Chelsea marked their return to the Champions League with a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich. Still, it was an occasion to remember as this is the first time under the new ownership that the club have been able to qualify for the competition. Hopefully, it proves to be a good learning curve for the players, who performed well enough but were made to pay for errors at the back.
There have been plenty of errors off the pitch in recent years as well. One of them has to be the club's inability to land a front-of-shirt sponsor for years. The Infinite Athlete deal was just for a year and a short-term fix at best, and since then, the Blues have remained without a sponsor.
After winning the Club World Cup, and qualifying for the Champions League, there were suggestions that the issue was going to be solved and a sponsor was going to be found at the figure the club were looking for. Unfortunately, there are now serious doubts about that.
As reported by SportBusiness, Chelsea are facing more upheaval in its commercial department following the departure of chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig. He spent less than two years in the role.
Chelsea handed £300m blow after behind-the-scenes exit
That is now good news. As reported by Football Insider, Stylsvig’s departure raises questions regarding where Chelsea are currently in their bid to land a new front-of-shirt sponsor deal.
It has been believed that Chelsea were looking for a deal in the region of £60 million per year for their front-of-shirt sponsor. That would land them around £300 million over the next five years.
But the club cannot afford to continue chasing that magical figure if they do not have the capability of pulling that in. They are leaving themselves short as a result of having no front-of-shirt sponsor year after year and the effect of that is being felt on the transfer market, where they end up having to part ways with a number of players every year just to fund moves of their own.