Bedford FC: Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack has Premier League dream for 10th-tier side



Following a merger of two teams, the team was called BEDFORD United & Valerio.

How do you turn a team with an average home crowd of 40 or 50 people into a club?

Peter believes he has the answer to that question.

He has bought a football team in the 10th tier of English football, and is trying to get the financial backing of the worldwide Bitcoin community.

He believes that Bedford will soon be using the digital currency.

He says that what they're looking to raise would be far higher than what Ryan Reynolds has put into the project.

The goals are ambitious and he has already set up a website to help reach them.

There is an immense amount of work to be done in the market town ofBedford because they are not even the biggest team in the town at the moment.

Why is it that it is called Bedford?

Peter is the host of the What Bitcoin Did podcast.

WAGMI United tried to take over the club, but it was turned down.

Why does he want to get involved in football? The reason is simple, he is a boy.

I wasn't a fan of any of the teams my dad would take me to see and I wasn't a fan of the town at all. He told the radio that he picked the team that was long way away.

I always wanted to buy one of the local teams and try to get them into the Football League because I felt that we could support a league club.

The closest club to the city is the MK Dons.
Northampton Town is 21.7 miles away.

When he announced his takeover, he said that his plan was to get the club into the premier league, nine promotions, but he is not looking at the project as a wide-eyed innocent who cannot see the pitfalls.

"If you're going to do a project like this, you have to be ambitious, you have to have big goals, and I'm not going to take over a football club and say that my goal is two promotions." What kind of ambition is that?

I want to bring league football to the town I'm from and to give something to the people around here. I think it would be embarrassing to not say you want to do something good, you have to have an ambitious target.

There are benefits to the use of the virtual currency.

What are cryptocurrencies?

Governments and banks are not allowed to control the virtual currency, known as Bitcoin, which can be used to buy products or services.

150 million people around the world own a piece of digital currency, and that's where the funds will come from, as well as boosting local grassroots football.

The people in the community are very supportive of this and want to buy shares, hoodies, and t-shirts. He said that he had closed a lot of sponsorship.

We have a target revenue for the first year of the season of between £1.5m and £2m, which we can certainly do from selling merchandise online and selling sponsorship to the Bitcoin companies, and that money would then be."

I've been talking to some of the major players in the digital currency, and I've been trying to convince them of the benefits. Everyone I've spoken to wants to put money into this.

We are looking to raise a lot of money for the club.

Listen to the interview with Peter McCormack.

What is in a name?

They have lost six of their 21 league games this season.

The club's name will not be changed until the end of the season.

Real Bedford was an option for a new identity.

The name itself was a bit of a joke to begin with, because we thought we might have to establish a new club rather than purchase a club, so my team wondered what we might call it.

"We were having fun, 'let's call it Real Bedford a bit like Real Madrid', and that's kind of stuck with us,'" said McCormack, who has already agreed one sponsorship deal worth £150,000.

It's not certain if the name will be Bedford FC, it might be a different one, but the name stands out.

It's like when David Beckham named Miami Inter Miami. I don't think there's anything wrong with having fun with the name.

How long will it take?

The project has two phases, one local, and one national, and is not set a timescale for turning his dream into Real-ity.

The first step towards promotion is being taken by the manager and assistant.

The 6-1 defeat by Northampton Sileby Rangers on Saturday left them seventh in the table, and any pressure they may be feeling will not have been lessened.

Before the game, Goldman was assured that he wouldn't interfere with the day-to-day running of the team.

He is responsible for the team and results, but I will support him in any way I can. If he explains to me the players we need to sign, I will help him.

It's a results business and he and the players will know that we're in this to climb through the leagues, to bring league football to Bedford, and we will put the people in place who can do that."

He admitted that he is still coming to terms with what is involved in running a football club, and that he has gone into the project "fairly green".

He said that his role is to raise money to help climb through the leagues.

I'm surrounded by people who are experienced in running football clubs who understand non-league football.

If financial support is not going to be a problem, what is?

Results on the pitch can't be guaranteed.

You know what football is like. You might have the best players, but you might not get the results. Financial support for the club and grassroots football is easy for us.

Peter was talking to Ollie Bayliss.