Chelsea Football Club announced a long-term partnership with MatchWornShirt, a platform which facilitates the sale of match-worn soccer kits from teams to collectors.
The company utilizes a technology called Fabricks, which enables buyers to utilize an NFC chip accompanying the shirt to pull up a web page serving as a certificate of authenticity.
“We are delighted to welcome MatchWornShirt to the club as our official online match shirt auction partner. They are an industry-leading organisation, bringing world-wide fans of so many sports closer to their heroes, offering the opportunity to buy worn and signed shirts in a safe and authenticated way,” Casper Stylsvig, Chelsea chief revenue officer, said in a release.
“We know there is huge demand from our incredible supporters, both here in the UK and around world, and we look forward to offering our supporters the opportunity to own a unique piece of their favourite player’s history with the club.”
MatchWornShirt, which has worked in the past with the Chelsea Foundation, the team’s social responsibility program, will now run auctions of match-worn shirts from Chelsea players directly through their platform on web and mobile.
Currently, the company runs auctions of match-worn shirts soon after the completion of matches, with bidding for matches such as the Sunday match between LOSC Lille and Paris Saint-Germain already live on the site the same day, with bidding for the kit worn by Barcola reaching $746 within 24 hours.
A portion of sales from Chelsea kits conducted through the platform will be donated to the Chelsea Foundation.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.