Lifelong Sky Blues fan Richard Overson has agreed to sponsor the Coventry City Academy from Under 9s up to Under 14s.
Local businessman Mr Overson, who lives in Stratford-upon-Avon and is a lifelong Sky Blues fan, becomes the sponsor for six of the age groups from the successful Sky Blues Academy.
Richard said: “It’s so important to support the academy as this is the lifeblood of the club. It's vital we continue our successful Academy allowing Cov kids to play for their hometown team. I hope my support will go some way to helping the academy to continue to prosper. Investment in the Academy makes sense.”
In a unique step, Richard has kindly donated his sponsorship to promote local and national charities – and Sky Blues fans can help choose which charities they are!
The logos of these charities will appear on the shirts for the Under 9s, 10s, 11s, 12s, 13s and 14s this season.
Richard has chosen two UK charities; Parkinson’s UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, two causes close to his heart. Academy Manager Rich Stevens has also nominated Macmillan Cancer Support to be one of the charities to be promoted as it is a cause close to the heart of a recent Academy player.
These two national charities will feature across the away shirts used by the Under 9’s to Under 14’s age groups, along with another national charity to be shown on the final set of away shirts – which will be chosen by fans.
Mr Overson commented: “I was pleased to take the opportunity to pass the sponsorship for the Academy to charities. Those close to my heart are Macmillan and Parkinson's UK. Sadly my Dad passed away due to cancer when I was 15. He too loved City and took me to my first Coventry game and then many more. I chose Parkinson's UK as my uncle who also took me to many games in my youth suffers with the disease. I would love to support the charity in his honour and to see him at the ground again.”
Richard Stevens added: “We as an Academy are delighted with Richard’s sponsorship. We have chosen Macmillan as this is a charity which is close to the heart of a player who has recently been in the Academy set-up and they do some vital work.”
Six local charities will feature on the front of the Academy home shirts from Under 9s to Under 14s – with all six decided by City supporters.
The charity logos will also feature on:
• Matchday scoreboard
• Matchday Programme
• CCFC Website
All of the local charities will also have the chance of one bucket collection during the 2017/18 season on a first team matchday at the Ricoh Arena too.
To nominate your charity, just follow the steps below:
1. E-mail:info@ccfc.co.uk
2. Include subject line ‘Academy Charity’
3. State the name of your chosen charity in the body of the e-mail (One charity only, one nomination per person)
4. State whether the charity is local or national.
The charities who receive the most nominations will be selected as the chosen charities for the 2017/18 season.
All nominations must be received by 18th August 2017.