The world of football, as far as the great British public was concerned, had hibernated; managers played golf or tended their garden, players had flown off to Ibiza, Torremolinos or Arenal to sunbathe and rediscover Bacardi and Coke before returning for the agony of pre-season training.

Now there is no escape. Football, the almighty game, dominates the airwaves, the newssheets, conversation in the lounge bar and even, Tiger preserve us, on the first tee. Who are you supporting in the European Championships? Who cares?

Like it or not, we read or hear of the massive debts which hang over Chelsea and Manchester United without anyone seeming to give a fig; there is the turgid speculation as to who is going where and for how much; earnest debate over which manager will be the first to be sacked next season; the ultimate obscene salary demand; even the latest diatribe from Sir Alex, who has his voluminous shorts in a twist over Real Madrid's blatant – and possibly successful – campaign to unsettle Cristiano Ronaldo.

We are in the middle of the rip-off season, too. Arsenal have upset their fans by launching new home and away strips for the coming season which do not fit in with the club's traditional colour codes.

Others, from the Premier League down to Bluesquare North, will not be far behind in the stampede to relieve the gullible of their £50 or so in the cause of making yet more money for the club and providing shirt sponsors – who pay astronomical sums for the privilege – with visible evidence of their status.

We are so used to our football clubs grabbing that when one steps out of line and actually gives, there is a grave danger that such a remarkable occurrence will be missed, hidden away at the foot of some tedious transfer story or given short shrift at the end of one of those interminable sports news bulletins.

Such is the barrage of greed that we switch off, we lump together all the information and delete it, probably without reading most of it. We all need an escape from football at some point.

That was how the best sport story of the summer so far came and went with so little acknowledgement; how Aston Villa, one of the traditional giants of the English game, set themselves apart from those
with their nose in the trough
and joined a league which has only one other club in membership.

Last season, Villa's famous claret-and-blue shirts bore the instantly-forgettable logo of an internet gambling website called 32RED.com, the company having paid in the region of £2m for the privilege.

When the new season kicks off in August, Villa will not have pocketed a penny from the naming rights to their new strip. They have given them away.

A football club doing something for nothing? Get away, bonny lad. Pigs will have parachutes first. Wrong. With an outburst of philanthropy which verges on the miraculous, Villa's players will next season be bearing the message of the West Midlands-based Acorns Children's Hospice.

Not a brass farthing will have changed hands; instead, the club will raise the profile of the hospice and, hopefully, increase the levels of donations it receives, to help it provide year-round support for children and their families.

Centred on three units, each with 10 beds, in Birmingham, Walsall and Worcester, the hospice provides respite care, end-of-life care and bereavement support, with their chief executive, David Strudley, saying of the link with Villa: "They listened to us when we told them that we needed a platform. They really did want to help the community.

"A strategy of the magnitude we are trying to run with, demands that we get our message to the maximum number of people quickly. This partnership provides that platform.

"We look after around 600 children and their families, but we still need to reach out to more than 1,000 other children over the West Midlands."

Acorns works to an annual budget of about £6m, of which 15 per cent is derived from shops, the rest coming from public donations. Even before the shirt deal was confirmed Villa players and other staff had been supporting the hospice, visiting the children and their families.

Duncan Riddle, Villa's head of community affairs, confirmed that bids from companies to have their names on the club's shirts had been turned down in favour of helping to promote a charity.

"The shirts have monetary value, but they also have an emotional value to the fans and this is something to give back to them," he said.

The club's American-based owner, Randy Lerner, board of directors and manager, Martin O'Neill, have fully supported the initiative, and Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, has also given his backing, saying: "Real credit must go to Aston Villa for being the first Premier League club to use their shirt sponsorship to highlight their charity partnership with Acorns.

"I am sure that Acorns' association with Aston Villa will be a great help in raising awareness of, and funds for, the excellent work they undertake."

Villa might be the first major English club to go down the road of what's known in the business world as corporate social responsibility in this way, but they are not the first in the
game to show a caring face to a world so often dominated by greed.

Spanish giants Barcelona were proud of the fact that in their 107-year history their famous red-and-blue striped shirt, so beloved by their Catalan fans and millions more round the world who follow their fortunes, had never borne the name of a sponsor.

They changed policy in 2006, when they announced that they were forming an alliance with UNICEF and that in addition to wearing the famous motif on their shirts, they would donate almost two million dollars annually over the five years of the agreement, the money to be used in helping children across the globe – with the initial focus being on those affected by HIV/AIDS in Swaziland.

Barcelona's president, Juan Laporta, said when the agreement was announced in New York: "We are aware of the global dimension of soccer. The increase in numbers of Barcelona supporters around the world in the last few years has been spectacular. The club has an obligation to respond to this enormous positive wave, and the best way to do so is by using soccer as a tool to bring hope to millions of vulnerable children in need."

Giving is not new to Barcelona. The club has a tradition of philanthropy, having provided support for social, cultural, educational and human-itarian activities in its own region of Cata-lonia, and has expanded such good works in recent years as part of its "More than a
club" campaign.

Villa have followed Barca's example. It will be interesting to see how many of their brothers in what they delight in calling the best league in the world, cast aside the doctrine of greed which so often seems to be their driving force, and actually do something to help the communities from which they draw their living.