Keith Wyness reveals how much Chelsea have earned from new shirt sponsor deal
Chelsea could earn up to £10million from their new front-of-shirt sponsor deal which will run until the end of the season.
That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, after Chelsea agreed a deal with AI company IFS to become their shirt sponsor.
Chelsea have not had a permanent shirt sponsor since 2023, with the club looking for up to £65m per season to agree a deal.
Whilst a deal with IFS to sponsor Chelsea runs until 2028, the club will once again be left looking in the market for a front-of-shirt partnership in the summer.
Chelsea ‘not going to get anywhere near £18m’ for new deal
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – states that IFS could bring benefits to different areas of operations at Chelsea.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness does not believe the club would get more than £10m for the deal between now and the end of the season.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “Well, I was trying to do some numbers around this on the back of the envelope. While Chelsea were supposedly looking for £65million for the year’s sponsorship for their shirt, if the 11 games left, we’d be looking at around about £18million.
“Now, I don’t think they’re going to get anywhere near £18million. My belief is it’s going to be somewhere around about £10million. And they’re talking about giving them a lot of help in terms of the different areas of AI that this company deals in terms of helping with the performance data for the coaching staff, helping with logistics around the stadium and match day, and also fan engagement.
“So there will be benefits there that this company apparently can give to Chelsea to try and get them up to speed on some of those areas. Now there could be ways that, for instance, with the fan engagement that if they manage to create more revenue for Chelsea in some of those areas, part of that would go towards the cost of the sponsorship.
“So it’s almost like a value-in-kind sort of situation for part of the deal. So I’m guessing, and this is a complete guess in the dark, is that it’s about £10million for the rest of the season and the rest would be an in kind situation for AI.”
Liam Rosenior stance on Liam Delap transfer revealed
Despite being linked with a move to Everton, Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior is reluctant to lose striker Liam Delap in the summer transfer window.
Rosenior, who has previously worked with Delap at Hull City, wants to keep the 23-year-old at Stamford Bridge unless they can replace him in the transfer market.
Delap only has one Premier League goal for Chelsea this season, with Joao Pedro the club’s current top scorer on 11.