Aston Villa's Act Of Generosity

In the current climate of greed dominating football, from the players, to their agents, to the clubs and from the governing authorities themselves, it is a pleasant to surprise to see one the Premier League's most successful clubs, Aston Villa, giving something back to their local community.

Following a precedent set by F.C. Barcelona in the past couple of years, "The Villains" have decided to do away with the traditional format of shirt sponsorship whereby the highest bidder is allowed to have their logo put on the club kit, and have instead chosen to put the logo of local children's hospice "acorns" on their kit for the 2008/09 season for free. 

Acorns children hospices are based within the West Midland's region and currently care for over 600 life-limited children (life-limited means the children are unexpected to reach adulthood).

The generous act is similar to FC Barcelona's decision to place the logo of global child's rights organisation "UNICEF" on their shirts. Incidentally, this was the first time the Catalan club's shirts had ever had a logo placed on them. Barcelona felt that a charity such as UNICEF was the only organisation worthy of gracing their hallowed blue and red kit.

Villa's similar act of generosity is designed to raise awareness of the work that the acorn children's hospice do, and will hopefully generate greater revenue streams for the hospices as a result.

The move was initiated by current Villa owner, American tycoon Randy Lerner. Lerner visited the acorns hospices in his first few months in charge of the football club and left with nothing but admiration for the work that they do.

It is nice to see such an act of genuine generosity from a big name football club in England. Villa have a long, proud heritage and this shows that they have not forgotten their roots.

I wonder if any other teams will follow suit, or will money continue to motivate the mighty in every respect.