Footballing Communities: In Honour of Kyle Broadbent

Family, Friends, Fellow Supporters -
Everyone made it out for the long walk to SW6

Now is about that time of the week that I put out some sort of nonsense about this weekend’s fixtures, silly transfers, muse about Arsenal cancelling their goal of the month competition as it wouldn’t be right to use van Persie’s for United....


But for one week, I’ll let you off from the cynicism that pervades modern football as this weekend was one that highlighted what it is to be a football supporter and part of a community. For those of you who don’t know, Kyle Broadbent, tragically had his life cut short the weekend before.


Kyle, a Chelsea supporter, was a permanent fixture at home and away matches. And anyone who travels with their club regularly will know what it means to be an away supporter. It becomes a community itself as you see the same faces at the grounds. And by grounds, I clearly mean the pubs surrounding the grounds, the ones by the train stations ... etc and so on.


Kyle was meant to be at this weekend’s fixture against Newcastle where he had intended to walk from Euston Station down to Stamford Bridge (with an obvious stop for drinks at the Prince of Wales first). One of Kyle’s best mates thought the best way to honour his memory was not only to do the walk himself, but to get other Chelsea supporters to join him. Friend’s from other football clubs, family, and dozens of Chelsea supporters showed up for a very early start at Euston station. Wearing colours, shirts bearing Kyle’s name, and banners all brought everyone together, and spread the message through a very long walk to the pub. It was an emotional day, but a beautiful tribute to both Kyle and the footballing community.


There is no better way to end this than with the words of Kyle’s two best friends ... take some time to read them and think about how football can bring people together, not just generate a lot of bollocks on twitter. Although as long as Rio Ferdinand and Joey Barton are there – there won’t be any shortage of that


jb x


http://edsokolowski.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/57/


http://mcfctba.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/kyle-broadbent-1986-2012.html