Football marries charity

This season players for the football club ACF Fiorentina won’t just be fighting to win the championships but also to reduce infant mortality rates around the world. 

The Italian football club took to the field for its first Serie A match against S.S.C Napoli, Sunday August 29, in a new kit that is part of a sponsorship deal with the international charitable organisation, Save the Children.

The Save the Children logo is front and centre on the new team kit.

The club has been collaborating with the organisation for some time now and recently decided to step up its commitment by offering to put the organisations logo on its kit. A way to show solidarity for its Every One campaign. Launched in October 2009 the campaign aims to drastically reduce infant mortality rates by 2015, saving 500,000 children a year.

For its part the team will wear the Save the Children logo, throughout the season, up until the championships and offer support to the campaigns ongoing fundraising initiatives. In a country where football is like a religion it’s almost guaranteed that people will take notice.  

Our goal “is to stop the avoidable and absurd deaths of millions of children in nearly 70 countries around the world who die from pneumonia, measles and diarrhoea,” said Mario Cognigni , Vice-President of Fiorentina.

The 90 year old international non profit organisation ensures that mothers and children all around the world have access to basic care and services.

A first in Italy, the deal follows the trend set by the Spanish club Barcelona, who allowed UNICEF to place their logo on their previously sponsor-free kits, raising money and awareness for the charity.