A FOOTBALL academy in Gambia has been renamed in honour of a soccer-mad couple from Rishton.

Globe-trotting Allan and Carol Hindle, of Cedar Close, take gifts for schools wherever they travel and six years ago they enjoyed their first trip to the African country.

Since then the couple have returned many times and got to know 24-year-old Hamed, a goalkeeper and a volunteer for the Sanyang Academy, which teaches young children to play football.

When Allan, 55, and Carol, 56, returned home from one of their trips, they asked Rishton United to donate spare kits to the academy.

The couple, who are Blackburn Rovers fans, also asked the Premiership club to provide other equipment along with extra donations from Rishton.

And when the youngsters in Gambia received the gifts, not only did they respond by making football shirts for young members of Rishton United, they also changed their name to the Sanyang Rishton Academy.

Carol said: "Football is something people can talk about whatever country they are from, and it's really popular in Gambia.

"They have their own equivalent of the Football League between villages, and Sanyang is doing well in that. The academy is a great place where children can learn to play football and some of the players are really good.

"The children had no equipment and they were really grateful for the stuff we took out. Our thanks go to Blackburn Rovers and to Dave Seal at Rishton United for their donations.

"The children wanted to give something back so they made shirts for us to bring over. Some of them had to go without meals to pay for the materials to make them, but they wanted to give as well as receive."

The teams are pictured above in their "swapped'' shirts.