My Club, My Shirt: Nottingham Forest

The diversity of Nottingham Forest’s fanbase is being celebrated with the launch of the newest “My Club, My Shirt” exhibition – which opened at Nottingham town hall last night.

Forest’s ‘My City, My Shirt‘ exhibition captures portraits of a number of fans from a variety of backgrounds throughout the red half of Nottingham and has been put together with the help of the Fans for Diversity campaign.

Adopting the My Club, My Shirt format for their team, Nottingham Forest Supporters’ Trust (NFST) employed the services of club photographer Ritchie Sumpter who took the portraits at the City Ground and other sites around Nottingham.

Barry Frenchman from NFST said: “I saw the original campaign and thought it would be a great idea to utilise our own fanbase to showcase the diversity of the crowds down at the City Ground and encourage everyone to feel confident and safe supporting Forest.

“Here are but a tiny handful of stories of these people, to illustrate that the most important thing is that we are all Forest fans regardless of our differences.”

The Nottingham Forest portraits are the fourth in a series of exhibitions that are set to come to clubs across the country at the end of this year and into 2022. The ‘My Club, My Shirt’ initiative started at Cardiff City back in 2020.

That project involved portraits of more than two dozen fans from a variety of backgrounds throughout the Welsh capital. These were displayed as posters on matchdays over the period of two months – and culminated in a COVID-safe exhibition held at Cardiff Cathedral during Black History Month 2020.

Fans for Diversity campaign manager Anwar Uddin said: “It’s amazing to see a traditional fan group like a supporters’ trust execute a diversity project like this so well.

“I love this program – it celebrates all the different kinds of diversity among football fans, even the subtle kinds, in a way that fans immediately get and understand.”

The My Club, My Shirt projects are funded by the Fans for Diversity campaign, which is a partnership between the FSA and Kick It Out.

Club chairman Nicholas Randall QC said: “We have more work to do but ‘My City, My Shirt’ is a timely celebration of the unique diversity of our football club. We thank the Nottingham Forest Supporters’ Trust and the Football Supporters’ Association for our partnership in bringing this initiative to life.

“This fantastic collection of photographs vividly illustrates that whatever background we come from, Nottingham Forest is part of all of us, and The City Ground is a home for everybody.”

• Want to see a My Club, My Shirt project at your club? Contact Anwar Uddin for more information.