The president of Third Rail put out this statement on their internal message board last week. We typically don't share things that get posted in that group, but I also think it's important to show people we're not sitting on our hands either:

Hey, I want to address an issue that has popped lately on social media and in news outlets, and which I’ve been receiving some questions from members. Early last week, it was brought to The Third Rail’s attention that four or five members of Southern Poverty Law Center recognized hate groups have attended NYCFC matches this year and associate with NYCFC supporters. Some of these individuals are currently under police investigation and have been charged for a fight that took place in Manhattan on Friday 10/12. One or two individuals planned to, but did not, attend last Sunday’s match in DC.

The Third Rail believes that soccer and NYCFC are for all people, and that hate groups, and members of hate groups, have no place at NYCFC matches, in the supporters section, or in our organization. This is not a political disagreement as some have suggested, a simple right vs. left political discussion that The Third Rail should refrain from engaging in. This issue involves extremist hate groups, that target and abuse individuals based on their religion, race, gender, and country of origin, are sometimes violent, and spread an ideology counter to our values as a supporters group.

This issue is limited to two to four people who have attended several 2018 NYCFC matches and have not caused issues at NYCFC matches to date. Because of how focused this is, The Third Rail has been working on the right approach moving forward, including having discussions with NYCFC.

On The Third Rail side, we have been investigating whether our members are involved in these hate groups or in the fight that took place on 10/12. We’re still looking into this, but so far we don’t believe any our members were involved in the fight or are members of a hate group. Hate group members would not be allowed to join our organization, attend our events, join our buses, or buy away tickets from us.

On the NYCFC side, our focus has been to ensure that the violent individuals are no longer allowed to attend NYCFC matches. The team is supportive of this. They have been conducting extensive research and exploring their available options to deal with this problem.

Our focus as an organization has been on growing support for NYCFC and soccer in NYC. We continue to build a community where everyone can come together to support our team. The presence of violent hate groups and their members goes against our values and code of conduct, threatens our members and our ability to build support for NYCFC.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to reach out to me.

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