By: EFE Updated 10 Mar 2022, 16: 54 am EST
The sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich, which have a direct impact on Chelsea, have caused the fright of sponsors such as the telecommunications operator Three, which will mean a loss of more than $45 million dollars per year for the whole of London.
The telephone company was the first to jump ship after the British government will announce this Thursday that the assets of the Russian billionaire are frozen for the actions taken against the Russian tycoons for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chelsea will play without a sponsor up front as the brand “Three ” has decided that they will immediately discontinue their sponsorship of 40 million pounds a year.
The outlook for the ‘Blues’ continues to get worse… pic.twitter.com/ISK0VbOCNL
— ESPN Deportes ( @ESPNDeportes) March 04, 2022
This has left the club in a delicate situation, since they cannot sell tickets, nor ‘ merchandising’, nor signing, selling or renewing players. They can only amass money through contracts already signed for television rights, but this income will not go to Abramovich, but to a fund to pay employees and soccer players.
“As long as we have enough shirts and a bus to go to the games, we will be there and we will compete”, said o Thomas Tuchel, coach of the ‘Blues’, after the victory against Norwich City this Thursday.
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION. Due to the recent sanctions of the United Kingdom government on Roman Abramovich, Three UK decided to temporarily suspend its sponsorship agreement with Chelsea. Your brand will NOT appear on the jerseys or around Stamford Bridge until further notice. pic.twitter.com/PnXKUTmM2b
– Undefeated (@InvictosSomos) March 10, 2022
And it is that Chelsea even has a spending limit for home and away games. You can only allocate 25.000 dollars for your trips, while for the meetings at Stamford Bridge, which can be attended by almost 29.000 members and those who bought their tickets before 10 in March, the limit will be raised until 660.000 euros, for concepts such as catering, security and cleaning.
The sale of the club is also frozen, waiting for the Government to give special permission so that it can go ahead with it. And this permission is more requested than ever at Chelsea, because the brands are starting to go away.
The first of them was Three, who in 2020 signed a million-dollar deal to sponsor the team shirts and with various advertisements at Stamford Bridge.
“We have asked Chelsea to temporarily suspend our sponsorship of the club, including removing our branding from their shirts and around the stadium until new order”, Three said in a statement. “We understand that this decision will impact many Chelsea fans, but given the current circumstances and the government sanctions, it is the right thing to do,” the company added.
Chelsea, in total, has 16 sponsors , including the American Nike, which makes its jerseys, Trivago, which sponsors the training and warm-up jerseys, the Japanese tire company Yokohama Tires, the insurance company British Vitality, the Swiss watchmaker Hublot, the British chocolate maker Cadbury and the Thai brewer Singha, among others.
Of these agreements, the most important financially speaking is that of Nike, which contributes more than $60 millions of dollars to the coffers of the club each year.