11:25am Friday 27th February 2009
By John Payne
Football clubs have spent donkeys years building up well-earned reputations as money-grabbing organisations who will do anything to fleece an extra pound or £100 out of supporters and sponsors.
Not satisfied with the cricket score figures being brought in by Sky’s millions, the past 30 years have seen football find increasing ways of raking in the cash in order to fund spiralling players’ wages.
Corporate hospitality, executive boxes, matchday experiences and the like have become buzz words as the game has sought to attract new finance.
Even the introduction of all-seater stadiums after the Taylor Report has been done at little cost to the clubs themselves.
There have been a whole host of generous grant schemes in place, while fans have been forced to cough up extra for the privilege of sitting on plastic seats, often at identikit, soulless grounds, while spiritual homes have been sold off to housing developers.
But there has been a stunning development this season that suggests that the worm has turned.
As reported in this week’s Times, Brentford are expanding their generosity in gifting away shirt sponsorship to Cardiac Risk in the Young for a second season.
Since Football League rules were slackened in the early 1980s, clubs have been quick to cash in to maximum effect on a rule allowing sponsors’ slogans on their shirts.
Clearly, manager Andy Scott has a personal interest in the CRY charity as his playing career was cut short by heart problems, but it is heartwarming to see that football clubs need not merely be on the take all the time.
Barcelona were the trend-setters by gifting their shirt sponsorship to Unicef.
They have been followed here by Aston Villa’s backing of the Acorn’s Children’s Hospice and Sheffield Wednesday’s new link-up with Children’s Hospital Sheffield.
Leicester City are to leave their home shirt blank next year to mark their 125th anniversary, and their away shirt will support a charity, while Norwich City organised a deal allowing a charity’s slogan to be worn as a one-off.
Brentford and the other clubs deserve plenty of praise for leading the way.
I just wonder if our money-grabbing Champions’ League representatives, whose greedy pursuit of money has increasingly left the rest behind as English football has become less and less competitive, have taken note?
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