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Kieran Maguire shocked by 'spectacular' Chelsea development - 'an amazing deal'
The £40million sponsorship deal between Chelsea and Infinite Athlete is ‘spectacular’ business by the Blues.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who exclusively told Football Insider that Chelsea’s commercial team deserves credit for extracting £40million from the sponsorship deal.
Chelsea announced on Saturday (30 September) that Infinite Athlete has become the club’s new front-of-shirt sponsor, with the US brand set to appear on their shirts this weekend.
The Londoners held talks with multiple parties including Paramount Plus, Stake and Allianz this summer to replace Three as their primary shirt sponsor.
They struck an agreement with Infinite Athlete weeks ago but were made to wait for Premier League approval before announcing the partnership.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the deal is worth £40million per season to Chelsea, matching the valuation of their previous Three deal despite not playing in Europe.
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Maguire believes it is ‘absolutely amazing’ that Chelsea were able to strike a £40million deal given that many fans will have already bought the shirt.
“If the deal is worth £40million for the remainder of this season, then it’s an absolutely amazing deal because fans have already bought the kit,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“The two peak periods of kit purchases are at launch and just before Christmas.
“So you’re going to have a lot of fans who’ve already bought the kit, which won’t have the sponsors present.
“Chelsea are also not playing in Europe this year and European competition guarantees you a minimum of another half a dozen matches potentially.
“It also exposes the club and the sponsor to a different audience, which you won’t necessarily get from weekend matches in the Premier League.
“So a valuation of £40million is a spectacular piece of work.
“If it was a multi-year deal, you could see Infinite Athlete just taking it as a hit.
“But if it’s just going to be for one year, you’ve got to give credit to Chelsea because results on the pitch have been modest.“
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