Banijay launches new football club
October 15, 2025
Banijay Benelux has announced the launch of FC Failliet/Finesse (FCF), the Netherlands’ first officially KNVB-registered football club designed around leading digital creators. The club was conceived by Southfields and Banijay NXT and founded by creators Ilias Vietto, Aimane Charbon and Kleine John, combining their global social media reach with professional football competition and world-class sports storytelling.
FCF represents a bold new model for football and entertainment. With some individual creators boasting more followers than the world’s most famous football clubs, Southfields and Banijay NXT saw an opportunity to merge the reach of digital creators with the universal passion for football, creating a club that could compete professionally while delivering engaging multi-platform content.
The club is fully registered with the KNVB, giving it the potential to climb the professional football pyramid in the Netherlands – a rare opportunity for a creator-driven team to compete at a serious level.
Southfields and Banijay NXT will produce and document content around FCF’s journey, sharing daily updates on TikTok and Instagram, and weekly vlogs on YouTube. Fans will follow every match, training session, and behind-the-scenes moment, combining football with social storytelling in a way that has never been done before.
Naique Tanate, Head of Banijay NXT, says: “With FCF, we turned an idea into reality: to combine the universal appeal of football with the creativity of digital creators. The club was conceived with the vision of Southfields and Banijay NXT, in collaboration with Ilias, Aimane and John, and we’re thrilled to bring their stories to audiences around the world.”
Ernst Veldkamp, CEO of Southfields, adds: “FCF demonstrates how established production expertise can unlock the potential of digital creators at scale. This collaboration is a blueprint for the future of entertainment, merging real-world sport with social storytelling, reaching new audiences, and creating new revenue opportunities for Southfields, creators and clubs alike.”
Based at FC Weesp, FCF competes in KNVB’s Fifth Division West 1. The club’s first home match livestream attracted over 23,000 viewers, and its social channels have already generated more than 22 million views.
This initiative opens new revenue streams – from sponsorships to digital advertising and content monetisation – highlighting the huge commercial potential of combining professional sport with creator-driven content. It also addresses a wider challenge: football participation among teens in the Netherlands has been declining in recent years, and initiatives like FCF aim to re-engage younger audiences with the sport through social-first, immersive content.
This collaboration reinforces Banijay Entertainment’s strategy to merge digital-first content with live sport, creating a new business model where creators, clubs and studios collaborate to reach global audiences and generate revenue across social platforms, broadcast and sponsorships.
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