After earning promotion to the Spanish fourth flight division, the club formerly known as Mostoles Balompie got a complete rebrand from president Javi Poves and was renamed Flat Earth FC. Poves confirmed in a video statement that the change was intended to support one of the dumbest fringe beliefs:
“We are a professional football club in the Spanish fourth tier and we are born to unite the voices of millions of flat earth movement followers and all those people who are looking for answers.”
All of the rhetoric in the announcement clearly indicates that the whole point of this was to giving his very stupid idea more outreach by way of hanging onto the most popular sport in the world. He says “creating a club dedicated to the flat earth movement is the best way to have a constant presence in the media.”
So far, that plan seems to be working pretty well. The name change has gotten coverage on Marca, Dutch publication De Telegraaf and, well, here.
Poves also goes on and on about how the club will not be connected to a specific country or city, but rather to “an idea” which he calls “the most important thing.”
If this is just a publicity stunt done in the name of drumming up hype for the promotion, it’s a somewhat elaborate one since the president already has a jersey and logo made for the team which is shown off on the club website with a hilariously out-of-focus picture.
Also on the site are a list of three partners, or “Friends,” that include a flat-earther’s news site—which has a tab dedicated to anti-vaxxer propaganda—and two Spanish YouTube channels that seem to specialize in conspiracy theory videos.
This is just one of those things that seems funny right now, but will be considerably less so when Kyrie Irving wears this club’s jersey to a home game next season.