear merch for sale in the not too distant future.
👋 Welcome to Orient, Ajani & @Wizards_MagicEU!
Magic: The Gathering, the leading tabletop trading card game from @Wizards, has become the O's Official Gaming and Back of Training Wear Partner.
👉 https://t.co/SPzRM5QY8B#LOFC #OnlyOneOrient pic.twitter.com/qfiRp51bmx
— Leyton Orient FC (@leytonorientfc) September 1, 2021
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Whether or not any of the footballers will be playing Commander as part of their training is anyone’s guess. But believe it or not, this isn’t the first trading card game to get involved with a soccer team. Earlier this year, Konami and Yu-Gi-Oh named Barcelona FC Antoine Griezmann as a Yu-Gi-Oh Ambassador, which is a phrase I never thought I’d have to type out, before not even a month later parting ways after a video surfaced showing Griezmann being racist towards Japanese workers during a pre-season trip to Japan.
And last year, the Pokemon card game sponsored the England National team, going as far as printing mechanically unique promo cards:
How this ends up for Leyton Orient FC and Magic: the Gathering will be an interesting thing to watch for sure.
What do you think? Collectible card games and soccer, match made in heaven?
