Kieran Maguire left confused by ‘strange’ Chelsea twist as deal collapses
It is ‘strange’ that the Premier League decided to block Chelsea from striking a sponsorship agreement with Paramount Plus.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively about the Premier League’s decision to step in the way of Chelsea’s commercial activity.
As reported by the Daily Mail (18 June), the Premier League refused to give Chelsea permission to sign a front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with Paramount Plus.
The deal was refused as there were concerns from the Premier League that it could upset the competition’s broadcast partners.
Following the breakdown of the deal, it has been reported that Chelsea are now in advanced talks with gambling company Stake over a £40million per season deal.
Maguire believes the deal has worked in Chelsea’s favour as they can now claim they tried to sign an ‘ethical’ sponsorship agreement first.
“This seems very strange because Paramount Plus sponsored Inter Milan in the Champions League final and there were no objections from Sky Italia,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“So why are Sky objecting to this?
“Also, Paramount Plus is delivered via a sky platform on occasion.
“It’s not a rival as such as it doesn’t have Premier League rights as far as the UK is concerned.
“So, I think this is a story which Chelsea will secretly be delighted with in the sense that it allows them to go to an organisation such as Stake and say they tried to go with a more ethical front-of-shirt deal, but the Premier League won’t let them.
“It plays into Chelsea’s hands – it certainly plays into the narrative that they’ve tried to do the right thing.
“If that is the case, you can have a degree of sympathy for Chelsea’s negotiating team.“
In other news, Chelsea turn attention to Portugese deal after £65m terms agreed