Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has joined the worldwide public debate on the global economic downturn and spoken about possible implications for the club.

While the spotlight so far has been on the banking rather than the sporting or leisure industry, Buck, in an exclusive interview on Chelsea TV, warned.

'The credit crunch will definitely have an impact on Chelsea Football Club, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but we have to keep it in mind.

'We have to look at it and we have to deal with it, we are not immune to things like that.

'It is quite likely that less shirts will be sold, people may think twice about renewing their season tickets,' he listed, 'so on the other side of the table, we have to look closely and seriously at our expenses to see which ones are not as necessary as we previously thought they were.

'I had a meeting today with [board members] Eugene [Tenenbaum] and Peter [Kenyon] on these kinds of subjects and we are talking regularly about them.

'Chelsea Football Club is not immune to what is going on in the world.'

Buck was speaking after giving a presentation at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge.