mk dons v afc Wimbledon

[hebangsthedrums]

About clubs in MK, the former incarnation of MK City, who did relatively well as a small club, were actually bought by Wimbledon FC many many years ago with view to a merger. They then dropped the idea and dropped the club after selling off it's assets and left it to die. The people behind the demise of Wimbledon were also behind the demise of the promising MK City FC.

Hmm not sure that's the full story - I was told the club changed hands from the Wimbledon connections a few years before it went bust. I played for he youth section of Mercedes Benz who were the rekindled MK City so heard a fair few comments to that effect. Irrespective the Milton Keynes area had no team anywhere near the place on the pyramid that MK Dons ended up with.

With AFC pressuring us to drop the Dons I don't think it'll ever happen. I'd prefer if it did happen to be brutally honest, but I don't think anyone wants to be seen to be bowing to pressure from them. We gave the honours back to Merton Council and I think that's as far as we're every going to go.

Not sure why AFC pressure should make a negative difference if any. Would be a great opportunity to be 'the bigger man' in a sense, but I genuinely think a lot of the younger MK fans love the whole WImbledon issue s it gives some 'soul' to a club that doesn't really have one.

[Part Of The Crowd]

Hmm not sure that's the full story - I was told the club changed hands from the Wimbledon connections a few years before it went bust. I played for he youth section of Mercedes Benz who were the rekindled MK City so heard a fair few comments to that effect. Irrespective the Milton Keynes area had no team anywhere near the place on the pyramid that MK Dons ended up with.

Not sure why AFC pressure should make a negative difference if any. Would be a great opportunity to be 'the bigger man' in a sense, but I genuinely think a lot of the younger MK fans love the whole WImbledon issue s it gives some 'soul' to a club that doesn't really have one.

It's hard to find hard information on it so I can only really relay what I've been told too, but everyone seems to point the finger of blame at WFC for it happening.

The AFC pressure is crucial to all this, without it there'd be none of the younger (or older in some cases) fans hating AFC to the degree that they'd never back down or give them anything they want. Winkelman, despite what he's done is a decent chairman to the club and wouldn't do anything to risk angering the fans. He's said himself that the only people that would have a say on whether that would happen and that they don't want to. After all the stick we as fans have taken from AFC and because of the propaganda that's been put out, I'm not surprised that a vast majority don't give a shit if AFC want us to drop the Dons.

Our fanbase is a difficult one to call. There's a lot of younger fans that come every week and MK is their team now, when they get older they'll come with friends and eventually their children, none of which will know anything about the move but will have grown up with the club as it is. There are some older fans that while they have only been supporting the team for a few years, would still do anything for the club. All of us have had to pretty much block out the opinion of the rest of the football world and have gotten used to being threatened and given quite nasty verbal abuse because of the team we support. One of our supporters coaches was actually attacked with bricks as it was leaving Walsall a couple of seasons ago, a brick came damned close to hitting a small child in the head. If you get a group of people like this and then tell them that after everything they've been through that they should do something to make people that have been causing all this honestly over the top hatred happier then they will never agree to it.

At the end of the day, however much I love it, it's football. Nobody should be attacked, seriously injured or subjected to years of awful abuse simply because of the football team they support. They'll have their reasons and they'll love their club, even if others can't understand. Having bricks chucked at you or being called a **** whenever you travel anywhere outside of your hometown isn't what should come of it.

It wasn't great, what happened. However, out of it we've got two clubs, not none. Two clubs that both play decent football and are now at the hearts of their community.

[Nick W]

Whilst I respect the people who have built up AFC Wimbledon to what it is today, the animosity is for me misplaced by many 'fans' ignorant of the facts.

I've also heard a lot of untrue stories from mouths of AFC fans this week.

The bottom line is Wimbledon (now MK Dons) was a club dying on it's arse in front of 700 odd fans at smellhurst park palarse's ground. Merton council would not let them back into the borough to play having thrown them out of Plough Lane their home stadium some years before on safety grounds, and most of the loyal support had given up the 40 minute drive in horrendous traffic to SE25 to watch the team.

So OK Winkleman and his pals took the club and moved it to Milton Keynes, but I was covering the 'protests' at the final game, and not even a thousand people turned up to show their disgust.

Winkleman had two choices in the end, leave the club playing in a rented stadium in South London with only 700 odd fans turning up to watch or move the club elsewhere, as their spiritual home and fan base was being blocked by the local council.

Somehow the actual facts of the issue have been lost amid hatred and rhetoric.

Plough Lane is now luxury flats.

Hi,

Sorry to jump in but if you had your club stolen and you heard the thiefs telling everyone it was your fault you might feel the same.

The last season of Wimbledon FC (for supporters of Wimbledon at least) was 2002 as on May 28th 2002 the three man commission made a binding decision (against which there was no right of appeal, as Wimbledon fans were excluded from the case) to move Wimbledon FC to MK. That is the day Wimbledon FC died. AFC Wimbledon was formed two days later.

Yes, the shell of the club played at Selhurst Park for two more years, but that was while Winkleman got ready to move the club to MK. The last season at Selhurst (2002) Wimbledon averaged 7,000+. We never had great support, but nor would most when the 90's football boom happened and their club played away from their hometown and made little effort to market itself to such. The owners were hell bent on moving Wimbledon, and Merton Council weren't exactly receptive, and so little effort was made to move Wimbledon back. It was all about individuals making money.

The fans actually commisioned designs and plans were drawn up for a 20,000 stadium on Plough Lane. The club were so against it the then chairman was recorded attending a residents meeting telling them "football fans aren't the kind of people you want on your doorstep". But we never got a chance to buy the club as the three man commission did their job.

It was all about money, it still is. The big stadium in MK was built so Walmart could have a supermarket there. And even though Milton Keynes are 9.7 million in debt (last accounts) I bet Winkleman has a nice wage and will make a nice profit when he sells the stadium (which I believe isn't actually owned by the club, but I could be wrong)

Winkleman had registered the name MK Dons in 2000, unfortunately relegation (which happened shortly after) was perfect for the owners as the premier league wouldn't have let them move. When it looked like we might get into the playoffs two years later, two of our best players were loaned to promotion rivals (and allowed to play against us)

[I am Rod Hull]

Hi,

Sorry to jump in but if you had your club stolen and you heard the thiefs telling everyone it was your fault you might feel the same.

The last season of Wimbledon FC (for supporters of Wimbledon at least) was 2002 as on May 28th 2002 the three man commission made a binding decision (against which there was no right of appeal, as Wimbledon fans were excluded from the case) to move Wimbledon FC to MK. That is the day Wimbledon FC died. AFC Wimbledon was formed two days later.

Yes, the shell of the club played at Selhurst Park for two more years, but that was while Winkleman got ready to move the club to MK. The last season at Selhurst (2002) Wimbledon averaged 7,000+. We never had great support, but nor would most when the 90's football boom happened and their club played away from their hometown and made little effort to market itself to such. The owners were hell bent on moving Wimbledon, and Merton Council weren't exactly receptive, and so little effort was made to move Wimbledon back. It was all about individuals making money.

The fans actually commisioned designs and plans were drawn up for a 20,000 stadium on Plough Lane. The club were so against it the then chairman was recorded attending a residents meeting telling them "football fans aren't the kind of people you want on your doorstep". But we never got a chance to buy the club as the three man commission did their job.

It was all about money, it still is. The big stadium in MK was built so Walmart could have a supermarket there. And even though Milton Keynes are 9.7 million in debt (last accounts) I bet Winkleman has a nice wage and will make a nice profit when he sells the stadium (which I believe isn't actually owned by the club, but I could be wrong)

Winkleman had registered the name MK Dons in 2000, unfortunately relegation (which happened shortly after) was perfect for the owners as the premier league wouldn't have let them move. When it looked like we might get into the playoffs two years later, two of our best players were loaned to promotion rivals (and allowed to play against us)

[Part Of The Crowd]

Hi,

Sorry to jump in but if you had your club stolen and you heard the thiefs telling everyone it was your fault you might feel the same.

The last season of Wimbledon FC (for supporters of Wimbledon at least) was 2002 as on May 28th 2002 the three man commission made a binding decision (against which there was no right of appeal, as Wimbledon fans were excluded from the case) to move Wimbledon FC to MK. That is the day Wimbledon FC died. AFC Wimbledon was formed two days later.

Yes, the shell of the club played at Selhurst Park for two more years, but that was while Winkleman got ready to move the club to MK. The last season at Selhurst (2002) Wimbledon averaged 7,000+. We never had great support, but nor would most when the 90's football boom happened and their club played away from their hometown and made little effort to market itself to such. The owners were hell bent on moving Wimbledon, and Merton Council weren't exactly receptive, and so little effort was made to move Wimbledon back. It was all about individuals making money.

The fans actually commisioned designs and plans were drawn up for a 20,000 stadium on Plough Lane. The club were so against it the then chairman was recorded attending a residents meeting telling them "football fans aren't the kind of people you want on your doorstep". But we never got a chance to buy the club as the three man commission did their job.

It was all about money, it still is. The big stadium in MK was built so Walmart could have a supermarket there. And even though Milton Keynes are 9.7 million in debt (last accounts) I bet Winkleman has a nice wage and will make a nice profit when he sells the stadium (which I believe isn't actually owned by the club, but I could be wrong)

Winkleman had registered the name MK Dons in 2000, unfortunately relegation (which happened shortly after) was perfect for the owners as the premier league wouldn't have let them move. When it looked like we might get into the playoffs two years later, two of our best players were loaned to promotion rivals (and allowed to play against us)

It is worth noting that WISA had the chance to buy the club for £1, but declined.

[Alexikokopops]

From the WSC Weekly Howl

Badge of the week ~ MK Dons

MK Dons are both pleasing to the eye and successful, but then so was Ted Bundy for a long period in the 1970s. The clinical nature of the badge will not endear the club to those who might be considering giving them a break. This crest resembles the kind of trophy set aside for Most Sporting Reserve Player (“Always turns out, helps put the nets upâ€) at a Sunday league team’s end-of-season awards night.

The shape might suggest a stylised rendering of a wolf perhaps, but there haven’t been wolves in Milton Keynes for years, certainly not since the review of the waste disposal procedure at Denbigh North Retail Park. Slipped in alongside the trophy or possible-wolf, the club’s name reminds us of the awful compromise attempted by the owners to mollify the neutral fan, gaffa-taping the original club’s nickname on to their initials.

Surely for a club that has stolen another club’s identity, an image more likely to appease, such as a panda in Bermuda shorts, would have been the best way forward. If I ever kidnapped next door’s boy – well why does he insist on leaning his scooter against my wall? – I would wear a nice calming green t-shirt with a rabbit on when I went round to present my ransom demand. Cameron Carter