One of the sponsors to flee Chelsea in the wake of the UK Government’s sanctions on Roman Abramovich were shirt-sleeve sponsors Hyundai UK, who saw an easy points-scoring opportunity for a bit of corporate moralizing by demanding the removal of their logo and ending their already-expiring deal a couple months early.
As it turns out, we were none too sad about their silliness, having already lined up a replacement for them, and at twice the price! That’s one of the reasons this deal could be announced as early as tomorrow, according to Sky News, who first reported this development — since it was agreed before the sanctions came into effect to prevent such activities.
Exclusive: WhaleFin’s entry into Premier League football sponsorship, through a deal with Chelsea, will, I’m told, be worth around £20m annually to the club. The cryptocurrency group recently struck an even bigger shirt sponsorship with Atletico Madrid. https://t.co/22pY8YK83U
— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) May 11, 2022
According to the report, the agreement with cryptocurrency trading platform WhaleFin was actually signed back in January. It’s due to pay us £20m for an unspecified number of years, twice the amount that Hyundai were paying during their sponsorship. To the moon!
WhaleFin, who were established in 2017, are currently valued at £3b and have recently struck a deal to become the shirt sponsors of Atlético Madrid to the tune of £40m annually for the next five years. No shortage of money in crypto these days obviously, and this is a far more palatable way to get involved than some NFT nonsense.
In related news, as per Matt Law of the Telegraph, we’re apparently also “considering replacements” for the similarly fleeing Three UK for the main shirt sponsorship.