Chelsea stadium tours are well-established as a means to see how football operates behind the scenes - but that voyage of discovery now goes further with Business of Football Tours at Stamford Bridge.

As Crown Woods School from south-east London found out recently, days spent on these tours are a great way for parties to find out more about how a real, world famous business operates.

In the case of the Crown Woods students, the tour formed part of studies towards BTEC and GCSE business qualifications, with it providing a lesson on revenues and costs typical for a match day; branding, sponsorship and merchandising; people management and customer service; and about operations and information and communication technologies in business.

All this took place as they were given access to areas that included the dressing rooms, press box and Megastore and filled in a workbook along the way. The goal for the day was to become a 'Chelsea FC business apprentice'.

'We have to search for ways to engage the students and football is one of them so being able to relate business to football is a great avenue,' said Deborah Yates, the teacher who accompanied the Crown Woods students.

'I heard about it through word of mouth. I have a friend who is a business teacher who came on the same trip and she said what a fantastic tour it was and how much students enjoyed it.

'The module we are doing is in communication so the students will be writing a letter to Chelsea and this gives them an opportunity to apply business to a real life scenario.'

Coming from the corner of the capital they did, Charlton and Millwall fans were far more likely to be found in the party than Chelsea supporters - but football remained a common language.

Robert Sweeney and Craig Chandler were two of the students.

'Chelsea is a world famous club, people like them all over the world and they don't get the chance to see it like this. It is good for us to experience things like this,' they agreed.

'It shows how they link it to business. It gives people better knowledge into it and when we go back to school we will fill in a pack about it. We'd like to work in football'

For more information regarding Business of Football tours click here, call 0871 984 1955 or email tours@chelseafc.com