Whilst much of the criticism around Chelsea‘s owners Clearlake Capital in the wake of their 2022 takeover of the club has focused on squad building, player recruitment and the academy, their operation of the commercial side of the club has also come into focus on the opening day of the new season 2024/25.
Why? For the second season running, Chelsea have started the campaign with no front of shirt sponsor. Those watching the Blues’ opening game of the season against Manchester City will have noticed Chelsea played the game with a clean, sponsor-free kit on the front of their shirt.
The same thing happened in 2022/23. At the end of the 22/23 season, when Chelsea’s sponsorship deal with Three expired, the new owners decided not to sign a long-term front of shirt deal in the way clubs like Liverpool (Standard Chartered) or Manchester United (Snapdragon) have done for many years. Instead, Chelsea took the decision to sign a short-term, one year kit sponsorship deal with Infinite Athlete.
Though Chelsea’s deal with Infinite Athlete is a seven-year deal involving offshoots of the Infinite Athlete brand, the front of shirt sponsorship part of the tie-up was only agreed for one season.
According to SportsPro Media this was due to Chelsea’s failure to qualify for the Champions League in 2023. The feeling, reportedly, was that the club could attract a more lucrative shirt sponsorship deal if they could qualify for Europe’s premier club competition in 2023/24 under Mauricio Pochettino. A short term shirt deal would allow the club to qualify for the Champions League and then sign a longer-term, more financially attractive kit deal.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
Chelsea again failed to qualify for the Champions League last season, instead finishing sixth. A new front of shirt sponsor is pending, according to reports in The Athletic. But this has left Chelsea without a front of shirt sponsor for the second year in a row after their Champions League gamble backfired a second time.
Gamble or smart move?
Chelsea’s front of shirt sponsorship deal with Infinite Athlete brought in a reported £40 million in commercial revenue for one season – below the likes of Liverpool (£50m per season) or Manchester United (£47m per season) but level with or above clubs like Tottenham Hotspur (£40m per season), Newcastle United (£25m per season) or Aston Villa (£40m per season).
Chelsea posted total revenues of £512.5 million in 2023, up 4% from £481.3m in 2022. The lack of a long-term front of shirt sponsor can be looked at in one of two ways: more shrewd outside the box thinking from Todd Boehly and the club’s new owners, similar to some of their accounting tricks and long-term structure of their playing contracts. Or it could be considered an awkward, bad look for a club to go two years running without a front of shirt sponsor on the opening day, opening the club up to accusations of a lack of professionalism.
Ultimately, your opinion on that may depend on your opinion of how Chelsea are being run as a football club in general.
The post No Chelsea front of shirt sponsor: Smart play or reckless gamble? appeared first on Just Football.
