Chelsea clinch kit deal

Chelsea have signed a long-term kit deal with adidas.

After announcing last week that the club have agreed to pay Umbro £24.5million to terminate their sponsorship contract, it has emerged that Chelsea have concluded a new deal with the German company, thought to be worth around £100m.

The deal will be announced officially in the next two days but it is understood the contract will run for 10 years, starting in the summer of 2006.

The deal represents a considerable leap in earnings for Chelsea. The Umbro deal was worth around £2m a season to the club and the adidas deal could be as much as five times that figure.

But it is nowhere near as lucrative as the £303m 15-year deal which Peter Kenyon, now Chelsea chief executive, secured when he was at Manchester United.

United's deal is the biggest sponsorship agreement in British football but it involved the club ceding virtually all their merchandising rights in return for the huge cash.

Chelsea have agreed a much more straightforward "equipment-providing and sponsoring" agreement which is similar to the deals which adidas has with clubs such as Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich.

During negotiations Chelsea have made it clear they have never been interested in selling off their licensing and retailing rights. That would rule them out of having any chance of getting close to the United figure.

Adidas already backs Newcastle but it has been looking for a team with the ability to win the Premiership soon and get into a Champions League Final.

Although the deal has been signed, all the details of the sponsorship programme of the club have not been finalised.

But they are likely to involve Chelsea being heavily involved in new adidas product lines like other top clubs.

Kenyon will view the agreement as further evidence of Chelsea's ability to compete with world football's major teams.