WE have felt the need more than once recently to question the sense and morality of the financial side of modern football.

With Premiership players earning obscene amounts of money, and transfer fees bringing clubs to their knees, the national game is in crisis.

For months, the biggest talking point in football has been whether David Beckham will leave Manchester United for Barcelona or AC Milan or some other foreign club in a deal reputed to be worth around £60m when his image rights are taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the lop-sided playing field, grass roots football scratches around to survive despite its huge importance in nurturing talent and helping to keep people fit and healthy.

It is because the grass roots are so crucial, and because there is such a contrast with the upper echelons of the game, that we take such delight in reporting a unique sponsorship deal for The Northern League on our front page today.

Brooks Mileson, owner of the Albany Group, left officials of the league wondering if they were dreaming when he unveiled the deal which guarantees sponsorship for many years to come.

By making sponsorship of the world's second oldest football league part of his will, he has provided financial stability for the league for the rest of his own life and his sons' lives as well.

It may only represent the weekly wages of an average Premiership player, but £35,000-a-year is priceless at the amateur level.

And what makes it so much more appreciated is that such a wonderful gesture was born more out of a love of grass roots sport than an eye for commercial benefits.

It is a milestone for sport in our region and a reminder that not everyone in the world of football has self-interest at heart.

On behalf of all those who enjoy sport for the sheer love of it, we have two words to say to Brooks Mileson: "Thank you."