The Board

[KEVINAA 129]

BLUECO WANT SCP - SPORTING CLUBE DE PORTUGAL OF LISBON.

 

 

[Mário César 1,232]

4 minutes ago, KEVINAA said:

BLUECO WANT SCP - SPORTING CLUBE DE PORTUGAL OF LISBON.

 

 

never gonna happen

[KEVINAA 129]

Chelsea fined 31m euros (£27m) by UEFA with a further €60m conditional for breaches of its financial rules.

 

[Pizy 18,850]

Sure have been quick to punish us yet City and all their shit is still dragging on. I realize one is UEFA and the other is PL, but still.

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

3 hours ago, Pizy said:

Sure have been quick to punish us yet City and all their shit is still dragging on. I realize one is UEFA and the other is PL, but still.

Delete 

Edited July 4 by NikkiCFC

[Vesper 30,085]

‘Brand Palmer’, Chelsea and how they can use Club World Cup to build U.S. popularity

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6494813/2025/07/16/Chelsea-cole-palmer-club-world-cup/

Cole Palmer was the face of Chelsea’s Club World Cup campaign from the minute he stepped foot in the United States to the moment he got his hands on the trophy in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.

The 23-year-old’s match-winning performance against favourites Paris Saint-Germain in the final, where he scored two goals in a 3-0 win, cemented his status as the Premier League club’s most important player, on and off the pitch.

For Palmer, whose face has been plastered over billboards in New York City, the Club World Cup triumph has the potential to work wonders for his commercial appeal, especially before the international World Cup taking place in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next year.

‘Scary Good’ was the tagline to a Palmer billboard in Times Square in the build-up to Sunday’s final, and he more than lived up to that moniker.

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He had already achieved crossover — largely down to his endearing personality and a goal celebration that earned him the nickname ‘Cold Palmer’ — but he has now had his breakout moment on the global stage.

And with under a year to go until next summer’s World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, the England international is uniquely positioned to capitalise on his Club World Cup success and continue to grow his commercial appeal in America.

“Twelve months ago, beyond the celebration, you didn’t have any sort of big, high-profile performances that would define him and make him relevant to a U.S. audience,” Misha Sher, a global sports marketing expert and executive at WPP Media, tells The Athletic. “You now have those two things.”

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Cole Palmer opened the scoring against PSG in the Club World Cup final (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Palmer’s talent with a football, coupled with his personality, is a recipe for success when it comes to growing a following. He is adored for being his authentic self and regularly goes viral on social media for his unintentional one-liners.

A clip from Sunday night, when a confused Palmer appears to say, “Wait, wait, what is he doing?”, before Chelsea captain Reece James lifts the Club World Cup trophy has been viewed millions of times.

The ‘he’ Palmer was referring to is Donald Trump, the American president, who handed over the trophy and then decided to stay for the celebrations. He was not overtly trying to be funny, and yet another example of how he cuts through by simply being himself.

Chelsea beat PSG 3-0 in the final to lift the Club World Cup, with Cole Palmer giving his side a two-goal advantage a third of the way through the tie 🏆

One person the winners didn’t expect to see on stage for the trophy lift was US President Donald Trump… pic.twitter.com/IzgeqtNiwc

— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 14, 2025

For Sher, however, showing he can win and perform in the biggest moments is even more important than his ability to effortlessly generate engagement online.

“In the past, you would say he’s got a quirky character, he’s capable of some magic, and he’s got a cool celebration,” Sher says.

“All of those are nice, but they fade in comparison to defining moments that can solidify your position in the hearts and minds of fans.

“He was named player of the tournament and that takes him to a completely different sphere because Americans love a breakout star. He fits the profile that an American audience loves.”

For next year’s World Cup, Sher believes there will be “major interest” in Palmer from American companies as his “relevance is high” and there’s a good chance he will “get even bigger over the next 12 months”.

“There are moments that can define what happens next in a player’s career,” Sher adds. “You can use the success, attention and profile as a platform to build his brand.

“Rather than hoping that some of the brands will reach out to him, I would be proactively building a strategy to capitalise on this opportunity and grow Cole Palmer’s brand in the U.S. — there will be so much appetite.”

 

Palmer with the Club World Cup and Golden Ball trophies (Hector Vivas – FIFA via Getty Images)

Sher cites the importance of Palmer working with “some of the biggest media companies” in the U.S. over the next 12 months to “keep that momentum going”.

Palmer has already developed several notable endorsement deals, including with Burberry, the luxury British fashion house. He is also a Nike athlete and has done promotional work for EA FC, the football video game.

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The cult of ‘Cold Palmer’ has reached America – can he become a global brand?

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Adrian Wright, a director at Sporting Group International and former commercial director at English Championship club West Bromwich Albion, explains one method Palmer and his team might use to grow his platform in America.

“He will have reports behind his Instagram account that would show what countries people are following him from, what’s the age demographic,” Wright explains.

“An agency would identify brands linked to Palmer’s social following, take that analysis and then identify brands relevant to that demographic.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMEApOkBKMa/

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It won’t just be Palmer who may attempt to reap the benefits of a successful month in America, though.

Chelsea should see this as a chance to supercharge their plans to grow in North America, a vital market for the club.

The Athletic has detailed why the Premier League side are leaning heavily on their London heritage in marketing campaigns, hoping to capture a global audience, but there is nothing quite like lifting a trophy.

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“If they can’t leverage this win, then they never will,” says Wright. “If I was a commercial director there, I would be switching all of our activity to the U.S. and just making sure that everybody knew about the win and what it means for them.”

The room for growth at Chelsea was evident early in the tournament.

Chelsea’s group-stage match against Los Angeles FC, for example, was attended by just over 22,000 spectators at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which has a capacity of 71,000.

 

Chelsea’s game against LAFC was sparsely attended (Kevin C Cox/Getty Images)

Their last-16 win against Benfica attracted just under 26,000 fans at the Bank of America Stadium — only Fluminense’s 2-0 win against Inter had a lower turnout (20,030 at the same ground) among the knockout-stage games.

Before their semi-final against Fluminense, several Chelsea players, including Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, tried to shift tickets via their Instagram profiles.

It could be argued that FIFA’s dynamic ticket pricing and poor ticket sales, at least in the early games, didn’t help Chelsea — they weren’t the only side to experience low attendances — but it does suggest they are yet to crack America.

New York City’s iconic Empire State Building was lit up in blue to mark the club’s win, an example of the opportunity they have to cash in on previously unexplored commercial opportunities.

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It means that it could be cheaper to buy a ticket to that semi-final than buy a cheesesteak ($15) or beer ($14) inside MetLife.

A YouGov survey conducted between July 10 and July 13, which gathered just over 1,000 responses from adults in America, showed Chelsea are still behind Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Liverpool for popularity and fame in the U.S.

Five per cent of respondents said they had a ‘very favourable’ view of Chelsea, while 11 per cent said their view was ‘somewhat favourable’. Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona scored seven per cent on the ‘very favourable’ metric.

However, the survey also highlighted how soccer in general still has plenty of room for growth in the U.S., with 62 per cent of the respondents saying they do not follow the sport and held no view on any of the clubs.

During their time in America, Chelsea only held one fan engagement event, which took place in Manhattan on the eve of the final and was dubbed ‘Legends Night’. Claude Makelele, a former Chelsea midfielder, attended and took part in a Q&A session.

 

Chelsea’s fan engagement event in New York (Carl Recine – FIFA via Getty Images)

Manchester City, on the other hand, who were knocked out by Al Hilal in the last-16, held fan engagement events in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Orlando, showing there is room for improvement for Chelsea when it comes to engaging their U.S. supporter groups.

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Chelsea say there are 100 different supporter groups in the U.S., with around 25,000 members, and that they are working on launching a new and improved supporters club programme for their overseas fans.

“They should use winning this trophy as a strategic platform,” Sher adds. “They can tell the story of an exciting young squad that they built that, against all odds, beat this PSG machine, and beat them convincingly.

“They can take a leaf out of what PSG have done to build their brand in the U.S. and other parts of the world.”

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Chelsea’s successful Club World Cup has earned them just over $114million (£85.2m) in participation and prize money — but there is undoubtedly plenty of commercial income still on the table, especially as they are yet to announce a front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2025-26 season.

All Premier League sides talk about the importance of growing their brands in America — Palmer and Chelsea have put themselves in a position to do exactly that.

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

Branding, leverage. marketing, FFS. We all agree football now is just another 'business' to them. 

As long as they remember during the pandemic they had the stark realism forced on them that football is fuck all without us fans going to matches

[Vesper 30,085]

Chelsea are champions of the world. So what happens next?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6497531/2025/07/17/Chelsea-cwc-title-transfers-stadium-ownership/

Chelsea are champions of the world.

That may sound strange, even to many fans, at the end of a season in which Enzo Maresca’s team finished fourth in the Premier League and lifted UEFA’s third-tier club competition, the Conference League.

But there can be no diminishing the emphatic manner of their 3-0 victory over recently-crowned European champions Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Chelsea were deserving winners of Gianni Infantino’s inaugural expanded FIFA Club World Cup, netting $114.6m (£84.5m) in prize money in the process.

That triumph, and that financial windfall, opens up a world of possibilities. It also raises a number of questions about what happens next at Chelsea — questions that The Athletic will attempt to answer.

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What will they do with the cash?

Firstly, the players and coaching staff will all receive a sizeable bonus equivalent to that which would have been awarded had Chelsea won the Champions League. This is all in keeping with Chelsea’s policy of handing out incentivised contracts rewarding success.

The sudden injection of extra revenue has made no difference to Chelsea’s transfer plans, though. They are already happy with the business done so far this summer in adding three players to their attack in Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens.

More arrivals could be made, but they will be dependent upon player departures. That is the main focus for the time being — the plan is to smooth more exits than incomings before the end of the window. The club have a number of squad members who are not part of their long-term plans and are also looking to go elsewhere. Those on the list include Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Joao Felix, Renato Veiga, Armando Broja, Lesley Ugochukwu and Axel Disasi.

Among many possible remaining transfer targets are Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho and Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers. They have also made an enquiry for Ajax defender Jorrel Hato.

Simon Johnson

 

Delap has made a favourable first impression at Chelsea (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)

How will this affect pre-season?

The price of playing a full month of competitive football in the United States is that Chelsea will not have a normal full pre-season.

Those who competed at the tournament have now been given three weeks off, which means they will not return to the training ground at Cobham until the first week of August.

Estevao Willian, who agreed to join from Palmeiras last year, and Gittens (who signed from Borussia Dortmund) may report earlier, given their teams were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup.

It is customary these days for footballers to do their own training while away on vacation to stay in shape, but it is obviously not the same as working together with the entire group.

Chelsea saw the Club World Cup as part of their pre-season preparations. It is one of the reasons they wanted to secure Delap, Joao Pedro and Gittens early so they could start to integrate with their new team-mates. Maresca also worked on new tactics and systems during the competition with next season in mind.

But Chelsea have just two friendlies, against Bayer Leverkusen and Milan, before their opening Premier League game versus Crystal Palace.

There are players who have been training at Cobham for 10 days now, but they are returning loanees who are expected to be sold.

Simon Johnson

 

Estevao Willian speaks with his future club-mates after Palmeiras’ 2-1 defeat by Chelsea (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Are the owners now getting along?

Todd Boehly has been the only one to break the public silence on Chelsea’s ownership dynamic since his tensions with majority shareholders Clearlake Capital spilled out last September, giving semi-regular interviews at various business conferences and, most recently, a short exclusive conversation with talkSPORT.

But even then, what he did not say was as illuminating as the words he chose.

“I think the form that you’ve seen is everything we hoped when we were putting this together with (co-sporting directors) Laurence (Stewart) and Paul (Winstanley),” Boehly told talkSPORT.

“Behdad (Eghbali) and I couldn’t be more grateful for the success that they’ve had, and for all Chelsea fans everywhere. We’re just so thrilled, and thank you for sticking with us. We’re really excited about what the future holds.”

Boehly did not shed any light on the health of his relationship with Clearlake co-founder Eghbali, the state of which was a prompt for both parties to explore options to buy out the other last year and was detailed by The Athletic.

It was a surprise to see Boehly walking out alongside United States President Donald Trump as Chelsea’s representative in the Club World Cup medal ceremony on Sunday, given that it is Eghbali who remains the most actively engaged owner in the club’s daily operations and the most visible member of ownership at most games.

The relationship is described by sources with knowledge of the situation as professional, but the issues that arose last year have not gone away. While Chelsea are functioning successfully within the status quo, it is hard to escape the conclusion that something has to give as the club seek to navigate big decisions ahead — chiefly how best to proceed with a stadium plan.

Liam Twomey

 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Trump, Boehly and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi at MetLife Stadium (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

What is happening with the stadium?

Gaining clarity on when — and where — Chelsea might be playing in a new stadium would be an even bigger milestone for the club than winning the Club World Cup.

As detailed by The Athletic in March, a stand-by-stand renovation of Stamford Bridge has been discounted due to the costs and disruption involved in such a process, as well as the limited ability to improve match-day experience or capacity. That leaves only two options: demolishing Chelsea’s historic home and building an entirely new arena on the site, or acquiring the large plot of land that formerly housed the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and building there.

Staying and redeveloping Stamford Bridge to the specifications that Clearlake and Boehly are looking for is exceptionally complicated, to the point of potentially being unfeasible.

It would be logistically far easier to build a modern super-stadium on the much larger Earls Court site, but that land must be purchased from property developer Delancey, Transport for London (TfL), the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF) and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC).

That is unlikely to be simple, or cheap, and then there is the fact that any permanent move away from Stamford Bridge would require 76 per cent approval in a vote of Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), the supporter group that owns the freehold to the club’s current home. Roman Abramovich failed to clear that dauntingly high bar when attempting to buy the freehold in 2011.

 

An aerial view of Stamford Bridge in 2000, showing Earls Court Exhibition Centre, top (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chelsea are currently caught between two unenviable stadium options, and are trying to strike a balance between thorough due diligence and a sense of urgency to avoid the club falling behind the Premier League rivals who can boast bigger, newer stadiums.

In the meantime, Delancey’s own big plans for the Earls Court land are moving forward: a decision on planning approval for their sprawling proposed mixed-use development that would include 4,000 new homes is expected from LBHF and RBKC at the end of July.

Liam Twomey

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How close are they to securing a front-of-shirt sponsor?

Chelsea are talking to up to 10 major brands and are looking at signing a long-term deal worth £60million a year.

They feel in a strong position to generate such a sum for a number of reasons. It clearly helps that Chelsea are back in the Champions League and have also just won the Club World Cup. But the club believes firms will also want to be associated with the youngest team in the Premier League, a side crammed with exciting players like Cole Palmer, Estevao and Moises Caicedo.

Chelsea have the potential to be one of the best sides for several seasons and being the only club without a front-of-shirt sponsor right now means they do not face competition from rival clubs.

They have received bids over the past 12 months that were for much lower sums and/or for a short length of time. A conscious decision was made to wait in case their argument for a greater price improved courtesy of a return to the Champions League. That decision appears to have paid off. There is confidence a new partnership will be agreed.

Simon Johnson

 

Chelsea won the Club World Cup without a front-of-shirt sponsor (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Can they win the Premier League next season?

The question has certainly been asked outside Stamford Bridge in the immediate aftermath of the team lifting the Club World Cup.

But, internally, no one is getting carried away by such talk or overexcited by their achievements over the last few months.

Chelsea won the UEFA Conference League and qualified for the Champions League for the first time under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium via a fourth-place Premier League finish. The overriding message, though, is to stay humble. There is a recognition that a number of leading clubs — including defending champions Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal — are doing good business during the transfer window. The competition is only going to be stronger next term.

The only expectation for next season is to qualify for the Champions League via a top four/five finish again and to go on good runs in the cup competitions they are involved in — the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Simon Johnson

Will they defend their Club World Cup trophy in four years’ time?

FIFA are yet to adopt a definitive position on whether winning the Club World Cup guarantees entry into the next edition of the tournament. That is not hugely surprising, given how hastily this summer’s inaugural expanded competition was arranged in the U.S..

The answer may depend on where football’s governing body looks to for precedent. World Cup winners have not been given automatic passage into the next edition of the tournament since France in 2002, but winning UEFA’s flagship Champions League grants qualification for the league phase of the following season’s competition.

As things stand, there is no mechanism for Chelsea to be certain that they will be Club World Cup participants in 2029. But as FIFA demonstrated with a convenient interpretation of their entry criteria to ensure the presence of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami at this summer’s tournament, the entry rules of such a new competition are not fixed.

 

Messi competing at this year’s tournament with Inter Miami (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

It is possible that, by 2029, the Club World Cup may feature even more clubs. It is also possible that Chelsea could render this particular conversation moot by winning the Champions League at some point in the next four years, or by qualifying on merit via another means.

In any case, you can be confident that Chelsea will lobby to be included again as defending champions — they would be foolish not to.

Liam Twomey

[ahmedou 188]

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