THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
On May 28, 2002, the most shameful decision ever taken in the history of the English game was rubber stamped. A three-man commission, appointed by the FA, allowed a famous football club – Wimbledon – to be airlifted from its community and moved 70 miles away to Milton Keynes.
It was football’s crime of the century. A club was being stolen in broad daylight. The FA could - should - have stopped it but chose not to. Instead, they facilitated the crime.
The sense of loss, the injustice and the outrage, were immeasurable. A community that had supported its local club for 113 years was about to see it vanish while the FA stood back and allowed it to happen.
THE FA’s SPITEFUL STATEMENT
The insults didn’t stop there, either. First, the new club in Milton Keynes was inexplicably allowed to carry on calling itself ‘Wimbledon’. Then, the FA ordered all the fans left behind in Wimbledon - with no local club to support any more - to abandon any thoughts of replacing the one they’d just lost.
“That,” said the FA, would not be “in the wider interests of football.” Their statement stung: petty, nasty, malicious, threatening: the FA wasn’t just abandoning Wimbledon, it was thrusting a knife over and over into its lifeless body.
Here’s their spiteful words: “Resurrecting the club from its ashes as, say, ‘Wimbledon Town’ is, with respect to those supporters who would rather that happened, not in the wider interests of football.”
In other words, Wimbledon’s supporters were to put up - and shut up. Lie down and die, quietly. Instead of helping them, instead of keeping a football club in its natural, historic environment, the FA was turning its back.
WHY IT MATTERED
It mattered because Wimbledon Football club had been the heartbeat of its local community since 1889. It had been one of the country’s most-successful amateur clubs and then it soared to national acclaim in 1974 when it held mighty Leeds United to a famous goal-less draw in the FA Cup and almost beat them in the replay.
After getting voted into the Football League three years later, Wimbledon soared through the divisions with a group of players who became internationally known as The Crazy Gang. Led by household names like Vinnie Jones, John Fashanu, Dennis Wise and Wally Downes, they took the club to dizzying heights in 1988 when they beat Liverpool in the FA Cup Final.
In 1992, they became one of the founding members of the Premier League, where they stayed for another eight consecutive seasons, consistently beating clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Hard times were round the corner, though, and they slipped into the Championship in 2000. But they were still alive, their heart was still strong and they almost crept into the playoffs straight away.
Then came the hammer blow. A music mogul in Milton Keynes wanted to own a football club. He didn’t want to start from scratch and work his way up through the divisions. He wanted something that was oven ready, something he could grab off a shelf.
In 2002, he was allowed to help himself to Wimbledon FC.
WHAT DID IVOR DO?
Ivor Heller was one of the ordinary fans left behind. He’d followed his local team religiously since he was nine years old. Like many others he felt an overwhelming sense of anger, loss and betrayal. How could the FA let this happen?
There was something else Ivor felt as well. Defiance. Just like his Crazy Gang heroes, Ivor didn’t like being pushed around and dictated to. His club had spent 113 years defying the odds, beating teams that were richer and more powerful, refusing to lie down and take orders.
“Standing up to the man was deeply engrained in my club’s DNA,” he writes:
“The players took that on to the pitch with them. Now it was our turn. If we were going to beat this and keep Wimbledon alive, then it was going to need the very people the FA wanted to silence – the fans – to do what our club had been doing for years.”
“Fight back. Do something miraculous, something that enriched the beautiful game – and do it with no resources and against all the odds. The Crazy Gang had outrageously won the FA Cup, now it was up to us, the fans, to do something even more remarkable. Save our club.”
THE MIRACLE
On the day the Football Association confirmed Wimbledon was to be moved to Milton Keynes, Ivor and three other loyal fans met in his works’ office and started making plans to relaunch their beloved club.
“I chose to fight. I chose to defy the FA, with their riches and rulebooks and lawyers and committees and anonymous people in suits. Clueless, aloof, up themselves - they’d opened the doors to Armageddon,” Ivor writes.
“We hadn’t the faintest clue how to save our club. But the bloody FA weren’t going to stop us, that was for sure. When a bunch of fans get together to right a terrible wrong, it’s frightening what they can achieve.”
With no money, no players, no manager, no coaches – not even any bibs, cones or footballs – they started their club all over again at the very bottom of the English game, playing on humble pitches where attendances usually hovered between 30 and 50, including stray dogs.
Just two years earlier, Wimbledon had been playing in the highest echelons of the English game. Now they were a part-time team made up of plasterers, scaffolders, electricians and plumbers who’d maybe get a £5 bonus if they scored a goal on a Saturday.
Instead of playing at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, they were playing at grounds like Bottom Meadow, the Memorial Playing Fields and Moatside.
But something magnificent had started and, nine years later, they were back where they always belonged – in the Football League. Not only that, they eventually found a way of returning to a brand new stadium at their spiritual home in Wimbledon – Plough Lane - where they had originally played.
That wasn’t the only miracle, either. Instead of being owned by an egotistical owner, instead of drowning in debts they could never repay, AFC Wimbledon remained a fans’-owned club throughout its incredible journey.
That’s still the case today. In a sport dominated by the wealthy few, AFC Wimbledon is a beacon of hope for what fans can achieve by themselves. Theirs is one of the greatest stories in football because it underlines the simple, most-profound fact of them all: The most-powerful people in football are the fans.
Ivor’s letter to the FA
Dear Sirs,
In 2002, your organisation oversaw the most-calamitous decision in the history of our national game. An FA-appointed commission allowed our club, Wimbledon, to be relocated to a town 70 miles away from its natural homeland.
The decision caused immeasurable hurt to the Wimbledon community, where a football club had played since 1889.
I am writing now to assure you that hurt has not dissipated. While it may be impossible to turn back the clock, there is still time for you to at least repair some of the damage.
In the first instance, I would respectfully urge you to consider offering a formal apology. There has never been the slightest indication of contrition, regret or remorse - despite the untold misery your decision caused.
Relationships between our club and the one in Milton Keynes remain strained to say the least. Fundamental to this is the fact they continue to use our historic abridged name ‘Dons’.
There is simply no logical reason for this: it is deeply offensive, provocative and a constant reminder of your diabolical decision – as well as a continuous cause for tension. Forcing the club in Milton Keynes to drop the name Dons from their name would restore some calm and common sense.
To conclude, the continuing feud that simmers between us and the team in Milton Keynes can only be resolved if you have the desire to address the root causes.
Everybody knows a terrible injustice was served upon our club 23 years ago and a simple apology would be a huge step towards righting that wrong. And returning our abridged name to us, its rightful, natural and historic owners, would be a further step towards a more conciliatory relationship.
In fact, may I suggest, these modest actions would be in the wider interests of football.
Yours,
Ivor Heller