Online campaign to bring Ronaldo back to United - Scam or not?

Bringronaldohome.org has launched an online campaign to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Manchester United. At least, that is what they want the United fans to believe.

On May 10th, Bringronaldohome.org was officially launched. A 129 seconds video, emotionally appealing to the fans to bring Ronaldo home, was uploaded onto the site’s YouTube account.

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Their logic is simple: 1 out of every 10 people in the world is a United fan; so to meet his €1bn release clause, Bringronaldohome.org has offered to buy him back from Real Madrid using the money raised through selling his replica t-shirts. The going price for a Ronaldo t-shirt on the website is £55 for adults and £50 for kids.

Fans are requested to pledge £10 as deposit, and the transaction will be completed only if he signs for United. If their movement fails, they promise to return the money. But it comes with a catch. Buried somewhere underneath the site’s terms and conditions, there is a rider that an administrative fee applies on every £10 the fans pledge.

Due to the nature of the movement and its associated costs, we are unable to give a fixed estimate of the Administrative Fee, however, we currently estimate this fee as follows:

  • In the event the movement is Successful, 5% of the Total Price; or
  • In the event that the movement is not Successful, £3.00 on the £10 pledge.

At the time of writing, 3691 have already pledged £10 towards their movement. If the movement fails, Bringronaldohome.org would pocket £11,073. If the reported 659 million United fans from worldwide contribute £10 each and Real Madrid refuses to sell Ronaldo, Bringronaldohome.org will be left with £1.9 billion.

This crowd funded project is backed by Equius Limited. But there is limited information available about the company on the site. The Sun website lists it as a company based in Southampton. We cannot verify at this moment whether it is the same Equius Limited.

However, Bringronaldohome’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have been pushing an article that appeared four days ago on an Australian media and marketing website Mumbrela.com.au.

The article states that a pair of media and marketing professionals from Australia are behind Bringronaldohome.org. Ronald Ainsbury and Andrew Dent are apparently the faces behind this project. Ainsbury, according to his website, graduated from Oxford University and was responsible for Diego’s PR.

On May 2nd, he updated his Facebook status as follows:

But the article on Mumbrela paints the picture that he and Andrew own the site. Whereas his Facebook status shows that he is in fact working for a client.

Andrew Dent complicates this case further. According to his Linkedin profile, he runs Tribalchoice, a company that specialises in webdesign and social media marketing. But Bringronaldohome.org was designed by another webdesign company called iglu.

We contacted Ronald on phone and asked him if he is behind this project. He sent a text back confirming that he is working for a supporters group and his client doesn’t have any connections with a t-shirt supplier. He stopped replying when we asked him if this supporters group is recognised by United.

Furthermore, the terms and conditions state that Bringronaldohome.org will conditionally provide the money raised to United. They didn’t list down these conditions. But they listed Deloitte as their auditors and invited United’s auditors PricehousewaterCoopers to audit all their transactions. Also, they are offering an incentive to the top 10 fans who pledge the highest amount of money, i.e more than £10. They will be invited to a watch a United game from the box.

Meanwhile, Ronald has been furiously denying claims that this campaign is a scam designed to cheat United fans.

On contacting via mail, their response to the question of Administrative Fee and association with any group was:

“We are not associated with any group. We are in the process of updating our FAQs to answer further questions but you are very welcome to contact our spokesperson Ron Ainsbury directly if you would like more info. The admin fee mostly covers PayPal fees for pledge reversals and also auditing fees.”

Ronald and Andrew’s experience as media and marketing professionals explains the sophistication involved in producing the promotional video and designing a sleek website. But Bringronaldhome.org’s motives remain hidden from our eyes. Are they here to sell t-shirts or make money through advertisements, as hinted by Ronald on Facebook? And how they plan on sponsoring Ronaldo’s move to United remains unclear. Will they use the profits earned through the t-shirt sales or will they donate the administrative fee to the club? We can only speculate until Bringronaldohome.org lifts its veil and addresses our questions.

Update: Ronald Ainsbury has responded via email to our queries regarding ‘Bring Ronaldo Home campaign’ here.

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Edited by Staff Editor