Chelsea FC Sign Big Money Deal With Yokohama

Chelsea FC is reportedly set to end their sponsorship deal with Samsung and instead sign a big money deal with Japanese tire giant Yokohama next season. The Blues had been rumored to sign a deal with Turkish Airlines in the range of £25m but the talks seemed to stall around Christmas time. Turkish Airlines already sponsor Galatasaray SK and securing the shirt sponsorship of a major club like Chelsea would have been a major coup for the airline but the price was a bit too rich for them.

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Instead it appears that Chelsea will sign a deal with Yokohama for a fee reported to be £40m a year. This would see the Blues more than double their shirt sponsorship revenue as Samsung currently pays only £18m for that honor.

Samsung reportedly wants to end ties with Chelsea because they want to increase their mass appeal to British consumers and plastering their logo on the front of a much-hated club is not the best marketing strategy. The association of Chelsea with Samsung is very strong as the two have been partnered for nearly a decade during Chelsea’s most successful spell as a club.

If the rumors are true and the figures are accurate then Chelsea’s deal with Yokohama will be the second biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the Premier League. Chevrolet currently pay Manchester United £53m a year to place their hideous logo on the front of United’s shirts and make them the “official automotive brand” of Manchester United. In a way that fee makes sense as it would take a great deal of money to convince a club to place  a logo that ugly on all of their shirts.

There were some concerns about Turkish Airlines’ logo clashing with the blue and white of Chelsea but there should be little concern about Yokohama’s logo. Some inspired folks on the internet have already put together a mockup of what the Chelsea shirt could look like with the Japanese company’s logo on it and it looks quite good. The association of a fast and sleek tire design also pairs well with the sleek footballing machine Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich are building at Stamford Bridge.

The jump in sponsorship money will also help improve the Blues’ chances of signing some big money players that they previously could not afford due to Financial Fair Play. An extra £22m a year is a tremendous figure and perhaps could be enough to sway Juventus to sell a player like Paul Pobga. Abramovich could certainly pull out his checkbook and sign a check worth £40 or £50m for a player of his caliber but at the cost of throwing the Chelsea books in to chaos.

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£40m is also a fair price to pay for a club that has one of the biggest global fanbases in all of world football. Chelsea have some catching up to do to match the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in branding and global presence but this deal with Yokohama represents a giant step in the right direction for the Blues.

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