Simon Jordan was on Talksport today talking about Chelsea’s sponsor situation.
The Blues will go into this season without a main shirt sponsor, after a deal with Paramount fell through because it apparently broke Premier League rules.
It was put to Jordan that it in fact didn’t break rules, and was more a case of him being “diplomatic” and not causing a fuss in the face of the other 19 teams that make up the Premier League.
Well, while we disagree with a lot of what Jordan says, it’s hard to argue with his point here. By pulling the plug with betting company Stake he showed he does care about what the club’s fans think, but so far we’ve not see much evidence of him worrying about diplomacy in other aspects.
You can see his comments in the clip embedded here, with this exchange coming after 2 minutes:
Who cares whether we have a sponsor right now? It’s not like we’ll have any trouble landing one before the start of the season.
As for the original sponsorship deal, the EPL looks stupid and small-minded having nixed the Paramount deal (especially given that Paramount currently owns UCL broadcast rights in America). Not sure why they felt Paramount posed a threat, but given that it’s a paid service (for viewers who want to watch UCL games that routinely feature multiple EPL clubs making runs into the late knockout rounds) it’s a wasted opportunity to raise the overall visibility of the game in the richest country on Earth. The reason the EPL has gained the upper hand financially on the other European domestic leagues owes in no small part to the jump it got on capturing the lucrative American market (population 335 million), so it’s truly befuddling to watch the league shoot itself in the foot like this. Is it so insecure about its product that it’s worried Paramount broadcasts of UCL games featuring clubs from other countries is going to threaten market share??? Is that really reason enough to scupper Chelsea’s deal? Short-sighted silliness.