THE dominant colour of the Premiership, the most watched domestic football competition, has always been red, but Chelsea yesterday vowed to “turn the world blue” as the club neared their first championship in 50 years. In West London last night they may have been waiting on the result of the North London derby, but in South Korea the job is already done.

Samsung, the electronics group paying more than £55 million over five years to become the club’s main sponsor, does not even have to rethink the logo that from next season will appear on the front of Chelsea’s shirts. It is already blue.

This is a powerful tool, according to the marketing engineers at Stamford Bridge, who will have scrutinised the handbook of football branding as written by Manchester United and Vodafone, who share the colour red. Indeed, one of the co-authors of that handbook was Peter Kenyon, the former United chief executive now tasked with turning Chelsea into a viable business independent of its billionaire backer.

That Kenyon managed to surpass the £9 million a season that United earn from Vodafone will no doubt have contributed to his wide smile yesterday as he unveiled the consumer brand to replace Emirates on June 1, when the Dubai-based airline switches allegiance to Arsenal.

The Samsung sponsorship is the biggest in English football and is the company’s largest sports investment after the Olympic Games. As well as owning a South Korean football team, Suwon Bluewings, and sponsoring the Portugal national team, Samsung is also the official handset provider to Arsenal. According to the company, there are no plans to end that agreement.

Technically at least, that should make it even easier for Kenyon to talk to Ashley Cole, the Arsenal left back, but for now the Chelsea chief executive wants to communicate the fact that there is a new hue in football and it comes in indelible ink. “Over the next five years the plan is quite simple: to turn the world blue,” he said.

Having increased revenues by 40 per cent to £152 million last season, Kenyon must succeed in turning Chelsea into a global brand if he is to reverse the £88 million loss announced in January and achieve break-even at the operating level within four years.

That means earning more money from the three million fans domestically, and 20 million worldwide, that Chelsea claim to have. They already spend more on match days than any other fans in the Premiership, while capacity at Stamford Bridge is limited to 42,700. The upside, therefore, is merchandise sales and increased earnings from on-pitch performances.

Winning the Premiership is a start, as is signing up one of the world’s fastest-growing companies, whose affiliation is with the youth market. Yet the club can take money only from one large sponsor at a time, so the emphasis for growth again returns to whether Chelsea continue to win. “There is nothing with the team that suggests this is a one-off event,” Kenyon said. “The key is that it is sustainable.”

Making Chelsea profitable is still a tall order, undermined by the fact that Roman Abramovich, the owner, is a long-term investor who has sunk more than £300 million into the club since he took over in the summer of 2003. The Russian is hardly likely to close his wallet if it means jeopardising his investment. That said, Kenyon admitted for the first time that José Mourinho, the manager, is now operating under an unofficial transfer budget cap after a substantial “up-front” investment in the squad.

“We have parameters, yes, and José is very comfortable with those,” Kenyon said. “The parameters of our cost base — that is the squad — have been set. It is about technically being in the transfer market for the right reasons. That is the equation. Whether it is £1 million or £10 million, he (Mourinho) feels the need to justify it.”

Chelsea’s new penny-pinching ways do not, however, appear to extend to the manager’s contract. Mourinho is expected to extend his tenure under a deal worth £5 million a season, making him the best-paid coach in football. “Any question that José Mourinho will not be with us for a long time is ill-founded,” Kenyon said. “We are going to be partners for a long time to come.”