Yesterday, one soccer team showed how not to do an April Fools joke. Today, one soccer team did it right.

A few days ago, the ownership group of San Diego’s hopeful MLS expansion team let fans vote on a team name if they were to be selected for one of MLS’ four expansion spots. In most things in which you subject to an open online vote, people made “Footy McFooty Face” the top choice by a large margin.

To make the best out of this terrible name situation, the ownership group (which includes Landon Donovan) came up with an April Fools joke announcing in a video that “San Diego Footy McFooty Face” would actually be the team name.

Even if they hadn’t done this, I would have assumed that they weren’t actually going to name the team that. But this is a pretty ingenious way to capitalize on the unfortunate notoriety and turn it around for a decent laugh. All the while, saying that there’s no way they are naming their team that.

For the real story, Donovan and fellow ownership partner Nick Stone explained that many votes for “Footy McFooty Face” were from LAFC and LA Galaxy fans trying to troll their potential future rival. And as they correctly point out, LA knows terrible branding when they see it.

In addition to the prank, you can also order a Footy McFooty Face shirt where all proceeds will go to soccer related non profit organizations.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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