There's a banner that has sat proudly in the Matthew Harding End for many a season now.

Most of you will have seen the offering to Stamford Bridge, which hangs alongside the John Terry, Captain, Leader, Legend flag and belongs to the Cyprus Supporters Club.

You may also have wondered just how many Blues belonged to this club and which one came to every game to hang his humble offering to the Chelsea faithful.

Well, so did chelseafc.com, and with a Champions League clash against APOEL FC on the horizon, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to find out, while getting the low-down on our opponents as well.

'The fan club started about 17 years ago,' said its founder Keith Allsop. 'It was started so we could get tickets to watch Chelsea at home because it was getting more difficult.'

A fan since the Seventies, when Keith moved to Cyprus he immediately set about organising his fellow football fans into the supporters group so he could stay in contact with his beloved club.

'Since moving out here I have been back 34 times to see Chelsea and I've never seen them lose any of those games,' he added.

With thousands of British expatriates in Cyprus, there are plenty of like minded fans, although the vast majority of Londoners in the country seemed to originate from the north of the capital.

Invariably they tend to follow Tottenham or Arsenal, but there is one bonus to having so many opposition fans on the island.

'We're saturated with football over here and watch every Chelsea game live. All the Premier League games are live with English commentary and the Premier League has a massive following,' explained Keith.

Natives of the island love their football too though and Keith is fully aware of the reception that'll await Chelsea on Wednesday.

'The fans here are very vocal; APOEL is a sell-out this Wednesday, so there'll be 22,000 fans singing.

'They tend not to follow the national team out here, but they do follow the local teams. It will be a full house there on Wednesday and they are crazy fans.

'It will be a boisterous game as well, they're a strong side at home and they'll be well up for it.

'They have some very good players and it won't be an easy game for Chelsea on Wednesday night, that's for sure.'

The Cyprus Supporters Club are obviously looking forward to the clash and a chance to see their team on the sunny island, and as a fan from the Seventies, Keith has a very special guest joining his coach party to the game.

That man's the son of a legend: 'Mark Osgood has a business in Cyprus and he's going to come up with us as well,' excited exclaimed Keith.

'Altogether there are about a hundred of us going up. There are lads from Malta, Sweden and Dubai all coming with us so it should be a good night.

'Luckily the day after the game is a bank holiday over here, so that's a good thing.'

But back to the banners, who's responsible for the Cyprus Supporters Club flag at Stamford Bridge?

'That's Agkis Kyriacou,' explains Keith. 'He's an English Cypriot lad, a fanatical Chelsea supporter, he goes to every game, doesn't miss any of them, then he comes over here to watch Cyprus because he also supports Cyprus.

'He's coming as well, so there will be two flags up for the game on Wednesday as we've made another one over here. We've also had some t-shirts made up with "Cyprus Blues" on them.'

There was one more surprise to come from Keith as he revealed he'd received a special invite for the morning of the game: 'A few of us have been invited out to breakfast on Wednesday morning with the chairman Bruce Buck, so that should be really nice.

'He emailed us at the supporters club and at first we thought it was a wind up, but it's not so that's going to be really good. It's someone the fans don't normally get to talk to.'

The man in charge of those emails is Keith's right hand man at the supporters club, Iain Boardman.

Iain has been a fan since 1967 and became a regular at the club as soon as he arrived in Cyprus, he's now the man behind the technical side of things.

'The amount of emails we've had from all the guys coming over is amazing,' said Iain. 'There's going to be nearly a hundred of us coming to the game. I must have had in excess of one hundred emails and phone calls.

'It's great the game is here, I remember jumping up and down on the settee when the draw happened, my wife told me to calm down or I'd have a heart attack.'

We thank the football gods you didn't Iain, so you and Keith can keep spreading the good word of Chelsea to all our Cypriot fans.

So don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the Cyprus banners on Wednesday night, and next time you see the flag at Stamford Bridge, think of Keith, Iain and Agkis.

Click here for more information on supporter clubs.