Stefan Borson: Chelsea have made ‘ridiculous’ decision after sponsor latest
Chelsea are continuing to play without a new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal heading into October.
Chelsea have faced sponsorship issues over the past couple of years after failing to land a permanent primary shirt deal.
After holding talks with various interested parties, Chelsea are looking to agree a £60million deal.
The Blues’ last major shirt deal came in the 2023-24 campaign when associated party Infinite Athlete agreed to pay £40m for a single season.
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider he believes Chelsea are currently overpricing the value of their front-of-shirt sponsorship.
Suspicions Chelsea have overpriced front-of-shirt sponsorship
In a statement on 23 September, Chelsea confirmed their new business leadership team following the departure of chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig.
Meanwhile, Todd Kline is now the president of commercial, Phil Lynch is the new chief digital officer and James Murray has been promoted to chief operating officer, with all three reporting to president Jason Gannon.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider about Chelsea’s failure to land a front-of-shirt deal, Borson said: “Do the historic charges have any impact on their ability to find a new sponsor?
“Or is it simply a case that they’ve just overpriced it and it’s not really worth £60m, it’s worth £35m or £40m, and they’re just going to have to take one of the offers that’s presumably been on the table? I mean, I can’t believe they’ve never had an offer for it.
“Ordinarily, you would run a process where around now you’d be starting to put in place the plans for next season because what you want to do is to be ready when you go and send the file to print for your kit for next season, and let’s say you do that in March or April.
“You want to have the sponsor lined up, so you want to have it all announced that they’ll be the sponsor for next season. You might give them a stub-period deal for this season where they don’t get full value, but at least they get some perimeter. At least they get some hospitality.
“They pay maybe a percentage of what it ordinarily would be, and maybe they do a deal where they’re paying for this season. But in reality, it’s kind of moving some of the money from next season and the season after, so these are all things that they can do to try and get more money into this year if they need to.”
Chelsea announced a short-term deal in April for DAMAC to appear on the front of their shirts for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign, but it was never the intention for the partnership to be extended into this season.
Chelsea are ‘throwing money in the bin’ after sponsor decision
Chelsea were expected to announce a new shirt deal following their Club World Cup success, but an agreement is yet to materialise.
Borson said: “It’s a priority that they have a front-of-shirt sponsor.
“It’s ridiculous to operate for three years with no non-associated party shirt sponsor for your main sponsorship product. It’s just crazy.
“It’s throwing money in the bin, especially when they’ve actually won things, they’ve actually been in these finals, and they’ve been in high, attractive brand opportunities like the Club World Cup.
“If the reality is they’re just not getting enough money through the door, I doubt it’s about the executives. I think they’re just overpricing it.”
Chelsea also don’t currently have a sleeve sponsorship deal in place after their agreement with Live Nation expired this summer.
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