Photo by Danny Wild/USA TODAY Sports
By SBI SOCCER
On the field, New York City FC is not having the best of seasons, so the supporters are voicing their displeasure with the team and City Football Group through an online petition.
According to the petition, the action to create “City Football Group and NYCFC Demand Fair and Ethical Treatment of Fans” was sparked by recent incidents at the team’s latest home match against the Columbus Crew.
After a fan was apparently tasered by the New York Police Department, president of the Third Rail Supporters Rox Fontaine demanded “proper and ethical treatment” from NYCFC and NYPD.
Fontaine also voiced the fans’ displeasure with the team’s performance in its first season as an MLS club.
“Our team is marginal at best,” Fontaine said in the change.org petition, “we’re 0-3 versus our New Jersey rivals, we lost on PKs to the 2nd division team here, I can’t not mention the Lampard situation and we don’t have any news about a soccer specific stadium among a list of other things.
“Instead, you have entered into a deal with an organization that does not understand or care for the beautiful game and thus doesn’t understand or care for us as fans. You have put a product on the pitch that looks good on paper but doesn’t translate to wins.”
More than 280 people have signed the petition.
Check out more stories from around MLS this Tuesday below:
ORLANDO CITY LOAD ADAM BEDELL TO DANISH OUTFIT HB KOGE
After not seeing much first-team action with Orlando City, Adam Bedell has made the move to Denmark, and he wasted little time in getting himself fully involved.
The 23-year-old forward has not seen much playing time with red-hot rookie Cyle Larin producing in front of him, and the team announced Tuesday that he would head to Danish club HB Koge until Dec. 31, 2015.
“We think this is a good opportunity for Adam to get playing time,” general manager Paul McDonough said. “Getting regular minutes in the next few months will be great for his development.”
The forward made quick work of making his impact known with his new club, scoring a hat-trick in a 6-2 win over Frederikssund in Denmark’s DBU Cup.
Bedell was named SBI Rookie of the Week twice in 2014, but he has seen little time with Orlando City since moving over from the Columbus Crew, who dealt the tall forward for a second-round pick in the upcoming MLS SuperDraft.
HARRISON AFFUL CAPTAINS GHANA IN WIN AGAINST CONGO
With regular members missing from Ghana’s starting eleven, the Black Stars turned to an MLS defender to captain the team.
Recent Columbus Crew addition Harrison Afful wore the armband for the Ghanaian national team Tuesday, and while Congo managed to sneak two goals in, Ghana managed to come away victorious — winning by a scoreline of 3-2.
With regular captain Asamoah Gyan and backup Andre Ayew out of the picture, the 29-year-old defender captained the Black Stars for the first time in his international career.
Ghana will face Rwanda on Sept. 3 in an African Cup of Nations qualification match.
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See Afful being the captain of the Black Stars for more than one game? What do you think about the Third Rail’s petition? Think Bedell will see playing time in Denmark?
Share your thoughts below.
non-lethal, mostly
my reaction is to have compassion for the person who was tasered by police. even if he had an inhaler (whatever that means) and pokeman cards (whatever they are) and is as nerdy as they come, he is still a person.
what did he do to justify being tasered by police?
i think it’s rare, but a person can actually die from being tasered, i hear.
While were complaining, how about adding the field to that list. Finlay must off slipped 5 times in that last match. I still can’t believe it’s regulation.
change a few dates and NYCFC > NY/NJ and you have literally the same complaints as MetroStars fans had over the years. Growing pains that just about every team has gone through in this league. Naive to think you’d have it any differently after being created out of thin air. The only teams that have not had these struggles are teams that were promoted from lower levels and had an existing stadium and infrastructure. And even those had plenty of their own issues upon showing up in the big leagues.
Where were you entitled hipsters in ’96 when the rest of us were dealing with Giants stadium security? Forget ’96, where were you in 2014
You show up late and act like any real real fan should give a Fvck about your problems?
Fvck outta here
A full 280 people are upset enough to sign a petition? Two-hundred and eighty? That’s a major statement, though its probably not the one the signatories envisioned making. Reality check — NYCFC is drawing very well and the games have had a great atmosphere, including in the supporters section. Credit to them, and demerits to the few troublemakers. As for the on-field play, Villa has been outstanding, Mix is out of position and looks like it, Poku has been a fun surprise, Pirlo just got called up for Italy again, Lampard hasn’t integrated yet, and they still look like an expansion team who has been filling in pieces all year and hasn’t played that much together. Its hard to fault management for that now. The good news for the league is that you really can’t just bring in three stars sporadically during the year and expect to win. MLS is better than that, and NYCFC will no doubt adjust. Just next year.
The letter mixes two complaints that honestly are not related. One is security and police treatment of supporters, and another is the play of the team on the field. The principal complaint should be that security is coming down too hard on the supporters group – and better coordination/communication is needed for fans to enjoy the action.
Instead it comes across as “waaaah we aren’t being treated well and it’s not fair because we are staying true to this crappy team we want a cookie”.
And they shouldn’t have expected to win the first year, any fans who thought “we are going to rule MLS” obviously have no idea how the league works and what is needed to win. They have probably underperformed slightly, but most expectations were maybe for NYCFC to come in fifth or sixth. Which they are about 5-8 points underperforming.
I know. The horror they’ve endured, lo, these long 4.5 months! The suffering! The strife! The consternation!
(cue mournful Loony Tunes violin riff here)
Entitlement is one thing…this hits a kinda…different level, here.
Wait…. A ridiculous sense of entitlement? Christ…. and to think those quacks at the Abu Dhabi Sports Group told me I wasn’t the father.
My baby! My $100mm baby!
NYCFC are a bunch of chumps!!
This “petition” is so clownish it’s almost as if some Red Bulls fans wrote just to troll NYCFC. I actually like the new team and think they have some good pieces – and like others have said, they were never likely to make the playoffs in year one, especially with their “big guns” arriving so late (the debate over just how big those “guns” are is for another forum…). The letter makes no sense – is this a beef with security over how a member of the group was treated? If so, some context or video would be welcome. But either way, going on a weird tangent about how you’re the best fans in the world but the team (one that was created through an expansion draft and is essentially three aging stars, a couple of decent young talents, and the rest all average or worse journeymen) letting them down is just weak sauce. Love the attendance numbers, really like the idea of NYCFC, but this dude just made his supporters group like a bunch of sissified chumps.
I think Rox is short for his Native American name “Rocks in his head.” What a poseur tool! You would think NYCFC has been around for a 100 years and was just bought by Tom Hicks. Good God! Rocks,…maybe you should a supporters trust and start a new club called The Real NYCFC United.
Entitled millennial blowhards
Tim F. is correct, this team had the foundation to be very successful, although I still thought they’d be better off by now. Pirlo came in late, Lampard has been a giant fiasco, but I’d love to have my home team with that roster. It’ll be ok……and don’t fire Kreis!!!
Here’s guessing that many of the 280 signatures have the first name Tim.
I like the way NYCFC has played. Villa is a great captain and Kreis is a great coach. Better results will come once some backline mistakes are reduced. Good young talent too on the team — Angelino, Poku, Facey that I hope stay with the team.
Cringeworthy. The petition comes across as rash, unfocused, rather whiny and…. immature. It seems what initiated this is the tasering of a supporter. Who knows the details of the incident. In order to avoid looking pretty bad, a full set of facts probably need to come to light before a reaction. If it was indeed unjust, it certainly needs to be addressed, but…. this letter after a brief mention of the incident, goes on to make it all about “themselves”… the long suffering fans of all of what…. not even a full season?.
+1.
What I don’t get is how these people act like NYCFC is some institution that’s been around for one hundred years. They’re not the Yankees – they just play on a baseball field.
What did these people expect? They signed up to support a new franchise that is quite clear on the fact that this is just a farm team in the colonies, and that the whole MLS requirement of “soccer specific stadium” would be thoroughly ignored. As will, apparently, the standings.
Ethical treatment as in free range and no antibiotics?
Kudos to these guys for putting down the inhalers and the Pokemon cards long enough to write the letter but did they really expect much better in their first season?
Bunch of weak azz dorks.
You win the internet today good Sir.
Someone needs to start a petition to have more NYCFC fans tasered.
#AllLivesMatterExceptNYCFCFans
Don’t know anything about the tasered guy but NYYFC supporters have generally behaved like animals whose only reference on how to act at a football game comes from that time they watched Green Street Hooligans. The complaints about how terrible their team is look naive because this is an expansion team. Add to that some big fat fails on DP signings like Fat Frank and you have a recipe for a terrible season and getting spanked by the Kings of NY three straight times.
I think it is a bit disrespectful to think that a team will waltz into MLS as an expansion team and be competitive right away. The organizations that are on top of the tables are teams that have been built over years of careful drafting, recruiting, etc.
This ain’t ’98 y’all.
Wait NYFC fans probably don’t get that reference…
“Jump the Hudson and ask those guys in New Jersey how they wish they had support like us. ”
LOL ummm… actually, no. First, am not from NY, and I’m red for life. 2nd, they should feel free to keep their type of “support” as far away as possible, thanks! Especially if you jumped ship, please happily enjoy your blue purgatory. Just when you think the fail could not be any stronger in those guys..
“The fail is strong in this young team, yes?” ~Joda
This is what I “heard” as I read your last line…
NY is Red you cry-babies!
…..and this is why people think soccer is for wussies.
What a bunch of whiners.
I don’t know anything about the tasering, I hope he is alright and I hope it was warranted
If you don’t want to lose ever, don’t root for a MLS team, it will be competitive and tough and you will lose way more seasons than you win.
Root for Barca whiners, they will win the league again and if they don’t you can discuss how to beat RM next year.
Maybe if they dropped the Neo-Nazis
What were you expecting?
The end of the petition should have said, “but at least we dropped Nemec”
“WE ARE THE GREATEST SPORTS FRANCHISE IN HISTORY, METRO IS A JOKE!!”–NYCFC fans before they even had any players.
“WAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”–NYCFC fans ever since
Suck it up folks. We’ve dealt with failure since the birth of this league. You can deal with a rough expansion season and drunken belligerents getting tasered.
What a mess