The truth behind the rise of Hashtag United

Hashtag United’s story has been nothing short of inspiring and phenomenal and has highlighted the true power of the internet.

Founded in 2016 by YouTube star Spencer Owen, Hashtag became a unique entity in the footballing world, through the blend of traditional football and digital culture.

The team was originally comprised of Spencer’s friends and family, and their matches were documented online, gaining huge traction and followers. Initially, they would play exhibition style matches against the likes of Copa90 FC, Manchester City Staff and Sky Sports News HQ.

As Hashtag’s growth accelerated, their transition to becoming a professional team began and in 2018 they joined the English football pyramid by entering the Eastern Counties League Division One South.

Since then, they have grown astronomically, achieving three promotions, and widening their online presence to combat some of the world’s biggest footballing teams.

They have also acquired a women’s team and a youth academy, on top of over 40 different teams with over 400 different players.

With their strong evolution, there has been many critiques of the clubs with assumptions of money just being thrown and the club for its successes.

Speaking on this issue, chairman and founder, Spencer Owen, dismissed the claims, and highlighted the true reality of the clubs rise.

“The reason that the misconception exists is because people are very lazy and they just assume that because we have – I don’t know, followers that we have lots of money. The truth is that we do get sponsorships, but we also have a lot of costs that those clubs do not have.

“The following is there because of our media team – our media team are full time guys, we have 10 full time staff on wages that these clubs do not have to pay, so we don’t have excess money - we spend what we make. So, we’re very proud of that”.

Owen further went onto give an insight into the successful approach the club has implemented over the past five years. 

“We don’t overspend – we’ve never been the biggest spenders in the league. Sometimes we’re not even in the top three quarters of the league – which it about where we are this year – we’re generally in the bottom six, seven spenders in the league and we overperform to be quite frankly on the money spent.

“If other teams spent what we spent, they would not get the results that we get.

“We get people who believe in the project, so we don’t get mercenaries here. Most of these other clubs who do spend money, they get people who come and go, really don’t care about the club or the badge and that has an effect on performance over a period of time, it really does”.

Neil Smythe is the current Hashtag United media/operations director and obtains a vast amount of knowledge in sports media, previously working with huge name brands such as SoccerAM and Copa90.

When reflecting on his five years at Hashtag, he spoke on the uniqueness of the club and the challenges he has faced.

“It’s really difficult to use us as a blueprint, I think other non-league clubs have taken a leaf from our book in terms of putting a lot more of an emphasis in content and trying to attract a younger audience, a more digitally savvy audience.

“It would be really hard to do what we have done now, to start a team from scratch and base your financial strategy on content, that’s what’s going to be really hard for anybody else to recreate”.

When speaking on the drawbacks of the club, Smythe indicated that financially the club cannot continue with the consistent upwards trends and promotions that they have become used to.

“Financially, we at the moment aren’t built to sustain ourselves in a league higher than where we are now, because the players wages increases massively. So, for us to step up and survive, even in national league south, we need more finances.

“I don’t think Spencer would say that he wants this club to be in league one or league two anytime soon”.

He then went onto reflect on his pride for what the club have achieved in such a short time and set out the stumbling blocks that Hashtag need to overcome in order to reach that next level.

“If you think again holistically, we’ve already got perhaps 700 players in terms of our youth system right up to the seniors, we’ve got a women’s team that is smashing it at tier three and has won two cups this year, we’ve got an inclusive team, we’ve got almost everything we need apart from our own ground.

“So, if were talking in five years’ time, and we’re playing at this level but at our own ground, where we are in control of the matchday experience and we’re in control of the food and beverage, that’s where I want this club to be”.

Eddy Cooper, social media producer at Hashtag United, was vocal on the importance of the innovative revenue stream that the club have, and perhaps the jealousy of teams surrounding them.

“Our revenue stream and the way that the club operates is completely organic and a lot of clubs hate us because they would like to have that organic revenue stream we do have”.

Cooper then went on to state the importance of fresh investment, but also reflected on the journey the men and women’s teams have had, manifesting his future ambitions.

“Spen’s been quite transparent about the level of investment needed to go through the ranks, on the women’s side and then men’s - on the women’s side we’re tier three, just two promotions away from WSL, that’s huge!

“Sky’s the limit man, what’s to say we couldn’t end up in the Premier League with the right investment.”

Altogether, Hashtag’s rise has been exceptional and brought a unique approach to football.

With a fixation on bringing the right people in, rather than succumbing to the misconception of ‘throwing money at it’, the Tags have been able to rise on all cylinders.

Football club’s cores are their communities, and Hashtag have brought an innovative approach in utilising the internet as their core. With a fanbase that already stretches across the world, with the right investment, who’s to say where they could end up.