Features

QPR’s Loftus Road becomes The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium

English Championship football club Queens Park Rangers has agreed a deal for The Kiyan Prince Foundation to take on naming rights to its Loftus Road stadium.

Under the agreement, the ground will officially become The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium from the start of the 2019-20 Championship season.

The foundation was set up in memory of Kiyan Prince, a former QPR academy player who was tragically stabbed to death outside his school when breaking up a fight on May 18, 2006, when he was just 15. His father Mark set up the charity to educate young people on the consequences of knife crime.

QPR announced in April that it would be handing over its stadium naming rights to a local charity for free. Fans had until May 3 to nominate a charity via an online survey on QPR’s official website.

Of the five nominated charities, The Kiyan Prince Foundation received more than 63 per cent of the overall votes. QPR chief executive Lee Hoos said the club would look to work with a number of the other charities that were nominated for naming rights.

Mark Prince said: “I can’t tell you what this means to Kiyan’s mum, to me, his brothers and sisters, his friends and people who have been supporting the work we have been doing.

“Kiyan was a very special young man. We hear many stories about his kindness and good nature so to have the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium at a place where his skills were honed is a dream come true.

“It means so much and only confirms the relationship that I know I have with the QPR fans. They always give me their support. This gives us so many opportunities and we have to make sure we capitalise on them. Kiyan would be blown away by what is going on.”

Image: Matt Churchill