By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

3rd May, 2023 | 6:30am

Sources: Chelsea forced to accept lowball offer amid £40m reveal

Chelsea will be forced to accept a lower base rate as part of what is likely to be a heavily incentivised new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal, sources have told Football Insider.

The West Londoners are on the hunt for a new primary sponsor as their £40million-a-year deal with telecommunications giants Three comes to an end before the start of 2023-24.

Chelsea will be without European football of any kind for the first time in several years next season, weakening their negotiating position with prospective new commercial partners.

An industry source who has brokered eight-figure sponsorship deals for a variety of different clubs has told this site that Chelsea are now looking at a less lucrative upfront deal as a result.

However, the Blues will instead use clauses that will kick in when certain criteria are met – qualifying for the Champions League, for example – to bump up the real-terms value of the agreement.

It has been claimed that Chelsea have held talks with German multinational bank Allianz, although this site has been unable to independently verify those reports at this stage.

The source did, however, tell this site that other financial service companies and firms in the automotive sector have also engaged with the club.

Chelsea’s commercial situation is particularly pressing given the precarious financial fair play predicament they find themselves in.

Unprecedented expenditure on new signings since the start of Todd Boehly’s reign means that a fire sale is now inevitable if they are to avoid sanctions.

Chelsea’s sleeve sponsor rights are also up for grabs after their deal with WhaleFin was terminated as the cryptocurrency platform ran into financial difficulties last year.

In other news, Chelsea now want to sign Brazilian superstar after he’s put up for sale by Euro giants.