Kamaru Usman headlines a number of celebrity owners involved in the launch of One Future Football (1FF), a global digital football league.
Usman joins the likes of Jesse Lingard, Patrice Evra and Chris Smalling as well-known real-world athletes involved in the digital venture. A statement by 1FF says the league is "powered by two unique artificial intelligence (AI) engines - one in-game and one outside of the field of play," which creates "a whole ecosystem" with on-field play affected by off-field decisions.
The league aims "to inspire and engage fans in each market from within their virtual space" by giving supporters more access and say over all aspects of the teams they follow. Designed to attract and engage with younger audiences, 1FF games will be streamed as "eight-to-ten-minute highlight packages across social media," with 11 weeks of regular play followed by play-offs.
“We’re not trying to replace stadium football - we are confident we’ve built a world where football fans feel a real sense of ownership, that their decisions make a difference and they are actually being heard," One Future Football CEO and co-founder Pete Davis said. "We’ve created clubs with the DNA of their local regions in mind and designed footballers who fans can identify with and be inspired by. We believe One Future Football will help young fans fall in love with the game. This truly has the potential to be the future of football and we’re excited for the season to kick-off later this month.”
1FF kicks off its inaugural season June 23 with 12 teams from around the world.