New Amsterdam FC

New Amsterdam Football Club was an American professional soccer club based in Hempstead, New York, that previously played in the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), the third tier of American soccer. New Amsterdam FC was established on April 20, 2020, and began play in July 2020. They were expelled from the league in January 2022 and folded.

The club was founded by both Laurence Girard and Maximilian Mansfield, with Mansfield serving as sporting director. The name is a reference to New Amsterdam, the 17th-century Dutch settlement that eventually became New York City.

History

Founding

In November 2019 it was reported that a possible New York–based group had applied for a team in the National Independent Soccer Association, a new third division soccer league. It was then further reported in January 2020 that the investor involved in the New York group was rumored to be Laurence Girard, the CEO of medtech company Fruit Street Health.

A few months later, on April 20, the rumors were confirmed and New Amsterdam FC was officially announced as a New York-based NISA side. At the time of the reveal, it was not announced when New Amsterdam FC would begin playing.

The club was involved with controversy almost from the start, as two competing Twitter accounts both claimed to be the official account of New Amsterdam FC. The first account "@NAFCNY" gathered over 2,000 followers and the second account "@nfcny" barely had 100 when NISA declared that the second account was the "real" official Twitter account, leading to speculation that the club was in dispute with their original social media manager who then refused to hand over access, necessitating a new handle.