CHELSEA have received a £40million boost after the Premier League finally cleared their long-awaited shirt sponsorship deal with American technology company Infinite Athlete.
Emma Hayes and her women’s team will debut the new kit in their WSL opening fixture against Tottenham on Sunday night.
Mauricio Pochettino’s first team will no longer be the ONLY top-flight side without a sponsor on their shirts when they make the short trip to London rivals Fulham on Monday night.
The Premier League had held up the deal for months while they conducted detailed investigations into the company, which is huge in America and the NFL but raised questions as it already had a relationship with the Stamford Bridge club through a related company Tempus Ex Machina.
Charlie Ebersol, the famed serial tech entrepreneur and prolific television producer, is the architect of the deal that eases some of the financial burden on the big-spending London club and launches his company into the European football market.
He said: “Debuting our new global entity, Infinite Athlete, to the world on football’s premier global stage, and on the front of the legendary Chelsea FC kit is a great honour and we are humbled by the opportunity to be able to continue this journey alongside the best in the world.”
Ebersol is co-founder and CEO of Tempus Ex Machina and Infinite Athlete. He rebranded the company as Infinite Athlete this year, after the merger of Tempus Ex Machina and Biocore.
That is what slightly confused the Premier League regulatory team, but Ebersol and his team welcomed the delay as they wanted to ensure there were no doubts about the integrity of his company and its relationship with Chelsea.
The deal is also a huge boost to the Chelsea CEO Chris Jurasek, who was only appointed at the end of May.
He commented: “The speed at which our relationship has grown, alongside the evolution of Infinite Athlete’s business, made this an obvious extension to our partnership.
“From the outset, it was clear the potential Infinite Athlete has in leveraging technology to unlock competitive advantage and to enhance the fan experience. We have a like-minded partner in Infinite Athlete.”
Infinite Athlete has plans to become a major player in world football – supplying affordable player data to clubs and allowing fans to watch games from multiple camera angles.
In Chelsea’s case, Pochettino and his staff will have the cutting edge AI player data they require to help manage their squad and hopefully, for them, improve results on the pitch .
For fans, it means they will also be able to see the same stats in an app, while streaming a match and view it as if they were standing with friends on The Shed end or Matthew Harding stand.
