Hashtag United: How a YouTube Streaming Channel Turned Into a Real Soccer Team

The club sprang to life through a group of friends led by Spencer Owen, who played video soccer games and streamed them online. He built a large following on YouTube, and now Mr. Owen and his brother have turned their digital team into a real-life soccer team that’s climbing up through England’s semipro leagues—and slowly winning over rival fans who questioned their bona fides.

“We got a lot of stick at the beginning,” says Mr. Owen, recalling the criticism they would get at games. “But it’s like how every football club started. Look at Thames Ironworks. They were just mates working together down by the river and now they’re West Ham United. We’re the same. It’s just that we work with the internet and social media instead of in a factory.”

Sports teams around the world boast about their local roots and all the mythology that goes with it, often going back 100 years or more.

Think of Boston. The Red Sox have an outsize influence on how people there perceive themselves and how the rest of the U.S. sees them, too. Or how the storied soccer team FC Barcelona has become a symbol for Catalan independence.

But Hashtag United’s founders say the world has changed. Any new sports team’s fan base is now as likely to find a sense of togetherness online as working on the docks or at the steel mill.

Some half-a-million subscribers now watch games and highlights on the team’s YouTube channel, more than Mr. Owen’s favorite team, premier-league West Ham. Some players have become minor celebrities while having day jobs. One, Toby Aromolaran, appeared on “Love Island,” a British reality show. Others are asked for selfies in the supermarket.

“It’s part of the appeal of playing for Hashtag,” said Seb Carmichael-Brown, the team’s commercial director and Mr. Owen’s brother (Spencer tends to use his middle name to better differentiate their online projects.)

Some supporters have taken the leap to watching the games in the flesh. The Tags, as the team is known, draw around 500 people for their home matches at a small ground they share with another team in Pitsea, a town around 30 miles east of London. That’s considered a good turnout in the Isthmian League Northern Division, down in the eighth tier of the English leagues, where the billboards advertise dumpsters or asbestos-removal services and opponents have names like Stowmarket Town and Heybridge Swifts.

“I used to go see Chelsea,” a glamorous London team, said Matthew Dillon, who came with his son Colm on a recent Saturday to see Hashtag United play Canvey Island. “But Colm here was watching Hashtag on YouTube and wanted to come here instead.”

Cathal Sheerin flew in from Galway, Ireland, to catch the game. “I was a fan of what Spencer was doing on YouTube and I just fell in love with the story,” he said.

The Tags’ founders first approached England’s Football Association in 2017 to see if Hashtag United could join the league. They laid out plans for their women’s teams and youth teams, but the name was a sticking point.

“We were a bit worried for a while,” says Mr. Carmichael-Brown. “They wanted us to call ourselves Hashtag London or Hashtag Essex.”

“The name is the secret sauce, really,” Mr. Owen says. “If we were called Brentwood Athletic then nobody outside of a 10-mile radius would take a blind bit of notice.”

After a tense few weeks, the soccer bosses agreed. Hashtag United were cleared to play.

“Other clubs’ fans were a bit dismissive at first,” says Tony Stratton, a disc jockey at a local hospital radio station. Some wrote off the new team, saying a bunch of YouTube celebrities wouldn’t be able to cope with a rainy night in some of the towns around London’s rougher reaches.

“People would look at them funny when they started,” said Chris Wright, a Canvey Island fan. “But they’ve done a lot with their youth teams and their women’s team so, yeah, I think people accept them more now.”

The Tags’ first two seasons flashed by, winning promotion to the next league up each time. This season has been tougher, with the team going up against more experienced opponents.

Coach Jay Devereux, or “Devs,” as he’s known, had few illusions about how difficult it would be. “This is where we find out exactly where we are,” he told the players before taking to the field for their first game of the season last August, against Coggeshall Town.

The Tags fought hard, fighting back after losing an early goal. Star player Jesse Waller-Lesser tied the game with a left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area.

The next game was a 3-1 loss at Dereham Town. “That was a harsh lesson,” said Devs. Another loss to local rivals Brentwood was followed by a 4-0 thumping at Canvey Island.

September saw the Tags turn a corner with a 3-0 win over Maldon & Tiptree United.

“We had to go through some horrible games but this was as good as it comes,” said Mr. Owen, commentating the game for Hashtags’ YouTube channel.

The Tags followed up with a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win against one of the league leaders, Great Wakering Rovers. Devs, normally gruff with his postgame talks, couldn’t hide his pleasure.

“Let’s not underestimate how good a victory that is,” he said.

The Tags picked up some more wins over the rest of the winter and into the spring, getting themselves into contention for the postseason playoffs.

The team still had an outside chance of making it in the final game of the regular season last month. They went a goal down to Canvey Island before tying the score in the second half. Then Canvey scored the winner.

Hashtag United will now have to wait until next season to try again. Messrs. Owen and Carmichael-Brown are already making plans, searching out sites for a ground of their own.

The fans are thinking further ahead.

“You hear about people in their 90s talking about how they got to see their team rise all the way to top,” said Mr. Sheerin before leaving for his flight back to Ireland. “Maybe when we’re 96 or 97 we’ll be those people.”