http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38252537Good BBC article ahead of today's match, their first ever league meeting!
It's extraordinary really, how the two clubs find themselves at the same level, having gone through completely different paths since the original Wimbledon moved to/was stolen by Milton Keynes.
Comments
Hopefully the real dons smash the fake ones
Surely Wimbledon fans would support AFC Wimbledon.
Who could support MK Dons with enough passion to sing anti AFC Wimbledon songs? Did people who live in Milton Keynes just start supporting them instead of Man Utd / Liverpool etc?
There was a bit of a shouting confrontation between a few Charlton and MK fans at Charlton train station after a game a few seasons ago. One of the MK, a bloke about 40, for some bizarre reason shouted out that he used to be a Spurs fan (don't know if he drove a cab). So yes it is highly likely that some fans who didn't originally have a local team, or moved to MK, changed allegiance.
I've got a mate who's a big MK fan. She's born and raised in MK and never had anything to do with Wimbledon, but I've never thought to ask her if she supported anyone else first as she would have been in her 20's when franchise FC started up.
Oh, and **** MK. The ONLY league club I would get pleasure from seeing going out of business. And I include West Ham and palace in that! If W*nkerman wanted league football for the town of MK he should've bought the local non league outfit and had a go at bringing them up through the leagues, like the original Wimbledon have done... twice! Instead he bought a league spot.
What they have the issue with (and what I've never liked) is the fact that MK Dons took their place in the Football League when really BOTH teams should have begun at the same Non-League level.
i.e. You've got Darlington 1883 who when they renamed began in the bottom Leagues same with Hereford FC so why not MK Dons!!
The only difference is the distance they moved. Most of the above moved a couple of miles or so MK Dons move over 100 miles. The only problem was that they should have been told to keep their name if they wanted to keep their place in the League,
To me, MK Dons ARE, and WILL always be Wimbledon.
AFC have the majority of the old Wimbledon fans. To me that's key. Beyond that, they have the kit, a number of ex-players associated with them and, potentially, they might even end up back at their old stomping ground. That's good enough for me to consider them the modern day Wimbledon.
I don't know if it's relevant but I reckon if you asked the squad that won that cup this question, 99% of them would probably agree that AFC are the true Dons.
If some one bought Charlton, moved them a 100 miles away. Changed the name, changed the kit, changed the badge, changed the whole fan base, would you still class them as Charlton?
And then a Phoenix club pops up in the borough of Greenwich, called AFC Charlton Athletic. Had the original fan base, the original red kit, the original badge, who would you class as the original Charlton out of those two?
And it's not as if Man U or Arsenal relocated to MK, MKD have been a 3rd tier team for the majority of their existence. Anyone who L1 football deserves a bit of respect...
On 1 December 1886, munitions workers in Woolwich, now South East London, formed Arsenal as Dial Square, with David Danskin as their first captain.[9] Named after the heart of the Royal Arsenal complex, they took the name of the whole complex a month later.[10][11] Royal Arsenal F.C.'s first home was Plumstead Common,[11] though they spent most of their time in South East London playing on the other side of Plumstead, at the Manor Ground. Royal Arsenal won Arsenal's first trophies in 1890 and 1891, and these were the only football association trophies Arsenal won during their time in South East London.[12][13]
Royal Arsenal renamed themselves for a second time upon becoming a limited liability company in 1893. They registered their new name, Woolwich Arsenal, with The Football League when the club ascended later that year.[14][15] Woolwich Arsenal was the first southern member of The Football League, starting out in the Second Division and winning promotion to the First Division in 1904. Falling attendances, due to financial difficulties among the munitions workers and the arrival of more accessible football clubs elsewhere in the city, led the club close to bankruptcy by 1910.[16][17] Businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall took the club over, and sought to move them elsewhere.
In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, Woolwich Arsenal moved to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London. This saw their third change of name: the following year, they reduced Woolwich Arsenal to simply The Arsenal.[18][19] In 1919, The Football League voted to promote The Arsenal, instead of relegated local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, into the newly enlarged First Division, despite only listing the club sixth in the Second Division's last pre-war season of 1914–15. Some books have speculated that the club won this election to division one by dubious means.[20] Later that year, The Arsenal started dropping "The" in official documents, gradually shifting its name for the final time towards Arsenal, as it is generally known today.[21
Seeing your team move 50 miles away must be utterly heartbreaking, and I think it's something we can probably comprehend a bit more now given that we're experiencing an owner who could potentially leave an equally tragic legacy.
I think it's a massively unfair to tell our counterparts at AFC that they're not the real Wimbledon, especially those involved in the formation, and battles for recognition. If anything they've got more of an identity than most other clubs.
Of course them bribing their way into the 1st division is a different subject but they weren't technically a new club put into a league at the expense of already existing teams.