TRAVELLERS visiting the other side of the world can be forgiven for rubbing their eyes in disbelief when they see a young football team decked out in Oxford United’s kit.

Youngsters 11,000 miles away at Saqani High School in the remote Saqani District in eastern Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island, have very little sportswear for the games they play.

But when Oxford United heard that U’s fan Alex Murray was visiting the school on a charity project this summer, and that he wanted to take a football top for one of the children, they offered to help out.

They donated a full Oxford United kit from one of last season’s Academy teams to take with him to give to 15 children in Fiji, aged 12 to 14.

Mr Murray, 19, who has just returned from the South Pacific island, said: “The school and the kids were overwhelmed. They couldn’t believe the quality of the kits, and they will get a lot of use out of them.

“The eastern part of Vanua Levu is an incredibly remote part of the world and they are very poor. The schoolchildren all live in isolated, autonomous villages where money is rarely used since they are able to live off the land, but this of course means they can hardly ever afford to buy any sort of sports equipment or clothing.

“They were so thankful. Hopefully this will encourage the kids to play more football and improve the successes of the school team. Fiji is, after all, a rugby-dominated country."”

Mr Murray, from Lechlade-on-Thames, is on a gap year after gaining a place at King’s College, London, to study geography.

He left the European School in Culham, near Abingdon, last year.

Mr Murray was visiting Fiji with Northumberland-based charity Madventurer and spent last month living with the villagers.

He helped to build a community hall for the people of Naboutini village, where villagers use spears to hunt wild boars.

Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas said: “We were very happy to help out and donate the children's kits to the youngsters in Fiji.

“We heard they were ecstatic to be wearing almost new Oxford United shirts, shorts and socks and hopefully we have picked up some new fans in the South Pacific.”