Snowligan

In the course of my life, I've had the pleasure of watching European Champions League, youth tourneys and everything else in between in multiple countries. The US is the only country where I've felt like in order to be acceptable supporter, I have to have drained a few pints of beer or shots of whisky beforehand. The major supporters groups all meet at pubs/bars before they march to the game. Supporting sober is just not advertised as an option. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be draining a bottle of Junkyard beer or shot of Proof whisky but I literally cannot. I could even frame this as an accessibility problem. You see, I can't drink because I take two different medications whose mixture with alcohol would probably hospitalise me. For related reasons, it might be unsafe for me to even participate in the march. I can't be alone. There are legions of disabled footy fans. Am I wrong? Do you have suggestions? Feel free to comment. Thanks, Tim

In the past few days, the erstwhile owner of FC Fargo, Tim Singleton, has been hired as General Manager of Minnesota TwinStars. I wish him all the luck in the world. Like everyone in the fourth division, he's gonna need it, although it's not clear if he has been hired as GM of the entire club - which has an NPSL side, a women's team and a very successful academy side - or just the NPSL side. At the same time, but insisting that they are unaffiliated with management, the TwinStars has a supporters group - Third Star MN -whose Twitter feed nonetheless shows the spirit of 'Singles'. Elsewhere, our former whipping boys at FC Minneapolis have the unprecedented decision to become a "professional non-league club", playing a schedule of friendlies in perpetuity. What makes this unprecedented is that teams usually play friendlies when their league is on a hiatus or holiday. The only other sports structure I can think of with intentionally long term indepen...

Out of the provisional "Central conference", the National Premier Soccer League have created an official "North conference. For a conference wide update, check out NPSL Northerner or NPSL themselves Of most import to me, Dakota Fusion are one of the newcomers. Here's their press release: BREAKING NEWS FOR NORTH DAKOTA SOCCERWORLD No need to shout, DF. Dakota Fusion Becomes Full Member of the NPSL . Dakota Fusion FC is excited to announce that it will join the NPSL beginning in the summer of 2017. Seems fair so far. DFFC is the first locally owned semi-professional soccer club in Fargo, ND. I'm not gonna let this slide. It is a snide and ultimately empty "first" because FC Fargo were the first competitive outdoor amateur team in Fargo-Moorhead. Semi-Pro isn't actually a thing in the US system. You are either professional (MLS, USL, NASL - at time of writing) or amateur (everything else) Launched by Amanda and Sajid...

Out of the American Premier League comes the American Champions League . Founders of the former have basically recreated the original APL model with its multitude of teams almost exclusively in the Twin Cities. I called the original APL a "Twin Cities metro rec league". I'm yet to see any evidence that the zombies of FC Minneapolis and Granite City are creating anything more worthy of attention. The ACL model sees teams competing at state (or more accurately metro) level against one another for what amount to divisional titles. The divisional champions will then eventually face off, apparently, in a "Champions League" format. This next season there is only the one division, in that one metro/CSA. (Depends on whether you consider St Cloud a different metro) It doesn't even include Duluth, let alone Fargo-Moorhead so I am curious but it is irrelevant. If they convince people to expand into North Dakota there is the obvious problem that Fargo is o...

On the 23rd of August 2015, FC Fargo folded for financial reasons. It was the end of a soccer club that I and others had poured our hearts and funds into. I took the decision to retool the Fargo Green Army blog at this address as The Fargo Wanderer, whilst retaining the slogan of "Supporting North of Normal Soccer". The name is a play on the storied history of itinerant soccer clubs who bounce around areas looking for a home, leading to being called Wanderers (eg. Bolton, Wolverhampton) I've most probably closed the book on my time as an employee at D4 level but I've definitely turned the page on my time with FC Fargo and will look upon the following seasons as a mixture of a fan and a reporter. I hope that Dakota Fusion Futbol Club (missing an accent on that F word) get better at communication and scheduling and then I may have another spectating option in Fargo-Moorhead. That said, global soccer fandom has more seasons than the world. College so...

Of Big Ben and Saint George Second in a series of profiles of the first ever Red River, Green & Gold squad   Ben Eastwell and George Anthony grew up in cities 200 miles apart in England. Eastwell comes from Norwich , an old historic market town with a castle in the center but with a thriving modern economy and soccer history of its own. He decided to promote himself to college recruiters in the US with the aim of playing professional soccer and earning a degree, a combination far better established in America than England. Having been swiftly recruited from the city by the University of Jamestown , he settled into life in Fargo – a city and a state that he says he “knew nothing about” before he moved to the area. I asked him how he thought his time at Jamestown had helped his progress towards making a living as a player: “Training five days a week at Jamestown and practising the simple foundations helped out a lot. Most importantly the talen...

Hello guys, I'm changing hats . By October my exile in England should be over and at that point I will need to concentrate full time on the things I do best. Those are media things. So I am taking over as communications director of the club and essentially co-ordinating the awesome, multi skilled crew of content and production guys we have around. I will be tweeting less from @fargogreenarmy and more from @fcfargomedia as this transition continues - let me know if leading the Green Army appeals to you. I have never been a regular blogger, and have basically been keeping the Fargo Green Army present in the conversation until we as a group can find someone more able and comfortable to engage with everything that leading a Supporters Group requires. As a young club, most of us founders club members are also staff - like a good non-league club here in England we help out wherever we can to keep the lights on and our players on the pitch. As we grow, I feel we will see the developm...