Three are doing a stand alone shirt-front sponsorship of the women's team. This is another CFCW specific deal which has been put in place as part of a strategy to boost CFCW's commercial operation. Previously commercial activities around the women's team was handled by the same operation which deals with men's team activities. Now there is a separate operation, with separate staff, dedicated to working on behalf of CFCW.
The proof of the pudding will be whether we achieve bigger and better deals using this split commercial team compared to what would have been achieved with the previous unified effort. Of course it is very unlikely that we will ever see the result of in-house analysis of the numbers. So far so good however. A fly in the ointment however is that the head of CFCW's commercial team has been head hunted to lead the commercial operations for the WSL as a whole.
The fact that it is Three who are doing this sponsorship is controversial in some quarters. Three obviously became very unpopular among Chelsea fans for their reaction to the sanctions which were imposed on Roman. I think this reaction was a bit misguided to be honest. People could be more understanding of the situation Three were in. They operate in a business where there is a very heavy degree of 'churn' among consumers and the way Roman was being scapegoated made it reasonable for the company to give itself some cover. Interestingly, the club's senior management never criticised Three's behaviour. Instead they made it clear that there was a good relationship with Three, who they never criticised in anyway. Everyone has their own outlook of course but I think people should take notice of this and factor in the fat that, now the dust is settled, working with CFC. This suggests they never had anything against Chelsea and were just team doing what they had to do to protect their shareholders which is something they are legally obliged to do.
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