Premier League club Aston Villa recently announced a sponsorship deal for the 2008/2009 season. The deal is with local children's hospice Acorns and Villa will carry the charity's logo for free this season.

AVFC has had a relationship with Acorns since 2006 and offered the shirt sponsorship after being informed that Acorns needed to care for 1,000 more children. In making the deal Villa have passed up a rumored £2 million offer from an internet gaming company.

Club owner Randy Lerner and manager Martin O'Neill have been instumental in the club's relationship with Acorns and have expressed their pride over the sponsorship arrangment.

The deal certainly deserves praise at a time when clubs are known to pinch every penny. Villa, like Barcelona's deal with UNICEF, have shown that there are more important things than money and deserve a round of applause for their efforts.

The turbulence and uncertainty ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa continues to cast a dark cloud over what should be a nation's coming out party. The latest episode follows a report from the British newspaper The Guardian stating that insurers were fearful about providing coverage for the event amid fears that the stadiums would not be complete on time. This report comes at a time when around 500 workers have gone on strike at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. The estimated date of completion for the 46,000-seat stadium is mid-2009 but unless this problem is solved quickly that will surely be pushed back.

It is widely thought that the United States is the stand-by host in case the event cannot go ahead in South Africa. Certainly living in the United States I would be delighted at an opportunity to attend World Cup matches so easily, but I want South Africa to host it, I think South Africa needs to host it. Few nations have had to deal with the hardships that South Africa has and the country needs something that could give it a chance to become the great nation it has the potential to be. I think, and I hope that the 2010 World Cup would do just that. So, I wish South Africa the best of luck

Tomorrow (or today in most places) Arsenal and Liverpool will meet in what will be the second of three matches in one week's time. It's an important match for both clubs, particularly Arsenal who need a win to keep pace with league leaders Manchester United. Despite a recent slide in form Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal still have enough in the tank to capture their first championship since the 2004 season in which the Gunners went unbeaten. The Londoners will need a solid performance from Phillipe Senderos and William Gallas in the heart of defense as it seems likely Rafa Benitez will call upon Peter Crouch who has made it a habit to score against Arsenal throughout his career. Arsenal also announced that goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has signed a new contract. Lots of people question Almunia's ability, while there are many goalkeeper's I'd rather have I believe Almunia has done a respectable job.

In ten days the United Soccer Leagues, the American equivalent of England's Football League, will kick-off it's 22nd season as the Charleston Battery make the journey down the east coast to play Miami FC while the Montreal Impact make the transcontinental flight to British Columbia to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Despite the fact that a ball has yet to be kicked in anger 2008 has already proved highly dramatic for the USL starting with the loss of it's San Francisco based team the California Victory. California served as a farm team of sorts for the Spanish Segunda Division side Deportivo Alavés and was run by Ukrainian-American businessman Dmitry Pietrman, then a major shareholder in the Spanish club. After running battles with Pietrman the rest of the Alavés ownership decided to pull their support for the USL team leaving it without a leg to stand on. There is, however, a grassroots effort underway to save the club which can be found at http://www.savethevictory.org/

But the drama surrounding the Victory proved to only be the tip of the iceberg as it was announced Major League Soccer would expand to Seattle in 2009 meaning that the USL would lose one of it's most storied and well supported clubs, the Seattle Sounders. In late 2007 it was confirmed that 2008 would indeed be the Sounders' final season in the USL as the club announced it would play all of it's matches (with the exception of an opening week derby against Portland) at the 2,000-seat Starfire Stadium in Tukwila.

Despite all this, the news managed to get worse as news surfaced that the ownership of the Rochester Rhinos, a team which had become synonymous with the USL, had defaulted on $10.6 million in loans. The Rhinos story did manage to end well as Rob Clark, owner of Utica, New York-based Adirondack Bank, swooped in to save the club. Fans were able to breathe a second sigh of relief when it was announced that the club would be able to remain at the PAETEC Park home the fans had begged the city for.

There was, however, one highlight during the offseason on January 22nd when English club Stoke City announced it would purchase a USL-1 franchise to be located in Austin, Texas. The hidiously named "Aztex" will begin play in 2009, while a reserve side baring the same name will play in the PDL this season.

The USL has announced that it has it's sights set on medium-sized markets not currently being targeted by MLS. Among the cities listed were Omaha, Nebraska (whose 6,000-seat Morrison Stadium would be perfect for a USL-1 team), San Antonio, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Tampa, Florida. I've heared murmurings of ownership groups in the latter two cities but not a peep from any of the others. Some believe that the Tampa group (actually in nearby Clearwater) may have connections to Scientology, I don't really care to step on that anthill.

On the field the Sounders should do well in their farewell season. They have better players than anyone else in the league and the entire squad will be keen to show well with a possible MLS contract as a reward. Last season's league MVP Sebastian Le Toux should have the same impact he did last season. Seattle's main challenge should come from Montreal. The Impact will be keen to christen their new stadium with a championship and have the players to do so if they play to their potential. At the bottom will probably be the Rhinos, but their fans are unlikely to fuss too much given that the club was literally days from going out of existence less than a month ago.

The USL-2 will have many changes on display as well. Pittsburgh returns from their self-imposed exile and will be joined by new boys Real Maryland FC based out of Germantown near Washington, DC. Both New Hampshire and Cincinnati have elected to relegate themselves to the PDL. As usual it will be hard for the field to match the class of Richmond and Charlotte who should battle until the end with the Kickers coming out on top, though last year's champion Harrisburg has the quality to spring another surprise.

Predictions:

USL1 - Champions: Seattle, Runners-up: Montreal

USL2 - Champions: Richmond, Runners-up: Charlotte