The first team to be relegated in the League this season. They lost 2-1 to Sunderland. I feel sorry for the team. While I agree with many of the points of the opponents of the move and I certainly am anti-franchise, there was nothing to do. They could not get Plough Lane off the ground. Share a ground forever? Well, it was a small club that rocketed in a short time and was never able to find the money nor the space for a stadium. I wish them good luck in D2 next season. They deserve to be supported not least of all because this fall happens as the gap between the haves and haves not in English football has continued to increase at an alarming rate. Go Dons! Good luck!
If the club wasn't viable, it should have gone into liquidation, and then the fans could have started a new team called "AFC Wimbledon", or something on those lines. There is still a chance the team in Milton Keynes will tumble all the way out of the league, and hopefully they would then go into liquidation. Remember, if they don't fall out of the league, some other team will instead, and all the other clubs are far more deserving.
Well, the fans should have been able to save the team in London like the fans of Charlton were. But there were never enough fans for the team because they shot up so quickly.
what crap. They moved to MK for financial reasons. They only ever went to Selhurst because they flogged plough Lane to a supermarket chain rather than spend cash on redeveloping the place. i hope franchise FC go down the tube, and wish every success to AFC Wimbledon.
Totally agree and hope that in a few years it will be FC Wimbledon playing in the all counties league where as AFC Wimbledon will be playing in Division 2 or higher! Pichi
I agree. Relegate them right out of football. I only hope AFC Wimbledon gets the colors and crest back as MK passes them on the way out.
Why not? They've already got the mascot, the womens team, youth schemes and a significant portion of the Dons SW19 fanbase. Ironically, MK had a 2nd division club that was liquidated prior to Wimbledon's move. I, for one am waiting for the first pairing of both teams in an FA Cup match.
err...I don't think Wimbledon have any rights to the colours. It's not as if you can trademark colours, which is just as well as every team formed after about 1880 would have been so desperate for colours they'd have been wearing horseracing style shirts.
? The only club in Milton Keynes were milton keynes city who played in a league barely above amateur level.
I don't think they were an isolated case either. I seem to recall reading several other teams formed in the town had never managed to get too far off the ground. And Stanley, the mascot of Wimbledon, a Womble, must be one of the few not actually created by a football club itself, the rights to the Wombles belonging to a separate body.
milton keynes city used to be wolverton. I think there were one or two clubs that were little more than village teams before the MK sprawl engulfed them.
Sorry, when I said "colors" I meant the kit. Not literally the blue and yellow. I think AFC Wimbledon should become Wimbledon FC and regain the crest, kit and history. The current Wimbledon FC can become Milton Keynes FC. Why not? They've already designed a new crest, and they can't care much about the history if they're willing to relocate the club.
It's too bad to see them relegated. But it's not a suprise given the way they've had to sell off what talent they have with finances being a mess. Hopefully with new ownership they can get the tax situation straightened out and get out of administration before next season. As for the hate of the move, I can understand it but I don't agree with it. I hope Wimbledon can recover in Milton Keyes and make it back up to Div 1 or even the premeirship again.
What I love the most about the anti-move arguments is that it totally ignores the change in demographics and such in the region. Maybe if people weren't moving to places like Milton Keyes, there wouldn't be the money there for a club. It seems a bit much to say that M-K is less deserving of a club than a place like London that has 10 or 12 billion clubs for people to support.
what you appear to be missing is that the club used to represent wimbledon, and their fans have lost their club and their place in the league. The continued existence of the business is no consolation for them. Is MK any more deserving of a club in Div 2 than any of the other towns who'd love to have a club in that division? I'd say they an infinitely less deserving. What right have they got to buy a place in the league when every other aspiring club has to earn that position? If MK's owners, and MK fans wanted a club they should have formed one in the town, with perhaps someone like Rushden & Diamonds as a role model (although they did used to be two non-league clubs, it wasn't until their owner merged them and injected money and ambition into the club that it picked up).
Were you come from, it is the norm for teams to uproot and jump from city to city for financial gain. That will never be 'The Norm' over in England (or any other football loving country). Footy fans are too loyal, thats why its a real kick in the teeth for the Wimbledon fans for the club to be chewed up, spat out and dumped in another region. You see, for most fans, it aint just about the 90 minutes on the pitch, its the whole build up of matchday. I love to be able to get up, go out meet my friends, go to nearby pubs around the ground, have a laugh, take in the atmosphere, then watch the game, then do the same again after the match. What can Wimbledon fans look forward to? Lets see, get up crack of dawn, de-ice there frozen motor car, read a map of milton keynes, get lost on there way there, ask for directions, get lost again, re-read map of MK, finally get to ground, dont know were any decent pubs are, discover the ground is a ******** tip, watch a team with no heart, get stuffed 4-0, leave ground dejected etc etc. Fans are not stupid, they did the right thing by continuing the clubs spirit with AFC, and long may they succed.
It is barely a decade since the demise of Aldershot as a League club. The reformed club now stands one match away from regaining that spot for the town. Several promotions over the years. A good example of what could happen if there really was a great deal of enthusiasm in Milton Keynes for a League club. With a bit of backing and support, and a desire to advance through the ranks, such a club really shouldn't have too many problems in reaching at least the Conference feeders within a few years. And Emley are doing pretty badly these days too.
the irony with Aldershot is that (debts apart) the key factor in their demise, not owning their own ground (and therefore no asset to guarantee debts against) has become the very thing that's enabled them to rise, as they were able to re-form and use their old ground. Had they owned their ground and folded, selling the ground in the process, the odds of them getting back to anywhere near their current level would have been virtually zero. On the other hand franchising isn't quite the unique situation as people seem to think in this country. Arsenal are a classic franchise move, going from south to north london. Chelsea and Liverpool both didn't play a single game before being granted league status. I'm sure there are a few others too, albeit a long time ago.
True, but I don't think you can compare the 21st Century with the 19th. Anything that happened at the dawn of League football cannot be compared with modern times. Any league will have growing pains. But once the league got settled, teams were fixed. There was no American-style movement. Wimbledon changed that, and I hope they get relegated right out of football as a result. If MK wanted a team, they could have built one from the ground up before stealing another city's.
Yes, that was one of the things in the second half of the season. They sold off all of their best players. That was unfortunate.
There does seem to be something of a transatlantic divide in atitudes here. Those of us on this side seem to be quite happy to see Wimbledon (or those who once were) go down, those on the other side seem to show a lot more sympathy for any plight.
I hope AFC Wimbledon and FC Wimbledon will meet some day! What a strange derby that would be.. I wish all the best for AFC..
Not me. I'm a New Yorker all the way, but I respect the English game and am thoroughly disgusted with Franchise FC.