Chelsea's decision to agree a short-term shirt sponsorship deal with DAMAC has been heavily criticised by a football finance expert.
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Chelsea have unveiled new shirt sponsorBut deal is only for final month of seasonExpert unimpressed with agreementFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
The Blues have been without a front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2024-25 campaign but have announced a deal has been agreed with DAMAC Properties for the final month of the campaign. The DAMAC logo will feature on the club's kit for the remaining four Premier League matches and their Conference League campaign. The women's team will also wear the logo on their jerseys, starting from Sunday's WSL clash with Tottenham.
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This is the second straight year where Chelsea have not had a front-of-shirt sponsor, and it's still not clear what will happen in the future. The sponsorship deal is not thought to include the Club World Cup which takes place in June in the United States. Chelsea will play at least three group games in the tournament and and are scheduled to take on Flamengo and ES Tunis, plus a replacement for the omitted Leon.
WHAT FOOTBALL FINANCE EXPERT SAID
Finance expert professor Rob Wilson told OLBG: "It’s fascinating and really unusual at this stage of the season. I guess in some ways it really showcases Chelsea's desperation at finding a shirt sponsor. They've kind of publicly said that they want around £60 million a year for that front of shirt sponsorship, which in my opinion is simply too high and isn't justified by the sporting performance or otherwise actually of the football club. What we need to remember there is that they've had no sponsor on the front of the shirt this season. They didn't have one last season. The last sponsor they had was Infinite Athlete, which was essentially a Todd Boehly company. Now that also means not just they haven't earned the £60million but everybody else has pulled away from them so I think they would have probably been better advised to lower their expectations and sign shorter deals rather than miss out on what was probably £80million over the last two seasons."
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Wilson also spoke about the new sponsors. He added: "With regard to the DAMAC move you'd also probably expect more clarity and strategic alignment when making a move like this but I think it really feels to me much more optimistic perhaps even reactive to the challenges that they're going to have around profitability and sustainability regulations into next season. In terms of potential worth, DAMAC is a significant commercial partner. They are really quite big in the UAE, although they've had their ups and downs.
"I think the Chelsea residence idea is more about the area and what it's been called rather than any kind of club relationships. It's perhaps a happy coincidence. Nonetheless, I think that will support both brands. In terms of value, I'd estimate worth in the region of maybe 15 to 20 million pounds, depending on the assets included, the brand value, the media activations and so on. It's going to be really quite important for Chelsea to activate that deal to make sure that it works. I appreciate it's only until the end of the season. They're probably going to try and showcase what you can do with the front of shirt sponsorship at Chelsea Football Club before DAMAC just become a commercial partner. next year. The oddity is the timing, not necessarily the ambition, but Chelsea still want quite an odd amount for their front of shirt sponsorship."
