In 2021, an ambitious technology entrepreneur made plans to host a football competition featuring global superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Robert Bonnier planned to spend an estimated €80mn-€110mn to recruit the world’s top players, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. “The Fans Cup”, to be held either in London or Cardiff, would focus attention on Bonnier’s company Aaqua, a social media start-up.
Joel Hogarth, managing director at Aaqua’s adviser Eliot & Luther, told the FT that Aaqua “believed its social media proposition would be attractive to companies such as Apple and LVMH, and admits it used them as examples in generic corporate materials”, but that it “never at any point made any legal representation that any particular company had made a commitment to invest”.