Mid-Missouri built for mid-Missourians, AFC Columbia was founded by Columbia, MO locals looking for something to support and nurture. The club gets its colors from the Columbia city flag and has proudly flown them since 2020. We wanted to know even more and the club graciously answered all our questions.

Tell us the origin story of AFC Columbia - when was it founded? By whom and what is its mission?
The club was founded perfectly at the start of a pandemic like all great stories begin. When club co-founder Zach Fisher moved to Columbia in fall of 2019 he was looking for a local club to support and at that time none existed in mid-Missouri. After dozens of messages with other local soccer fans, it was decided in a twitter direct message with the other club co-founder Grant Sundberg that a club should be started. Unfortunately that was in January of 2020 and the club was delayed because of the pandemic. That had some silver linings though as it gave the club time to attract more local soccer fans to help build the initial board and establish a clear vision for why AFC Columbia should exist.

AFCC was to be built by mid-Missourians, for mid-Missouri players and mid-Missouri soccer fans. Instead of the best local players having to drive to KC or Saint Louis, they could play for their local club. The club initially only recruited players that either were from mid-Missouri, played at a mid-Missouri college or currently lived in the area. We were not going to recruit players from outside of the area.The club has evolved some over the years, but still has around 90% of its roster still having those initial roots in the Mid-Missouri area. Between our men's and women's clubs, over 30 countries and 50 colleges have been represented on our rosters.

Tell us about your badge and colors – how does it connect to the community?
The badge and colors of AFCC were initially black and Vegas gold. These were used in a kit competition for Hope & Glory where AFCC actually ended up being runners up despite having never played a match at that point. We were going for a Newcastle/Notts County/Juventus look. With Mizzou being black and gold already though, it was decided that we pick different colors that would let us stand out more. So Grant suggested AFCC use the colors of the Columbia city flag, dark royal blue and kelly green. The colors stuck and AFCC has played in a shade of blue in every season since with kelly green being used more in a secondary role.

The badge was hand drawn by Zach with design inspiration from a temporary logo that was briefly used as the club was settling on branding. The logo elements were all intentionally used:
- The eagles looking at our major city competitors directly to our east and west.
- The shield showing we were directly in the middle of Missouri and the MO signifying Missouri since there are dozens of Columbia cities across the country.
- The wings were to symbolize the corn fields that surround Columbia and the middle wing lines coming together to symbolize Boone County boundaries including the Missouri River and Cedar Creek
- The shield was used since it seemed every new club at that time was using circles and we wanted to have a different, more traditional badge.

What league or leagues does your club participate in and why did you choose those to join?
When AFCC was founded there were really only 2 leagues in Missouri to try to join, USL2 and the NPSL. Both had substantial costs to join and neither made really any effort to try to recruit the club to join at first. In the entire state of Missouri there were only 2 NPSL clubs and 1 USL2 club, so joining either league also meant undertaking unsustainable travel which was a non-starter for us. That led us to pivot to exploring other concepts. When AFCC was starting we did a ton of research into how to be a sustainable entity that was not at risk of closing every year and two clubs especially were used as inspiration, those being Lansing Common and DeKalb County United, both of whom had just helped found the Midwest Premier League. Unfortunately again for AFCC, the MWPL at that time had no local conference for us to play in. That led to a conversation with John Hall at the MWPL about the potential of our area starting the first expansion conference in 2022.

Originally the conference was to begin with STL Maritsa, STL Ajax, AFCC and Santa Fe Wanderers, but Maritsa dropped out at the last minute and was replaced with Springfield FC. What started as the South Conference of the MWPL morphed into the Gateway Conference and now consists of 17 clubs combined across the 2 divisions. The goals with joining the MWPL were always simple: be as sustainable as possible, have a say in what your league was trying to do, and be good business partners. At a time when other leagues were charging 5 to 10 thousand more dollars to kick the same ball, the MWPL allowed the club to break even or even be profitable for most of its existence.

Since our first year, the league has grown significantly and has helped the decision to stay never in doubt. The talent level of the clubs in the area, the proximity to other clubs and the reduction of travel has helped, and the effort the teams see from the league front office have gone a long way in helping this become a home for our players and program.

How does the club stay funded and how can our readers support you?
We have a lot of generous sponsors who believe in what we do, and have been very blessed with their support. We do sell merch, items and tickets, we have concessions and other things we do. At the end of the day though we don't exist without our sponsors and fans. They do a great job of helping us grow financially. We also have an entirely volunteer workforce. From interns to event staff, management to coaches, everyone is in it to help the players develop and they see the bigger picture.

Interested people can always come to games, that’s the number one way we want people to get involved. We have great players and great people, so we want to grow that environment. We also take donations, sponsorships, which go a long way to support us.

How did you finish last year and what are your goals for the 2026 season?
Last season was a difficult year for us but a lot of foundation pieces were laid that led us to the success we are starting to see. We were competitive in games, just couldn't get the results. Since then, we have added a spring season and winter training and that has done wonders for our culture and development. We feel like we can be competitive against any team around, and we have the depth and talent to get some solid results. Our goal this season is to keep that competition level high and get results for our players to see the fruits of their labor in our training and see the growth for our program.

How does AFC Columbia participate in or give back to their community?
We do quite a few events with our partner women's team, Missouri Reign. One of the best events we have ever done was our Special Olympics Night, where they brought out around 180 athletes from their summer camp. We also help with the Missouri Soccer Coaches Association's Coaching Clinic for coaches around the state of Missouri, we partner with the Central Missouri #9 Camp to host a technical and developmental camp for players, we have players from every local school and promote them.

We promote 988, work with the Missouri Department of Mental Health to highlight the battle people fight every day, and we take as many chances as we get to honor those who serve and protect us every day. We are always looking for more ways to give back where we can.

If there were one or two teams, within a 100 miles of you, to play a friendly against – who would you play and why?
We think it would be fun to play one of the MLS second teams, give our men's team a challenge at the highest level. We also have a lot of respect for many of the teams in the MWPL and set up friendlies with quite a few. There are a lot of well run clubs in the state of Missouri and each of those clubs field talented rosters, so any opportunities we get to compete are welcome.

Follow AFC Columbia on Instagram HERE