End of season

[Kairdiff Exile]

As for the 'fans' who follow the new club, the argument is often made that they're just supporting their local team. [...] they chose to support a Pariah Club and shouldn't be allowed to forget it.

Very little of what you say contradicts anything I wrote, and I agree with most of your first few paragraphs. No-one (on here at least) is trying to justify the original travesty.

It's the bit I've highlighted that I take issue with. So a teenager who recently started following MK Dons after some community outreach work by the club should be made to feel guilty for doing so? A family newly moved to the area who want to encourage their kids to support their local team should not do so and instead continue paying a Sky subscription so they can call themselves Chelsea or Man City fans instead? Sorry, but I disagree.

I think you've edited out with ellipses a really important part of my paragraph which in part deals with your query! My anger is primarily aimed towards those Franchise fans who adopted the club when it moved there and those who have adopted it since with knowledge of their 'history' (or lack thereof). I have some (very, very limited) synpathy with young kids gowing up in Milton Keynes who feel perhaps drawn to their local club - but fundamentally, when you choose to support a team you are also choosing to align yourself with their history and values.

To give a (slightly crass and undoubtledly flawed) analogy - it's like choosing to support the BNP and then feeling cross that people treat you as a social pariah. You're legally entitled to support whichever political party you like, but you do so knowing the values they espouse and aware of the fact that some of those may conflict with the views of mainstream society. Fans of Franchise FC cannot claim innocence or ignorance. If they choose to support a Pariah Club, that's their right - but I don't see why we should make it easy on them. *

The point about S*y and armchair fans is an interesting one. Of course I would rather people actively supported a team than slumped in front of a TV, giving money to Rupert Murdoch and further undermining the long-term football of lower-league football in the UK. But I don't think in this case that's the choice - there are plenty of 'proper' clubs within easy striking distance of Milton Keynes (Northampton Town, Brackley Town, Hitchin Town, Aylesbury United, Luton Town, Dunstable Town, to name but a few) who would be delighted to have the support of those individuals. Equally, there's nothing stopping the people of Milton Keynes starting a proper, organic, genuined non-league club again in their town and helping it to work its way up the leagues on merit.



* = For the avoidance of doubt, and to prevent any misunderstanding, I am not likening fans of Franchise FC to BNP supporters, and nor am I saying that the two institutions share any of the same beliefs. I am simply using it by way of a slightly rhetorical and hyperbolic parallel to make a wider point about how society is right to view some groups as unacceptable.

[ty cobb]

I have some (very, very limited) synpathy with young kids gowing up in Milton Keynes who feel perhaps drawn to their local club - but fundamentally, when you choose to support a team you are also choosing to align yourself with their history and values.

Really? I chose to support Oxford United because my Dad took me along to games and I really enjoyed watching big teams come and get rolled over at the Manor. I did not, at the age of 8, take the time to investigate how the money was coming from Maxwell pension schemes to fund the success.

I would imagine if you go back into many clubs histories there are some dark stories that are forgotton about as time passes. I think MK Dons are a joke of a club, because of their history, but as time passes other people won't remember and won't really care how they were set up. They also seem to run to a budget and have an excellent youth system with lots of free tickets for youngsters - I actually would prefer them to support their local team than watch Man Utd from their armchairs.

Anyway back to this season and meh, hardly worth the effort or considerable expense incurred by the club. We've got less goals, home wins and points than any other season in this league. We've also got through a record number of players despite having a fair run with injuries, unlike other seasons.

Change is not acoming though, at least on the manager front, so I guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed that our run at the end of the season wasn't a fluke reliant on Roofe but was the start of something better.

Now wheres Pollard I want to claim my tenner.

[SmileyMan]

I've never been a particular follower of the 'Franchise' witch-hunt. I care exactly as much about Wimbledon as I do about any other club that isn't Oxford. I reserve my hatred for Liverpool (for denying us the chance to be in the Cup Winners Cup) and Chelsea (for the FA Cup defcheats).

But then I also find Luton and Wycombe to be more compelling rivals than Slumdon, so no doubt there are people who'll tell me I'm not a 'true' fan, so meh.

[Kernow Yellow]

but fundamentally, when you choose to support a team you are also choosing to align yourself with their history and values.

Well that bit's just rubbish. Most people get into football as kids, and most kids choose to support either their local team (who they'll most likely go and watch) or a Premier League - or these days even European - bigboy (who they most likely won't). Or both. I would rather kids in Milton Keynes did the former. And the idea that they should go and watch Hitchin Town or Luton (or form their own team - lmfao) instead is ridiculous. They probably feel like they're from MK, like I always felt I was from Oxford - and still do despite not having lived there for over 20 years. So MK Dons, especially now they've just won a promotion, is who they'll want to support. And I don't have a problem with that at all.

For the rest of it we'll have to agree to disagree. I used to have a much more hardcore approach to them, and I'm not trying in any way to justify their existence and how that came about. But they're not going to go away now, and the passing of time has softened my opinion of the club as it is now. (I certainly would not feel the same if they still claimed to be the heirs to the old Wimbledon FC by the way).

[Snake]

but fundamentally, when you choose to support a team you are also choosing to align yourself with their history and values.

Well that bit's just rubbish. Most people get into football as kids, and most kids choose to support either their local team (who they'll most likely go and watch) or a Premier League - or these days even European - bigboy (who they most likely won't). Or both. I would rather kids in Milton Keynes did the former. And the idea that they should go and watch Hitchin Town or Luton (or form their own team - lmfao) instead is ridiculous. They probably feel like they're from MK, like I always felt I was from Oxford - and still do despite not having lived there for over 20 years. So MK Dons, especially now they've just won a promotion, is who they'll want to support. And I don't have a problem with that at all.

For the rest of it we'll have to agree to disagree. I used to have a much more hardcore approach to them, and I'm not trying in any way to justify their existence and how that came about. But they're not going to go away now, and the passing of time has softened my opinion of the club as it is now. (I certainly would not feel the same if they still claimed to be the heirs to the old Wimbledon FC by the way).

I can understand the kids turning up at that place, but the adults? If the grown-ups wanted a local team they had plenty of opportunity to support and build one up for themselves, not nick another club's league stature.

[Kairdiff Exile]

And the idea that they should go and watch Hitchin Town or Luton (or form their own team - lmfao instead is ridiculous.

Ridiculous? That a group of fans, without a proper team to support, might form their own and try to work their way up the leagues? Because that's what AFC Wimbledon did (and what the people of Milton Keynes couldhave done too). Maybe - like the FA commission - you think all of that work by AFCW fans was "not in the wider interests of football". By your logic, they should presumably have just stolen someone else's team. After all, 'the passing of time will soften people's opinions', right?

[Kernow Yellow]

And the idea that they should go and watch Hitchin Town or Luton (or form their own team - lmfao instead is ridiculous.

Ridiculous? That a group of fans, without a proper team to support, might form their own and try to work their way up the leagues? Because that's what AFC Wimbledon did (and what the people of Milton Keynes couldhave done too).

I was talking about local kids - that was the whole point of my post. Of course it's ridiculous they might form their own team to try and get into the football league! Or that they might want to go and watch Hitchin Town when they live in Milton Keynes.

Maybe - like the FA commission - you think all of that work by AFCW fans was "not in the wider interests of football". By your logic, they should presumably have just stolen someone else's team.

I do wish you'd stop trying to create a straw man out of my arguments when I've made it perfectly clear that I completely disapprove of the way MK Dons was formed and specifically about the FA panel. How many more ways do you need me to express that before you keep replying to me as if I believe something else?

[Jimski]

I do wonder where all these avid MK supporters were back when there was a non-league side in their town, and no other club.

Having said that, in a sense they are victims too, because there isn't much hope of forming a rival "proper" club now, with Franchise squatting on their patch.

The people who are really to blame are the FA. But what I really hope is Franchise go bust, because supporters of other clubs aren't going to rally round as they did for the likes of Brighton.

[SWA]

AFC Wimbledon bullied their way through the lower non leagues. Their fans caused trouble at a fair few grounds. I saw this first hand, when they played at AFC Wallingford in the Combined Counties in November 2002, when our game at Aggborough was called off due to waterlogged pitch.
Wallingford actually pipped AFC Wimbledon to the title that season. I also went to the FA Cup game and League Cup game at MK, and witnessed AFC fans laughing at some MK fans in wheelchairs. Bang out of order, and they were told to f*ck off in no uncertain terms! Their fans portray themselves as whiter than white a lot of the time, but they are no angels.

[Mooro]

AFC Wimbledon bullied their way through the lower non leagues. Their fans caused trouble at a fair few grounds. I saw this first hand, when they played at AFC Wallingford in the Combined Counties in November 2002, when our game at Aggborough was called off due to waterlogged pitch.
Wallingford actually pipped AFC Wimbledon to the title that season. I also went to the FA Cup game and League Cup game at MK, and witnessed AFC fans laughing at some MK fans in wheelchairs. Bang out of order, and they were told to f*ck off in no uncertain terms! Their fans portray themselves as whiter than white a lot of the time, but they are no angels.

If I remember correctly, the trouble makers on that day in Wallingford were quickly identified as being from Reading rather than either of the clubs involved

[Jimski]

And it's a straw man argument anyway. Nobody's trying to say that AFC Wimbledon fans are any better than the fans of other clubs. Nor should they be expected to be. They are after all just another club, which is all they've ever wanted to be.

[Snake]

And it's a straw man argument anyway. Nobody's trying to say that AFC Wimbledon fans are any better than the fans of other clubs. Nor should they be expected to be. They are after all just another club, which is all they've ever wanted to be.

I’ll echo that. Not all angels at Oxford are we, or any other club I could mention? Come to think of it I’ve witnessed some pretty disgraceful behaviour from parents on the touchline at under 11 boys Sunday League games. Worse in fact, as match officials at that level are even physically assaulted, as if it doesn’t matter just because it’s a juniors match.

Going slightly off topic (and half mad listening to all the politicians and their last minute promises) has any one political Party made reference as to how their would improve our most compelling and best attended professional sport? Nothing from any of them about any aspect of our game from what I have endured, other than the gaff from my MP in Witney when he forgot the name of the team he purports to support. West Ham, Aston Villa, easy mistake to make eh?

[Kernow Yellow]

other than the gaff from my MP in Witney when he forgot the name of the team he purports to support. West Ham, Aston Villa, easy mistake to make eh?

What an idiot. The funniest thing I've heard all election campaign. Though surely you of all people can empathise with forgetting which team to support Snake?

Oh, and in answer to your original question, the Lib Dems manifesto includes support for safe standing areas in all divisions

[slappy]

The Henley MP hardly sets the world alight with his football views
http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=40959

[Radley Rambler]

The Henley MP hardly sets the world alight with his football views
http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=40959

Given he's a Tory in the Henley area - I don't think that's going to be important! Now forgetting the tie colour of the Leander Club or dissing rugger - that could be the end of him.