Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Oct 07, 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

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
×