Seven months after we first covered the club, we've caught up with the fans and staff of FMFC to hear their first-season stories...
When he’s not shaking the oversized hands of former pro wrestlers at matches, Andrew is passionately supporting in the stands with the rest of The Flock, the club’s beating heart on matchdays.
“We give people the license to support this club however they would like, and it makes it so that you have a group of people that curate that experience for eachother and for others like them,” he says.
Aligned with The Flock are numerous sub-supporter groups representing fans from diverse ethnic, geographic and cultural backgrounds. Andrew’s commitment to ensuring the equal treatment of these groups and supporters is irrefutable.
“You'd have to be living under a rock or with your head in the sand not to know that there's a problem and an ongoing issue with race in the US,” he says, “I think it's just hard-wired in humans to see differences in eachother as opposed to similarities.”
His passion is visible when he speaks about how The Flock comes together on game day to support the team.
“You know what? We look different, we act different, we come from different cultures and that's totally fine and okay and everyone has a place here. We make it so that those things aren't marginalised but celebrated instead.”
When arranging to speak with Andrew about The Flock, he offered without hesitation to invite the leaders of some of the diverse, Flock-aligned supporter groups to share their stories. Omar Anguiano is one such leader.
Omar founded ‘La Barra 608’ with his brother and a friend before Forward’s season had even begun, inspired by the club signing Latin American players like Paulo Jr. (Brazil), Danny Tenorio (Ecuador), Christian Diaz (Mexico) and Josiel Nuñez (Panama).
He references the packed stadiums, “crazy-ass fans” and insane Copa Libertadores Final between Boca Juniors and River Plate in 2018, and how those cultural images loosely shaped the identity he wanted for La Barra 608.
“We didn't wanna bring that kind of [hostile] environment but we wanted to bring that kind of energy; the sounds, the music they bring.”
La Barra 608 was one of the first ‘offshoot’ supporter groups from The Flock, and its immediate success inspired the creation of many others.
Kyle Carr is a co-founder of Featherstone Flamingos, a supporter group celebrating black culture.
He explains how the signings of black players inspired the group’s creation, and emphasised the importance of racial representation:
“The first signing for Madison was Don Smart, a Jamaican that lived in NY so having that kind of player and that kind of representation was something we wanted to happily push, so whether it was Don or other black players like Carter Manley, JC Banks, Brandon Eaton…
“It's just a chance to show the different parts of the United States and have younger fans be able to know that they can come to games and go and support. It's not just something for rich, white people. Anyone from any background can attend Forward Madison matches.”
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