Chelsea hierarchy left with red faces as club launches new sponsorship campaign with Raheem Sterling prominently featured… just hours after being dropped for Man City clash

Raheem Sterling has played a key role in a Chelsea sponsorship campaign just hours after being dropped for the opening game of the season.

Sterling was not in Chelsea’s matchday squad for the 2-0 home defeat to his former club Manchester City.

Chelsea, however, included Sterling in their advertising campaign for their new lead partner Fever. Enzo Fernandez and Chelsea Women star Millie Bright were also pictured.

The logo of Fever, an entertainment discovery technology platform, appears on the sleeves of Chelsea’s shirts.

As exclusively revealed by Mail Sport, the winger’s camp released a statement ahead of the match asking for clarification on the situation.

Sterling was left out of Chelsea’s squad for their Premier League opener against Man City

The statement read: ‘Raheem Sterling has signed a three-year contract with Chelsea Football Club.

‘He returned to England two weeks earlier to undertake individual training and has had a positive pre-season under the new coach, with whom he has built up a good working relationship.

‘He is, as always, committed to performing at the highest level for Chelsea FC and the fans, who he holds in high regard. Given his mention in official club material ahead of this week’s match, we expected Raheem to be involved in some way in this weekend’s match.

“As a training camp, we have always had a positive conversation with Chelsea FC and received assurances from them regarding Raheem’s future at the club. We are therefore looking forward to getting clarity on the situation.

‘Until then, we will continue to support Raheem in his desire to start the new season positively.’

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca explained that the decision to leave Sterling out of the squad was a ‘technical decision’.

Maresca said: ‘I want Raheem Sterling, but we have 30 players and there is not enough space for all of them, so some have to leave.

The manager has to make some decisions.

New Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca stated that Sterling was offside due to a ‘technical decision’

Rio Ferdinand was highly critical of Chelsea for the way they handled Sterling’s situation

“Sometimes players don’t like it, that’s normal. Just a technical decision, nothing more. With Raheem we will clarify in the coming days.”

Rio Ferdinand criticised Chelsea’s handling of Sterling, calling it ‘wild’ and hitting out at the lack of communication.

Talking about Rio Ferdinand presentshe said: ‘I see all the young players, especially in that squad, talking about Raheem, it’s like Uncle Raheem. Cole Palmer, people like Reece James, it’s Uncle Raheem.

‘And he’s taken care of a lot of those guys, they come to him, so if you kick that guy in the locker room, they’re all going to limp at some point and they’re not going to take that well and you’re creating a problem in your own locker room.

‘Nobody is getting that message across clearly and from what I hear, he (Sterling) has no idea where his situation is.

‘No one from the hierarchy has ever come to him and said, “Listen, you’re redundant, we want to get rid of you.”

And what I hear is that the last conversation we had was something like, “Everything is fine.”

“I hear they’re getting email notifications of (updates) and stuff like that. This is wild.”