Football
ESPN staff 9y

Chelsea considering Japan post-season tour if they win Premier League

Chelsea are considering a post-season tour should they win the Premier League, with Japan being considered as a destination according to manager Jose Mourinho.

The club are in talks over a possible week-long tour after their final game with Sunderland on May 24, with the club's new £40m-a-season shirt sponsorship deal with Yokohama Rubber making a 12,000-mile round trip to Japan likely.

The club played in Japan when they lost the 2012 World Club Cup final, and Mourinho admitted they may return.

"If we win the title, I think we'll go on an after-season tour, play a couple of matches in some destination where people will be very enthusiastic to have the Premier League champions," he said.

"It's something we are thinking about, a good way to celebrate. Not a victory parade but a trip, a week where we play a couple of matches but, at the same time, can be together without the pressure of winning every match, without the pressure and tension of the last weeks of the Premier League.

"We can also relax and go to holidays with that good feeling. But we still have nine matches to play. [The chairman] Bruce Buck and the board are talking with me about destinations. We want to go somewhere where people are enthusiastic to have a club like Chelsea."

The club's preseason tour is already marked to be to the United States, but asked whether Japan would be on the cards given the relationship with Yokohama Rubber, Mourinho said: "I don't know but that would make some sense."

Brazilians Oscar, Ramires, Filipe Luis, Willian and Colombia's Juan Cuadrado could all miss the tour as the Copa America starts on June 11 and players must be made available 14 days before according to FIFA regulations.

Players must be released 48 hours before friendlies and four days before qualifying matches, as Euro 2016 matches must be considered.

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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