Chelsea is paving the way forward for Premiership clubs after they announced a deal with YouTube to offer videos online for their fans. This is a first for a Premier League club.

This is a perfect example of how clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester United are miles ahead of the Premier League in terms of truly understanding the power of the Internet and taking advantage – in a good way – of the technology available.

Instead of Chelsea sending “goons” out to threaten bloggers to remove links to YouTube videos, as the Premier League did with NetResult, the Blues have decided to take a proactive step and create their own section at YouTube that allows them to post approved content (no live action highlights due to rights issues) and allow Chelsea fans to upload their own videos.

Some of the features at http:\/\/www.youtube.com/chelseafc include behind-the-scenes videos from Chelsea TV, links to favorite Chelsea video clips, comments from YouTube visitors, and more.

Excellent work from Chelsea, and let’s hope this is a sign of things to come from fellow Premiership clubs.