Thousands of fans snap up Aston Villa’s new charity shirt

Jul 24 2008

Aston Villa’s unique new replica home shirts, which endorse a charity for the very first time, have gone on sale with fans clamouring to don the famous claret and blue strip.

Fans queued around the Villa Village store at Villa Park from midnight on Wednesday to snap up the new look kit which was launched by the first team a fortnight ago and which features the logo of Villa’s new kit partner, the Acorns Children’s Hospice.

John Greenfield, head of commercial sales at Villa, said interest in the new kit had been “phenomenal” with many supporters admitting the club’s generous offer to forgo a sponsor to help Acorns and its work with life-limited children had been a spur to them buying the new kit this time around.

He said: “This is an exciting time for Aston Villa. We have this unique partnership with Acorns which has made the shirts very popular, the team has enjoyed an incredible season finishing sixth in the Premier League last time out and we have excelled when it comes to pre-orders with in excess of 7,500 shirts sold before we had even opened the doors at midnight on Wednesday.”

The Villa Village shop was refurbished and redesigned to cope with the demand for sales and the first 3,000 fans to buy were invited to have their photograph taken in their new shirt for a giant mural which will adorn Villa Park this season.