Aston Villa announce sponsorship deal with Acorns
The rumour that has been circulating all year was made official today when Aston Villa confirmed that Birmingham based charity Acorns would be their shirt sponsor for the 2008/09 season.
Villa will waive a lucrative sponsorship fee for the deal which has met approval from Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore:
“Credit must go to Villa for being the first Premier League club to use its shirt sponsor to highlight and promote its charity partnership,” he said.
“I am sure Acorns’ association with Aston Villa will be of great help in raising awareness and funds for all the excellent work they undertake.
“The power of football and the power of the Premier League has long been something that companies have tapped into to reach audiences throughout the country and increasingly, across the globe.”
Villa came to offer the sponsorship deal after it was revealed that Acorns needed to care for an extra 1000 children.
It is the first deal of its kind in the English Premier League with Barcelona having a similar deal with ‘Unicef’ in Spain.
Source: bbc sport online
Credit where credit is due. Maybe other prem teams will learn from this and realise that it’s not all about the money.
Fair play to villa. In this day and age of premiership wages and the attitudes of certain big-time footballers, this is a great advert for a premier club. I am a wrexham supporter and cant do with the attitudes of alot of premier clubs but from now on i will always look out for villa results, good luck for the season and again well done.
dave
And who says all americans are the same? Well done Learner and Villa! Hope the shirts nice tho =] Come On Villa Boys!!
acorns that’s a rubbish sponsor the blues has a much better sponser.
that is great, if my wife wasn’t a Red Devil fan then I would pull for Villa just for this reason.
Typical Blues fan! Always trying to act like a big club in words but cannot act like one. Randy Lerner is a class act!
When I heard about Barcelona’s Unicef deal I couldn’t believe it and a club I admired became my second club.
Well done Villa for following in Barca’s footsteps and hopefully this will wake up some of the world’s other great clubs and they’ll realise that many of us out here in the real world are getting a tiny bit hacked off with whining primadonnas whose salary is “only” £50,000 a week and megabucks marketing deals and that connecting again with your local area is the way forward. Football is a business, but it’s a special kind of business and there is room for this sort of delightful idea.
copycats
pure class losin abou six million from this
This is a very generous move by Villa because kit sponsership in the prem is worth millions and they have done a great thing sacrfising the millions to help the less privlaged and credit to villa they deserve every success next season. Hopefully other teams will do similar,
great sponsorship, well done villa - credit to the chairman for even considering the idea of a charity. MATT YR A *** P.S. *** on u hull 4 nxt season
COME ON U HULL
How fitting that the club that gave to the world the league game should continue to pioneer. Credit to Randy Lerner. He has grasped and “got” the soul of Aston Villa in a way that seemed to elude the previous (British) chairman for twenty-five years. Best of luck from all Irish supporters of AVFC.
very impressed!
now all we need is for man united to be sponsored by specsavers to remind their fans they should be watching someone else!
Fair Play Villa from a True Bluenose I don’t think our owners would do a gesture as good as that. Once again fair play.
All villa are doing is waiving their sponsorship fee, are people forgetting what everton did last season? They dedicated an entire game to breast cancer awareness, and making 1000 pink everton shirt where at least 50% of the sale price went to breast cancer awareness. Villa are copying barcelona & boca juniors ideas. Im all for giving to charity, but a big fuss wasnt made when everton did that with the pink shirts, and i dont see why the same shouldnt apply to villa. Its a PR stunt and thats final!
Chris, Villa have been involved with charities for years - to waive the money a sponsorship package is a massive decision, and you don’t see any of the ‘big clubs’ (i.e Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea) giving anything back on a similar scale, do you?
Lets see if this promotes similar attitudes towards the community from other teams.
Everton did ONE DAY, sold shirts, and still had 50% of the sales, which is more than they cost to make anyway. So surely Villa going an ENTIRE SEASON without ANY of the normal income recieved from sponsorship packages is impressive?
I think so.
Brilliant move. Well done Villa.
I’m a Spurs fan but have always liked Villa. You’ve got a great manager, some great English talent and it looks like a great chairman too. Looking forward to tussle with you for European places next season (given that we don’t implode like last season!).
Hope other clubs follow suit. I’d much rather see Spurs with a chairty on their shirt than a gambling firm.
who cares if it’s a publicity stunt - surely that’s the idea?! To raise awareness of charities work - the more shirts they sell the better for the charities, who obviously get a cut of the profits…
C-M is spot on - why don’t the big four do it? Don’t criticise Villa, look at the big four…
sure look at us (newcastle utd) we kept northern rock despite all the controversy suronding them we kept a local company on because they supply the coumminty with jobs so well done to lener but i agree with chris orther teams have dont it before so its no big chesse
Chris, you’ve got it all wrong mate, Villa have organised days, events, fundraising drives for acorns for about 2 years without really getting anywhere, where as both Villa and Everton have made great gestures to charity, villa’s gone a step further
its genius really, our contract with 32red was up, in jan negotations we couldnt guarentee europe, we do charity PR for a year, do get europe get higher shirt sponsor next year - everybody wins
You obviously dont’ know of everton in the community then.
They help under privelaged children in the poorer areas in Liverpool and send them on specially arranged training days in order for them to get away from the deprived areas they’re used to.
Then there’s the whole village everton donated £2million to build in thailand after the tsunami.
Plus there is all the former players charities and all the donations to a local children’s hospice.
I’m all for charity, but I think this is just a PR stunt. And the fact everyone is making a huge fuss over it is wrong.
And everton donated 75% of the shirt sales.
Chris you jealous moron, stfu accept it villa have done better than everton in donating money to charities. While all charities are good, villa are helping spread awareness of the charity and donating more than 6 million pound to it, which is more than everton have done. So just because Villa have outdone everton accept it, your clearly a bitter everton fan. Accept it.
Well done Villa from an FC United fan
I support Chelsea, but as an American I love to see how Lerner is setting a good example for American owners in the Prem. I’ve always liked Villa and it’s great to see them doing this. Fair play to them and to Lerner; he’s a class act.
Why do you have to make giving money to charity a competition? Villa are just the first to put a charity on their shirt in the prem league. Props to them
Fair play Villa, coming from a bluenose.