I work with a fella who was there at the begining of AFC. He is in the office today with a smile a mile wide! I am made up that they have got there! Brilliant news!
Also not forgetting Ebsfleet gaining promotion back to the Conference.
Great news. The comments by the Commission and the response so brilliantly given by their return to league football reminds me of the quote by Mark Twain, when he read an obituary of himself
"reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"
It just shows that bricks and mortar do not a football club make. It remains alive in the hearts and minds of the fans. Fantastic achievement.
sorry, but to me MK Dons = Wimbledon. always has & always will.
all they did was to move to a new ground................Derby have done it, so have Cardiff, Swansea, 'Boro, Man City (etc etc) - Arsenal have done it twice, once from Wollwich & then recently from Highbury.
The only differnce in Wimbledon/MK Dons case is that they moved further.
sorry, but to me MK Dons = Wimbledon. always has & always will.
all they did was to move to a new ground................Derby have done it, so have Cardiff, Swansea, 'Boro, Man City (etc etc) - Arsenal have done it twice, once from Wollwich & then recently from Highbury.
The only differnce in Wimbledon/MK Dons case is that they moved further.
Surely a wind up Golfie. If Charlton moved to Cumbria and called themselves C Addicks, I don't think I'd still believe they were Charlton.
No doubt there will be efforts by the club/fans to return to Merton to complete the circle. I wonder if the Council will be less hostile to them this time: doubt it somehow!
The supporters let the club die by not going to the games.
Crowds of 3-6k in the premiership were not sustainable let alone when they dropped down.
If as many people who claim to support AFC were bothered to support them 10-15 years ago, then they would never have been in that position.
Apologies if this offends the AFC lovers.
A brief history lesson.
Wimbledon (original version) was an eminent amateur club for most of its history. I well remember the team winning the amateur cup in approximately 1964. In 1977 (or thereabouts) the old Wimbledon reached the football league and 7 or 8 years later got promoted to the old first division along with us in 85/86.
Hence the club was essentially a non league outfit with a non league fan base which, as happens with all clubs, gradually grew as the club became more successful. However the rate of growth of support didn't match the phenomenal success on the pitch and a combination of financial reality and an unhelpful local authority effectively killed the club allowing Winkleman and cronies to effectively steal the corpse and resurrect it in Milton Keynes.
Our attendances when in the old division 1 at Selhurst were not that different to those of the old Wimbledon. The fundamental difference though is that as a relatively long established league club we had a large fan base even though many had lapsed through the Selhurst move, frustration at lack of ambition under Gliksten's chairmanship or whatever else. This established fan base re emerged on our return to The Valley and is partly why we still attract 5 figure attendances in division 3. The old Wimbledon simply didn't have that level of latent support.
The scenario I've attempted to explain above is why I admire the achievement of AFC Wimbledon in reaching the football league.
I do not like MK Dons for what they did to Wimbledon but you cannot blame the local people for supporting them. All those little kiddies who grow up supporting their local team shouldn't be vilified because of the way the club was relocated from South London and re-named. I have loads more respect for those who support their local club than those who support the media favourite teams.
I think the problem was they couldn't get a ground big enough to call home, possibly why a lot of addicks sympathise; also one in the eye for those trying to franchise football
Spot on Len. The majority of football fans living in the Wimbledon area at the time of their promotion in 1977 were either Chelsea or Fulham. Wimbledon were looked upon as the local non-league club where fans went to watch a match if they hadn't travelled away, similar to Welling Utd in our area. Their hardcore support was around 1000 - 1500 from the Wimbledon area. The club out-grew the fanbase. The other 3-4000 who turned up in the Premier League or Old First Division, were bandwagon supporters who were there to watch the big teams. They disappeared after relegation - funny that.
This acheivement is to be admired. Their attitude to the Fake Dons is brilliant. They don't recognise them as a club and have said that they have no wish to play them, rather than come over all hostile. It will be interesting to see what happens when the time comes.
I posted this on the Bromley message board this morning. Bromley had a few run ins with AFCW over the years and although there is a lot to admire about them they also did do some damage to Non-League football and did make a few enemies along the way.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and remembering how Bromley got into Blue Square South before them but have since gone no higher and the reasons for this. Obviously they have climbed above a few hundred teams going through the divisions but very few have managed to get so high so quickly.
I have a few theories on why this might be, let me know your thoughts:
DESIRE - I wonder if the whole moving to MK saga gave the fans and AFCW club a huge amount of desire to get back to where they felt they belonged and that nothing was going to get in their way until they achieved it? Almost no clubs have that much desire as Bromley have proven but becoming a mid table team. Or chairmen throw silly money at promotion and then pull out and it all goes bad.
UNITY - Similar to desire, I wonder if again the fans, board, players etc are so united by what happened that they all pulled together and just wouldn't stop until they got what they wanted. Again there is very little unity as I see it here between fans, the players, chairman etc.
STRUCTURE - As I understand it the club are run and owned by the fans so again everyone buys into the bigger picture and pulls in one direction. Are clubs run by fans the way forward?
On paper in the Conference you wouldn't rank AFCW above the likes of Luton, Wrexham et al who have until a year or 2 back been league teams but something has made AFCW different to the point of getting promoted to the League in 9 seasons.
I guess they prove to the rest of non-league football what is possible when certain conditions are right, but I doubt another team will do this anytime soon (just look at FC United of Manchester)
Also I'm not suggesting that Bromley should be looking for League 2 football in the next x years but it does get you thinking about where your team is, what they are achieving and where the club's ambitions lie.
One Lung - So whenever a Club starts sliding down the League, it just moves to another City then? Would you have gone to Milton Keynes every week if this club moved there? And if AFC Charlton was formed by this website to play in the Kent League and re-started the journey, who would you see as the real Charlton?
They didnt move city because they slid down the leagues, they moved because they would have folded otherwise due to lack of support and unsustainable losses.
Don't forget they were being screwed by Noades just as we had been before them. He didn't care whether they (or CAFC) went bust just as long as they paid the rent.
Comments
It shows what can be done with enthusiatic and ambitious players and not 'professionals' who could 'do a good job'.
Congratulations Afc. I bet David Pleat is as sick as the parrot he so strongly resembles.
I work with a fella who was there at the begining of AFC. He is in the office today with a smile a mile wide! I am made up that they have got there! Brilliant news!
Also not forgetting Ebsfleet gaining promotion back to the Conference.
AFC have proved there is much more.
sorry, but to me MK Dons = Wimbledon. always has & always will.
all they did was to move to a new ground................Derby have done it, so have Cardiff, Swansea, 'Boro, Man City (etc etc) - Arsenal have done it twice, once from Wollwich & then recently from Highbury.
The only differnce in Wimbledon/MK Dons case is that they moved further.
The fans effectively had their club stolen and started again from scratch.
A tremendous achievement to reach the football league so quickly.
I am not joining in with the AFC love in.
The supporters let the club die by not going to the games.
Crowds of 3-6k in the premiership were not sustainable let alone when they dropped down.
If as many people who claim to support AFC were bothered to support them 10-15 years ago, then they would never have been in that position.
Apologies if this offends the AFC lovers.
If they did get massive crowds in the premiership you would accuse them of being glory hunters!
A brief history lesson.
Wimbledon (original version) was an eminent amateur club for most of its history. I well remember the team winning the amateur cup in approximately 1964. In 1977 (or thereabouts) the old Wimbledon reached the football league and 7 or 8 years later got promoted to the old first division along with us in 85/86.
Hence the club was essentially a non league outfit with a non league fan base which, as happens with all clubs, gradually grew as the club became more successful. However the rate of growth of support didn't match the phenomenal success on the pitch and a combination of financial reality and an unhelpful local authority effectively killed the club allowing Winkleman and cronies to effectively steal the corpse and resurrect it in Milton Keynes.
Our attendances when in the old division 1 at Selhurst were not that different to those of the old Wimbledon. The fundamental difference though is that as a relatively long established league club we had a large fan base even though many had lapsed through the Selhurst move, frustration at lack of ambition under Gliksten's chairmanship or whatever else. This established fan base re emerged on our return to The Valley and is partly why we still attract 5 figure attendances in division 3. The old Wimbledon simply didn't have that level of latent support.
The scenario I've attempted to explain above is why I admire the achievement of AFC Wimbledon in reaching the football league.
smaller, has less seats, even further from Wimbledon and they don't own
it?
As it's not up to league standards either I would be very surprised.
Spot on Len. The majority of football fans living in the Wimbledon area at the time of their promotion in 1977 were either Chelsea or Fulham. Wimbledon were looked upon as the local non-league club where fans went to watch a match if they hadn't travelled away, similar to Welling Utd in our area. Their hardcore support was around 1000 - 1500 from the Wimbledon area. The club out-grew the fanbase. The other 3-4000 who turned up in the Premier League or Old First Division, were bandwagon supporters who were there to watch the big teams. They disappeared after relegation - funny that.
This acheivement is to be admired. Their attitude to the Fake Dons is brilliant. They don't recognise them as a club and have said that they have no wish to play them, rather than come over all hostile. It will be interesting to see what happens when the time comes.
So they outgrew their fanbase ok.
So what was supposed to happen to them then?
Just let them go bust and there be no club to support or the owners try and move to somewhere the club could survive in some guise ?
Not in favour of 'franchising' just that it is a better option than the club going out of existence.
Would you have gone to Milton Keynes every week if this club moved there?
And if AFC Charlton was formed by this website to play in the Kent League and re-started the journey, who would you see as the real Charlton?
I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and
remembering how Bromley got into Blue Square South before them but have since
gone no higher and the reasons for this. Obviously they have climbed
above a few hundred teams going through the divisions but very few have
managed to get so high so quickly.
I have a few theories on why this might be, let me know your thoughts:
DESIRE
- I wonder if the whole moving to MK saga gave the fans and AFCW club a
huge amount of desire to get back to where they felt they belonged and
that nothing was going to get in their way until they achieved it?
Almost no clubs have that much desire as Bromley have proven but becoming a
mid table team. Or chairmen throw silly money at promotion and then pull
out and it all goes bad.
UNITY - Similar to desire, I wonder if
again the fans, board, players etc are so united by what happened that
they all pulled together and just wouldn't stop until they got what they
wanted. Again there is very little unity as I see it here between fans,
the players, chairman etc.
STRUCTURE - As I understand it the
club are run and owned by the fans so again everyone buys into the
bigger picture and pulls in one direction. Are clubs run by fans the way
forward?
On paper in the Conference you wouldn't rank AFCW above
the likes of Luton, Wrexham et al who have until a year or 2 back been
league teams but something has made AFCW different to the point of
getting promoted to the League in 9 seasons.
I guess they prove
to the rest of non-league football what is possible when certain
conditions are right, but I doubt another team will do this anytime soon
(just look at FC United of Manchester)
Also I'm not suggesting
that Bromley should be looking for League 2 football in the next x years
but it does get you thinking about where your team is, what they are
achieving and where the club's ambitions lie.
Edmund
They didnt move city because they slid down the leagues, they moved because they would have folded otherwise due to lack of support and unsustainable losses.
The lack of support and unsustainable losses were the result of sliding down the league.