The off-season between European soccer campaigns is often rife with commercial activity for the continent's biggest clubs. As such, these clubs often use the period to bolster their base with high-profile executive talent from across the sports industry.
English Premier League soccer heavyweight Chelsea have announced the appointment of Alex Smith as the club’s director of partnerships.
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Smith joins the club after over a decade at prominent sports and media agency TEAM Marketing AG, the long-time commercial partner of European soccer governing body UEFA.
He held several roles in his time at the body, joining as sponsorship manager in October 2015 before becoming head of sponsor partnerships in April 2019, elevating to head of sponsor and licensing partnerships in September 2022, and then in January the following year becoming director of marketing partnership and head of the TEAM UK unit.
Before that, Smith had a spell at another Premier League club, Arsenal, as partner services manager from 2013 to 2015.
He will report to Todd Kline, the club’s president of commercial operations, who himself joined in late 2024.
Meanwhile, in Italy’s top-flight Serie A, nascent side Como 1907 have appointed Alex Rasmussen to the role of chief revenue officer, filling the role vacated by Ryan Shelton, who became the chief business officer of Como’s parent company SENT Entertainment back in June.
He joins from Ferrari, the iconic car brand and motor racing organization, where he was head of partnership development in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) for racing revenues (January 2024-24), and then vice president for partnership development (February 2025 to August 2026).
Before that, he was global sponsorship manager at Italian soccer giants AC Milan (2020-2023), following a longer spell as director of partnership and hospitality sales at Danish powerhouses FC Copenhagen.
In his new role, Rasmussen will lead Como 1907’s overall commercial strategy, with a particular eye on commercial partnership acquisition with a ‘long-term’ focus, and will look to support international commercial growth outside the Italian market.
In a post on the social media site LinkedIn, Shelton commented on finding his replacement, saying: “This is a hire I have personally been working to make for three years. From our earliest conversations, I knew Alex had the experience, commercial instinct and international perspective to make a significant impact at Como.
“Alex joins at an important stage in Como’s growth and will lead our commercial strategy as we continue building long-term partnerships and expanding the club internationally. I am excited not only by what he brings to the role, but by the opportunity to work alongside someone I have respected and wanted on our team for a long time.”
Since joining Como, the club credits Shelton with shifting its commercial focus from a “local commercial model” into an international one, illustrated by a commercial revenue increase of over 30x across his two years, leaving Rasmussen with big boots to fill.
Now, with a wider role at SENT, Shelton will oversee not just all Como 1907 revenue, but the other wider business dealings engaged in by SENT, including: “sport, media, retail, tourism, transport, digital, ticketing, consumer products, investment and international ventures.”
Speaking to Sportcal earlier in August, Shelton said: “Most of the partners that we deal with are outbound or through our networks, and they're specifically brands that we want to be working with. So, while there is absolutely a real meaningful uplift that comes from the Champions League and the exposure and the deal values, it hasn’t necessarily brought more brands to us because the brands we’re looking for aren't necessarily looking for the Champions League.
“When it comes to visibility, impressions, and exposure, it's allowed us to assign a different value to deals when we're working with those partners that we want to work with.”
Read more – In the Boardroom: Como1907
