London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Chelsea to unveil £20m-a-year shirt deal with cryptocurrency brand WhaleFin

Chelsea to unveil £20m-a-year shirt deal with cryptocurrency brand WhaleFin

The Blues, which remain subject to restrictions on their commercial operations, have struck a lucrative shirt-sleeve deal with a fast-growing digital assets platform.

Chelsea FC is close to unveiling a £20m-a-year sponsorship deal with a fast-growing cryptocurrency group – despite a temporary ban on the club striking lucrative new partnerships while it operates under government supervision.

Sky News can reveal that the Blues have agreed a shirt-sleeve contract with WhaleFin, a digital asset platform owned by Singapore-based Amber Group.

Sources said the deal, which will launch next season, could be confirmed publicly as early as Thursday morning.

It will represent Chelsea's first foray into the cryptocurrency arena, and comes just weeks after Liverpool was linked with a deal from the sector to replace Standard Chartered, the emerging markets-focused bank, as its main shirt sponsor.

The deal between the Stamford Bridge club and WhaleFin is notable for a number of reasons, the most obvious being the stringent commercial restrictions placed on Chelsea since outgoing owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government in March.

However, people close to the transaction said that the agreement was signed in January - well before it became subject to conditions which included bans on ticket and memorabilia sales.

Manchester United struck a deal with Tezos, a blockchain group, meaning that Chelsea's WhaleFin partnership will not be the Premier League's maiden crypto deal.

It will underline the enormous sums of money being deployed by crypto platforms in an attempt to build their brands in one of the fastest-growing areas of global finance.

WhaleFin itself has agreed a deal to emblazon its logo on the shirts of Atletico Madrid in Spain's top flight that was said to be worth more than 40 million euros a year.

Amber Group was recently reported to be in talks to raise new funds at a valuation of $10bn or more.

Its backers include Temasek Holdings, Sequoia China and Tiger Global Management, some of the most prolific investors in the venture capital arena.

WhaleFin will replace Hyundai as Chelsea's shirt-sleeve sponsor, with the Korean car-maker understood to be discussing an alternative commercial tie-up with the club.

Chelsea is also said to be seeking a replacement for 3 UK, the mobile phone group, as its main shirt sponsor.

New owners pay £2.5bm for Abramovich's shares - and pledge more to invest in stadium


Details of the arrangement come just weeks before the existential crisis which engulfed Chelsea two months ago is expected to be resolved.

Mr Abramovich has struck a binding deal to sell the current Club World Champions to a group of investors led by Clearlake Capital and spearheaded by Todd Boehly, the LA Dodgers part-owner.

The transaction involves the new owners paying £2.5bn to acquire Mr Abramovich's shares in Chelsea, while pledging £1.75bn of future investment in its stadium, academy and women's team.

Sky News revealed last week that the terms of the takeover would prevent Mr Boehly and his fellow investors paying dividends or taking management fees for a decade.

The measures were described as a package of 'anti-Glazer clauses' designed to avoid the controversies which have dogged Manchester United since the Glazers' takeover in 2005.

The new owners will also be prohibited from selling any shares in the club for ten years, as well as agreeing to strict limits on the level of debt that they can take on.

The Glazer family's £790m takeover of Manchester United saddled the club with expensive debt known as payment-in-kind notes, and provided a focal point for fan protests, which escalated in the wake of Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.

Manchester United was floated on the New York Stock Exchange a decade ago, with the Glazers having extracted hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends and from the sale of shares during their ownership.

Chelsea's takeover remains subject to approval from the Premier League, and the issuance of a special licence from the government.

That is expected in the next fortnight, although people close to the deal have cautioned that it is not yet certain to take place.

Uncertainty over club's ownership blamed for key players' departures


Mr Abramovich is said to be determined to donate at least £2.5bn to a new foundation benefiting war victims, with a demand in the latter stages of the auction that bidders increase their offers by at least £500m.

The rivals to the Clearlake-Boehly bid were a consortium headed by Boston Celtics part-owner Steve Pagliuca and Larry Tanenbaum, the NBA chairman and Toronto Maple Leafs owner; and one led by Sir Martin Broughton, the former British Airways and Liverpool FC chairman, which would have involved Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment - owner of a stake in Premier League side Crystal Palace and a string of US sports teams - holding a controlling interest.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos Group tycoon, also made a late entry into the process, although its approach was dismissed by Mr Abramovich's advisers.

Uncertainty over the club's ownership already being blamed for the departure of key players including Antonio Rudiger, the German centre-half.

Mr Abramovich has owned Chelsea since 2003, and has turned the club into one of the top sides in Europe, with 19 major trophies having been won under him.

Chelsea declined to comment on Wednesday night, while Amber Group could not be reached for comment.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×