Premier League finally approve Chelsea’s sponsorship agreement with Infinite Athlete — report

After nearly two months of waiting and nearly three months of not having a front-of-shirt sponsor, Chelsea’s sponsorship agreement with the sports data company Infinite Athlete (IA) has been finally approved by the Premier League. According to the Telegraph, we should expect an official announcement later today (Wednesday).

Chelsea reportedly finalized the deal with IA at the start of August, a month after our previous three-year deal with Three UK expired, and after making some unwise forays towards gambling companies and then also towards media streaming services with conflicts of interest to become our main sponsors.

Those initial reports pegged the IA deal at £50m per year, though it sounds like the Premier League will have had that knocked down to £40m as per whatever esoteric financial fair play tests they may have put it through (though the Telegraph’s sources “insist that the original deal presented to the Premier League has not been forced to undergo any dramatic change or be significantly revalued under fair market value rules”). The £40m would match the outgoing deal with Three UK.

It remains unclear whether this will be a multi-year agreement with Infinite Athlete (née Tempus Ex) or just a one-off for this season as we look for more permanent sponsorship agreements for the front of the shirt.

There’s no word on any new shirt-sleeve sponsors at this point.