European Side to Allow Fans to Choose Lineup and Formation in Funky Experiment

Let's face it, you know who your team should be putting out on the pitch better than your manager does. You know it. He refuses to admit it. The club's Twitter account has stopped replying to your tweets. But you know.

Well if you're a fan of three-time Cypriot champions Apollon FC, you've finally got your chance – if you can play nicely with others.

Apollon are using their partnership with fan engagement platform Socios.com to allow fans to use Apollon FC ($APL) Fan Tokens to choose the formation and first eleven for a friendly with local rivals Aris Limassol on Friday 9th October, using their blockchain-based fan voting.

With fans broadly unable to go to matches in person since the outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide, fans have been turning more to apps like Socios to feel involved with their clubs from a distance.

Juventus fans used the app to choose the club’s new goal celebration song (yes, it's their fault), as well as to decide on a limited edition redesign of the club’s iconic ‘J’ logo. Supporters of Barcelona placed unique fan-designed artwork at the heart of the Camp Nou dressing room, while Roma fans delivered questions direct to head coach Paolo Fonseca in a live press conference and PSG fans chose a unique message for the captain’s armband.

On the decision being taken out of his hands next week, Apollon manager Sofronis Avgousti said: “As a club, we want to have a connection with our fans and represent them in the best way possible.

“We believe that Socios.com is the best tool to achieve this, to give them decision making power in various club matters and build an effective communication stream which will help our club both commercially and operationally. Starting from next week’s friendly game, we will give our fans the chance to help me and the rest of the team with the selection and hopefully, they will appreciate the fact that we value their opinion!”

Will it work? Are Apollon fans going to show that managers might as well just poll the crowd behind them rather than making decisions themselves? Who knows. Fun though, eh?