Chelsea Football Club (CFC) has revealed that it would consider selling naming rights to its Stamford Bridge stadium in a bid to stay competitive with its rivals.

According to chief executive Mike Gourlay, the club's inability to expand the venue or secure a new site "for the foreseeable future" means that it is at risk of falling behind other clubs who can generate revenue through such means. Gourlay, who recently replaced Peter Kenyon as CFC chief executive, said: "What we are not prepared to let happen is allow our rival clubs in England and Europe to gain a competitive advantage over us in terms of the revenue they can generate through either expanding the capacity of their existing stadia or moving to a new stadium and then invest that upside in their team or the club.

"Those possibilities are not open to Chelsea for the foreseeable future because of the restrictions in expanding our stadium and the issues around finding a new site, so that means we have to be creative and look at our sponsorship architecture." The announcement follows Newcastle United Football Club's (NUFC) decision to sell the naming rights to its home ground, which will now be known as the sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium.

CFC and NUFC are the latest football clubs to explore the possibility of securing a sponsorship deal involving the name of their home stadiums. Arsenal Football Club moved to its new Emirates Stadium home in 2006, while Hull City Football Club play at the Kingston Communications (KC) Stadium. Wigan Athletic, Doncaster Rovers, Colchester United and Bradford City football clubs also compete at stadiums that have adopted a new name as a result of commercial deals, as well as some non-league teams.

Image: Arsenal Football Club competes at the Emirates Stadium following a deal with the global airline