Chelsea Football Club has appointed Pitch PR to oversee a trade and consumer PR campaign.

Pitch has been engaged with the aim of promoting key areas of Chelsea FC’s non-football business. It will be handling announcements of the club’s image rights deals, raising the profile of the events and hospitality divisions of Chelsea, as well as running consumer campaigns for the Stamford Bridge stadium tours and ‘True Blue’ membership scheme. The agency will also oversee the launch next month of ‘Chelsea +’, Chelsea’s new broadband internet offering.

Simon Greenberg, Communications and Public Affairs Director at Chelsea, said:

“The appointment of Pitch demonstrates our intent to build our non-matchday business beyond its already strong position. Pitch has developed an impressive reputation in the industry and demonstrated a good understanding of our business. The agency will provide some valuable additional resource to our marketing efforts for Chelsea’s commercial interests outside of our core football business.”

Pitch is the UK’s leading independently-owned communications consultancy in sport. The agency was founded by Henry Chappell in 2002 with the backing of Matthew Freud, Chairman of Freud Communications. Chappell, 33, started his career at IMG, the leading sports management group, and is a former Director at Freud’s. 

Pitch’s clients include major brands such as ABN AMRO, Hugo Boss, Skandia and Sony Ericsson, sports bodies such as the Brazilian Football Federation and the NBA, media companies such as Sport Magazine and Racing UK, and sports personalities including Rio Ferdinand.