Chelsea refused permission to circumvent Premier League rules for shirt sponsorship

Chelsea are in talks for a wholly unpalatable shirt sponsorship with a gambling company online casino, called Stake to become our new main sponsors — getting that in just before it would be against the rules (finally!) in the Premier League — but apparently part of the reason we’re going down this route is desperation and last-minute scrambling because our other main option is already against Premier League rules.

Whoopsies! Well, at least we’re consistent.

According to multiple reports, including from The Athletic, Chelsea were “refused permission” to strike a deal (of unknown magnitude) with US-based streaming service Paramount Plus, who sponsored Inter Milan for the last two games of last season due to some missed payments on behalf of their previous sponsor.

Paramount Plus carry the Champions League and Serie A broadcast rights in the USA and they have nothing to do with the Premier League directly, but they do carry the Premier League in Mexico and Central America, which creates a conflict of interest with other broadcasters for the league in other territories (especially in the US, where Paramount could conceivably bid against current rights-holders NBC in the future) and is evidently thus against the league's "Deed of License" or some such.

Oopsies!

So this is a mess either way, and (yet again) not exactly a great look for the supposed business-savvy of our new owners.