Bonding through the fan club
Sports Champ|September 2022
With over 1000 members, the APSC is the fourth supporters club in India, to be recognised by Arsenal Club; APSC chairperson Kapil Sathe shares the journey of the community with Sports Champ OF THE GAME AND ALWAYS
Kapil Sathe
Bonding through the fan club

Football is the most watched sport in the world and all the football clubs have a worldwide fan base. The number of fans increases or decreases as per the team's performance but several loyal ones keep on supporting their favourite team even in their bad patches.

Arsenal is one of the biggest and most successful clubs in London and they have a total of 77 million fans following as of now. Even though the Gunners haven't been in their form for a while now their fan following has remained loyal to them.

And almost 4500 miles away from London, in a city called Pune, there was a yearning and passion for the club. A few Gooners such as Akshay Kamthe, Akhil Nair and Neeraj Yardy gathered together in 2010 to do something different which Pune has never seen before and the idea of getting the UK culture of watching the match together at a venue where likeminded fans can come and enjoy the beautiful game made even more pleasant to watch by their club - The Arsenal.

Arsenal Pune then known as Pune Gooners, came together for their first ever match screening and what an occasion it was! The North London Derby! Arsenal hosting Tottenham at Emirates! Arsenal ran out impressive 5-2 winners! A small group of 6 Arsenal fans came together to start a journey with a dream to gather more and more fellow supporters to make this the best and biggest Arsenal supporters group in Pune.

The journey began...

This story is from the September 2022 edition of Sports Champ.

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This story is from the September 2022 edition of Sports Champ.

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