SAMSUNG HAS activated a renewal option in its contract with Chelsea Football Club to remain as the shirt sponsor of the Premier League team until 2015.
According to Bloomberg, the three-year renewal will see the Korean electronics giant continue to pay the European champions around £15m per season, though other sources report the deal to be worth up to £18m per year.
Regardless, in today’s market the renewal is great business for Samsung considering the value of shirt deals for the other top teams in the Premier League.
Manchester United’s current deal with Aon is around the £20m per year mark – a figure which is set to more than double when Chevrolet replaces the insurance company in 2014.
Last season’s Premier League winners Manchester City also has a deal worth at least £20m in the form of club principal sponsor and stadium naming rights partner Etihad Airways.
Further, London-based bank Standard Chartered pays Liverpool around £20m per season, despite disappointing performances on the pitch for the past few seasons.
Frontloaded also understands that Tottenham Hotspur is searching for a new shirt sponsor to commit £20m annually as of next season.
As current European champions and in the midst of maximising commercial opportunities via the signing of a raft of new marketing partners, Chelsea is in a strong position to command a significantly enhanced fee from a shirt partner.
However, given the longstanding relationship between Chelsea and Samsung (since 2005), the global reach and awareness of the Samsung brand and the soaring popularity of the Champions League in highly-lucrative Asian markets, there is perhaps more to be gained on Chelsea’s behalf than immediate financial injection.