Football club backed by YouTuber has asked to be relegated

Martin Macdonald

• 2 Apr 2026 11:30 CDT
• 7 min read

News

A football club founded by a YouTuber has sensationally requested to be relegated.

Hashtag United was established by Spencer Owen in 2016 and was initially created as a source for content on social media as the club would play five-a-side, seven-a-side and eventually 11-a-side exhibition matches that were uploaded to YouTube and other platforms.

In a few months, the YouTube channel gained 100,00 subscribers and so the level of content grew. Higher-profile exhibition games took place, such as against a Comedian XI, a Google XI and against the staff of Manchester City.

Ahead of the 2018/19 season, the club joined the Football League system, initially being placed in Division One of the Spartan South Midlands League, before being moved to the Eastern Counties League.

They are now semi-professional after three successive promotions and play in the Isthmian League's Premier Division.

However, they are now in the relegation zone and want to ensure that they will indeed to relegated no matter what the remaining results of the season are.

Moving up the divisions has apparently become unsustainable financially.

Hashtag United statement

In a lengthy statement on XI, Hashtag United said:

"Hashtag United turned ten years old last week. I'm incredibly grateful that, a decade ago, an idea found its moment and you were there to meet it.

"There was no marketing campaign or budget that put us in front of you. No family tradition that made this inevitable. No postcode that made Hashtag United the obvious choice. At some point, you found us and decided we were worth your time. That decision you made is the reason we exist. And it's where this announcement has to start, because without the choice you made, none of what follows means anything.

"Last Thursday, on our actual tenth anniversary, I sat in a room with our players and told them something difficult. I'm going to tell you the same thing but before I do I want to say this: I have never been more certain and more positive about the direction of this club than I am right now.

So here it is. We have requested that our men's team step down from the Isthmian Premier Division at the end of the 2025/26 season.

"We told the players at the earliest possible opportunity, so they could make decisions about their own futures before the registration deadline. Typically, the done thing here would be

- cut the budget and release players, often after the deadline, leaving them without income for the rest of the season. We wouldn't do that. We aren't cutting our budget and we aren't releasing anyone that wants to stay. Our aim is to avoid finishing in the bottom four spots and make this purely an administrative move. I will never go to a Hashtag game, not wanting us to win. It's just not in my nature. We are going down swinging and smiling.

"Some news has started to leak as a result but we are also telling you at the earliest possible opportunity. There's a lot of moving parts that come with a decision like this, and a lot of conversations that need to happen. Ultimately we put our players first and told them before anyone else in order to give them options.

"Make no mistake, this is our decision. Nobody has made us do it. We are choosing this because, after a long time thinking, we believe it gives us the best possible foundation for what comes next.

"Because the truth is, football has a problem. I've felt it for years. A decade inside the game has only made it clearer. I think the game is broken. I don't think it's controversial to say that in some ways football has taken the place of religion for many fans. Stadia as churches. Crowds as congregations. But even within those sacred walls, we're not immune from the same illness that has affected everything else. It's not football that's become God. It's money.

"Football's governance is lacking. The finances are unsustainable at almost every level. The rules no longer prioritise what made people fall in love with the game in the first place. It's become a victim of its own success and, in too many places, sold to the highest bidder.

"There's no denying this year has been tough on the pitch. The reality is we're about where we should be given our budget, in a landscape of unprecedented spending in the seventh tier. Call it the Wrexham effect if you want. The truth is there are only a handful of clubs and owners capable of doing what Ryan and Rob have done. For most, a club's fortunes will be entirely linked to the depth of an owner's pockets and the level of their enthusiasm. As soon as either gets smaller, all bets are off.

"We want to have the best players we can and play at the highest level possible, but not at the cost of our staff's jobs and not at the cost of us being able to continue our mission of innovating and changing the game. This season has come with a big learning curve for us and I've seen that even our club isn't immune from the fact that trying new things doesn't go down well if you're losing regularly. We have to have a budget that makes us competitive next year, because we'll be trying A LOT of new things.

"So many teams burn out as a result of flying too close to the sun. We want players that want to play for our club. Wherever possible we aim to find the players who resonate with our approach and want to be part of it. We want fans that support us because of what we're doing and how we're doing it. We have to stand for something bigger than just winning.

"Competition has always been in our DNA. Long before we entered the pyramid, before a league table had our name on it, we were competing in esports and in football divisions we invented ourselves with both risk and reward on the line, because we needed something real to play for. That hunger has never left us. It is not leaving us now.

"What we're announcing is not a retreat from competition. It's a decision about where we compete and why, so we can do it in a way that reflects who we actually are.

"We have to remember what got us here. Without our origin story we wouldn't exist, and if we drift too far from it, we won't just lose games, we'll lose ourselves.

"We've built something real. We're moving to a new ground with enormous potential. We have the ideas, the people, and the platform to do something genuinely extraordinary across our men's team, our women's team and the Allstars, who are only just getting started.

"The biggest risk to everything we've built is misallocating our resources and running out of time to use them properly. We won't let that happen.

"I don't want our football club to be nothing more than a reflection of my own ego or a mere servant to one person's infatuation with the white whale that is the Premier League. I'm not sure it's the El Dorado that so many think it is.

"The Premier League table on the day we uploaded our first game to YouTube proves it.

"Leicester City were top of the league and went on to win it. Now, they could be playing in League One next season.

"Relegation is a dirty word in football, and rightly so. It typically leads to loss of jobs and dark times. We are the exception to that rule.

"Moving to Step 4 will mean significant budgetary savings that will be reinvested into other key parts of the business at a crucial time, including employing MORE people while we significantly invest in building home attendances at our new ground. This could be the best thing that ever happened to us, at the perfect time.

"This is not a relegation. It is a revolution.

"What comes next, we will show you rather than tell you. We'll attract plenty of naysayers, I'm sure. But fortunately, spending a decade running a football club called Hashtag United has made me fairly comfortable with being uncomfortable.

"The results won't be instant, it may take some time. But we are committed to delivering on our goals and changing the game in the process."

We are taking a big swing, but that's the only way you get a home run. We are on a mission to make football fun again.

"Thank you for choosing us. We intend to keep deserving it.

"Up the Tags."

Hashtag United's main revenue stream comes from their social media platforms - they have 673k subscribers on YouTube - but they only average around 216 spectators for live matches which means they are in the red when it comes to ticket sales and food stall sales.

"At the moment, at least, we do not benefit from the core business model that clubs 100 years old in our division have, whether gate receipts or food‑and‑beverage income," Spencer Owen said.

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