Oxford United’s management will now be watching home games from luxurious seats in their dug-out following a first-ever formal link-up between the club and Mini Oxford.

And U’s chairman Kelvin Thomas is confident that it will be one of many mutually-beneficial deals between them.

The ten bespoke Mini seats, which are yellow and blue leather and emblazoned with the United and Mini logos, were yesterday unveiled at the Kassam Stadium by Thomas, United boss Chris Wilder and Mini Oxford’s managing director Jürgen Hedrich.

United’s chairman was impressed with both the look of the seats, but more importantly, the link.

“We are really excited about it all and it’s great to have Mini Oxford on board,” he said.

“We are delighted to continue to build our relationship and developing the excellent relationship we already have.

“We have a lot of interest in each other and it’s going to be a real long-term partnership.

“We know many of our fans are employed at Mini Oxford and hope to encourage even more of the workforce to come down and cheer us on.

“It’s all very exciting and I think that the relationship will just grow and grow.”

The Oxford United Academy has been based at the plant’s site at Rover Cowley, which this season has also become the club’s official training base.

Hedrich says that the link with United is an important one for his company.

“Oxford United is a close neighbour, and we already had an established link to the club through the academy,” he said.

“Many of our associates live in Oxford and we know that there is a strong Oxford United fan base at the plant.

“Making our own distinctive mark at the stadium seemed like a natural next step.”

Mini employees can take advantage of reduced admission prices to the stadium for home matches for the duration of the season.

Thomas added: “The seats are very nice indeed – I just hope that our coaching staff will be able to get out of them!”

  • OXFORD United will send a youthful reserve side to Stevenage tonight as they start their totesport.com Football Combination North Division campaign.

Deane Smalley, Asa Hall, Josh Payne, Steven Kinniburgh and Wayne Brown will feature, with the rest of the side made up with youth team players and triallists.