Revealed: Why Chelsea cannot change it name

Chelsea Football Club are one of the best football clubs in the world. For a club established in 1905 to harvest the level of success they have now, they just have to extra miles. The clubs are famously known as “the Blues” and the “Pensioners”.

The Blues’ home stadium is known as Stamford Bridge, a 40,834 capacity stadium, officially opened on 28 April 1877. The ‘Chelsea FC’ name is held by members of the Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), who also own the ground and the turnstiles at Stamford Bridge.

The exclusive right of the stadium means that the club cannot expand or adjust on any feature without the knowledge of the CPO. The biggest of this is that Chelsea could lose its name if the management chose to move away from the ground, according to reports from Daily Mail.

And with the success, the name carries, Chelsea Football Club owners would not trade its brand for a new ground.

A spokesman for the CPO, Stephen Frankham, said: “My recollection is the CPO own the name of the football club and the CPO shareholders would have to balloted about such a move.

“But I don’t think they can trade as the ‘Chelsea FC’ brand away from Stamford Bridge. It was to stop the name from going anywhere. How the club deal with that I’m not certain. The CPO also own the pitch and if Stamford Bridge was redeveloped as a stadium then no problem. But the pitch cannot be redeveloped for commercial use.”