Chelsea are understood to be closing in on a front-of-shirt sponsorship agreement with American software giant Oracle, in what would mark a significant commercial boost for the London club. The deal is expected to cover the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign and could end Chelsea’s latest spell of starting a season without a primary shirt sponsor.
According to reports, the agreement is likely to be announced around Chelsea’s upcoming fixtures against Barcelona in the Champions League on 25 November or Arsenal on 30 November. Chelsea have been seeking a premium partner after using short-term solutions in recent seasons and are believed to be targeting a package in the region of £60 million per year.
However, any specific figures around the Oracle deal remain speculative at this stage. Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, described the situation as unusual but believable:
“It’s all very odd because I don’t know how it would have come out. It’s not the sort of thing that tends to get leaked in the way that it did. I still have a level of scepticism, and it seems very precise not to be true.
“You would think that it’s true based on that alone because it’s a really strange thing for somebody to make up or to write about without very good guidance from either Chelsea, Oracle, or the agency involved, so my gut feel is that it’s true.”
Borson highlighted that Oracle’s profile makes the proposed arrangement atypical for a short-term front-of-shirt deal, adding:
“But on the face of it, it doesn’t seem to be a normal deal because Oracle are enormous and they’re not the sort of organisation that takes a tactical cheap deal for Chelsea’s front of shirt for half a season. That just doesn’t fit into big company marketing plans.”
The proposed partnership would see one of the world’s largest B2B technology companies take a prominent position on Chelsea’s shirts. The Blues will continue to rebuild their commercial portfolio and strengthen revenues after a turbulent period under UEFA and Premier League financial regulations.
Chelsea Recent Financial Figures
Chelsea’s latest published accounts for the 2023-24 season showed that overall turnover fell to around £468 million, down from approximately £512 million in 2022-23, primarily due to the absence of Champions League football and a sharp drop in broadcasting income.
Despite this decline in total revenue, the club’s commercial performance improved. Commercial income rose from roughly £210 million to about £225 million over the same period, a record level for the Blues, driven by strong non-matchday activity, player loan income, and new sponsorship deals.
Matchday revenue also edged up to just over £80 million. Still, the combined impact of a reduced media payout and high staff and amortisation costs meant Chelsea remained heavily reliant on profits from player trading and asset sales.