Chelsea Announces Sponsorship Deal With Carabao of Thailand

by Benson Agoha | Sports

Chelsea Football Club has delightedly announced Carabao of Thailand as their new Principal Partner and new official Training Wear Partner. The new relationship takes effect from summer 2016, Chelsea said in a statement.

* Carabao's Chairman Sathien Sethasit (left) and Chelsea Managing Director,

Christian Purslow, signed the deal. (Credit: Chelsea FC).

Carabao is a Thai energy drink producer and as the company aims to expand its global presence and market share, it hopes to take advantage of the massive exposure that such relationship with Chelsea will afford them.

The 3-year deal will ensure that the Energy drink's logo appears on Chelsea's training kit over the next three seasons. It will also feature on Chelsea players' and staff adidas training kit from next summer.

In a statement made available to Woolwich Online, Chelsea said the logo will also feature at their Cobham headquarters and at press conferences, during tours, as well as when they travel. It will also feature in the warm-up to friendly and competitive fixtures.

Carabao , which recently concluded deals with .....was founded in 2002 by Thai folk singer and celebrity Aed Carabao.

According to the Bangkok Post, Carabao has set its sights on gaining global market share through a tie-in with Chelsea FC, which has more than 500 million fans worldwide quoting Carabao's multi-millonnaire chairman, Sathien Sethasit. 

"The logo of a buffalo skull featuring a red bird is one of Thailand’s most recognisable commercial symbols, and over the next three years it will become even more familiar to our worldwide fanbase of more than 500 million people, appearing regularly across our market-leading digital and social media platforms where we have a following of more than 70 million."

* Chelsea Players Gary Cahill and Captain John Terry,
hold up the Carabao Energy Drink. (Credit: Chelsea)

Announcing the agreement, Christian Purslow, Chelsea FC managing director, said: ‘We are delighted to form a new partnership with Carabao which represents the first time a football club has welcomed a new partner as its training wear sponsor.

"We are confident that adding Carabao to our family of global partners will, under Financial Fair Play rules, further enhance our competitiveness on the field while growing our popularity still further in Thailand where the club has always enjoyed incredible support. In return our global reach will help Carabao enter new markets and become synonymous with the Chelsea name." 

Sathien Setthasit, Chairman and CEO of Carabao Group PLC, said: "I feel delighted to be a part of the Chelsea family. For the past 10 years Chelsea has been one of the greatest teams in the Premier League. We are looking to expand into the world market and have found Chelsea to be a good partner to take us worldwide. I believe the partnership between Chelsea and Carabao will take us to the world and help us become very famous from now on." 

And the partnership suits both well because, according the Chelsea statement, the club is already a leading presence in Thailand due to a longstanding partnership with Singha Beer.

And Chelsea's many tour matches played in Thailand and their `Here to Play, Here to Stay' initiative which has seen the club provide grassroots coaching to thousands of local youngsters since 2011.

Only last week, Chelsea revealed, they announced a new long-term programme at the NIST International School in Bangkok.

Well, goodluck Chelsea and hopefully, this new deal will contribute well to the recovery effort.