Parliament set to debate Wimbledon Guardian's DROP THE DONS campaign

2:57pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Drop The Dons By Omar Oakes

Siobhain McDonagh: "Franchise FC stole AFC Wimbledon's name" Siobhain McDonagh: "Franchise FC stole AFC Wimbledon's name"

Merton’s political leaders have thrown their weight behind the Wimbledon Guardian’s campaign for football justice.

Since launching two weeks ago, our petition, which calls on MK Dons to drop the Dons from their name, has attracted more than 1,100 signatures as well as national television and newspaper coverage.

Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond has written in support of the campaign, while all 60 elected members of Merton Council will formally support it at the Civic Centre next week on Wednesday evening.

And tomorrow evening, the campaign will even be discussed in the cradle of British democracy – the House of Commons in Westminster – after Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh called for the issue to be debated in Parliament.

Ms McDonagh is expected to explain to MPs the hurt caused to football fans when Wimbledon FC was sold and relocated to Milton Keynes, and will urge the Government to review the rules of football so that clubs are not allowed to be simply removed from a community.

She said: “I want Ministers to remember the case of Wimbledon when they look at how football should be governed.

"It shouldn’t be possible for clubs to just up sticks and leave the communities they are supported by.

"Proper, grown up relationships between communities and their clubs are the way forward for all clubs and I back Supporters Direct’s calls for action.

“I also want the authorities to look at the running sore of Franchise FC stealing our name.

"I don’t mind if Milton Keynes has its own team, although I wish they’d built it from the bottom up, like AFC Wimbledon did.

"But the name Dons belongs to us, and I will be asking the House of Commons to support the Drop the Dons campaign.”

In writing in support of our campaign on Friday, Wimbledon’s MP Stephen Hammond said: “AFC Wimbledon are now Wimbledon’s football team and captures the passion that Wimbledon has for football.

“Community football clubs do a huge amount to gel an area together and AFC Wimbledon’s community activities are second to none.

“AFC Wimbledon is going from strength to strength.

“The time has come to allow AFC Wimbledon to reclaim the nickname that should be rightly theirs.”

And next Wednesday evening, a full meeting of Merton Council at the Civic Centre, Morden, will see all 60 councillors back a motion to support the Drop the Dons campaign.

Council leader Councillor Stephen Alambritis said: “It is important to move on and this campaign will move things on to a stage where the two football clubs’ fans can enjoy football, rather than hark back to bitter times.

“The name Dons belongs to Wimbledon and it would be great if Milton Keynes were to be given city status by the Queen this year, which might just tempt MK Dons into changing their name to MK City.”

Not signed the petition yet? Click here to add your name to the growing list of people calling MK Dons to DROP THE DONS.

Comments(50)

mk till i die says...
9:07pm Wed 25 Jan 12

no one likes us, no one likes us we are mk super mk we are mk dons fc. if this is all she can talk about and waste tax payers money then its a sorry state of affairs

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stony bloke says...
10:11pm Wed 25 Jan 12

She's just jumping on the bandwagon. Gets a bit of publicity for her. Has to support her constituents. Needs the votes. I'm afraid she'll regret it.

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sp33dyMK says...
10:27pm Wed 25 Jan 12

It's a load of crap....WHY should we as a team that was established in 2004 as Milton Keynes Dons which the FA governing body agreed too, why should we have to change our name....We are the Milton Keynes Dons, NOT MK Wimbledon FC!! Its a waste of money and time which the government should be using on something more productive!!! Like the homeless and jobless people out there.... COYDS

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BathWomble says...
11:35pm Wed 25 Jan 12

Are these the same Franchise customers (comments above) whose MP took the matter of forming a Franchise Trust all the way to Parliament? A Franchise Trust ('Trust in MK') that was launched to much fanfare and has since died a silent death, totally unsupported despite the Parliamentary time and MPs' efforts wasted on it. I don't recall you campaigning about wasting Parliament's time and taxpayer's money then. Back in your box customers... and drop the Dons.

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KeepCalmCarryOn says...
9:25am Thu 26 Jan 12

As an AFC Wimbledon fan I'd much rather she was working to get us a stadium in Wimbledon than on this campaign to change something that only the owners of Franchise have control over. It is not even as if there is a common view amongst AFC Wimbledon supporters. Some want them to keep the name and others think that we should be concentrating on the aims of our club. If there is to be a parliamentary debate it should concentrate on the likes of Darlington and Northwich, clubs currently at risk.

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dons11 says...
12:54pm Thu 26 Jan 12

do i like them being referred to as the dons? no. but then at the same time its a nice reminder of what they are, and that is NOT GOOD ENOUGH GET INTO THE LEAGUE THEMSELVES. so enjoy having Dons in your name MK, and long may it serve as a reminder to yourselves and every football fan in the country that your town had to buy a place in the league because you were not good enough to get there yourselves. your a sham club who doesnt deserve to have your own identity, so please, by all means, continue to leach off us ONCE AGAIN.

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twdrummer80 says...
12:56pm Thu 26 Jan 12

This campaign is based on building support for a potential re-election rather than the facts that the original Dons would have now been defunct due to a significant lack of local support.

I also wonder why some Premier league teams are not referred to by their original names, or why there is no vitriol towards them? For example Arsenal have changed their names several times over their history as they evolved, what's to say that the next struggling club like Portsmouth doesn't follow suit after falling into administration? I can't be the only person that believes they will resurface under a new Pseudonym, potentially relocated to another area in the local area?

MK football club (Dons) moved to survive, fact. The fact there's uproar about this is very odd, the local support for forcing a rename of the MK Dons has only managed to build over a 1000 signitures - weirdly similar to the average attendance to the old Wimbledons home games.

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Womblestodons says...
1:03pm Thu 26 Jan 12

I feel totally disheartened that this has been dragged up again! What's the harm in a bit of local rivalry (through names). For 40 years I've been a Wimbledon fan (from Southern Premier to FA Cup winners then MK Dons as I continued to give my support to the players. I also like to see AFC Wimbledon do well as well as I was born in wimbledon. Perhaps the MP should start a motion to change Arsenal's name as well seeing that this originated when they were located at Woolwich Arsenal. Move on and do some proper work in support of lower league football!

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LeGrosSP says...
1:21pm Thu 26 Jan 12

The FA governing body agreed to it...

Is she proposing that Aberdeen stop using this as their nickname as well?

Do something else to gain your publicity Siobhan!

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dons11 says...
1:24pm Thu 26 Jan 12

MK football club (Dons) moved to survive, fact.

not fact, our attendances were higher than MK's have ever been. MK fans seem to always only quote our attendances after the fans boycotted the club. also pete winkleman lied about the clubs finances to the F.A to get the move he wanted. the club was not dying, the club was supported, merton council was not against us returning to wimbledon. this was all the lies that were spun to allow a business man to build a stadium and retail complex in milton keynes, and wasnt willing to support the local club in milton keynes at the time, which by the way, did go out of business the following year. FACT!!

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The Don! says...
1:26pm Thu 26 Jan 12

DONS!!!

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Womblestodons says...
1:27pm Thu 26 Jan 12

I also seem to remember that Merton Council's lack of interest in finding Wimbledon a ground in the 90'/00's (and still the case) within Merton was a prime factor for the formation of MK Dons. Now they dont like it why??? Get AFC back to Wimbledon should be your prime objective!

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mylo0704 says...
1:32pm Thu 26 Jan 12

I think an element of calm needs to be called for here. If we can get all the key stakeholders round the table i'm sure we can work through a solution.

I'd be particlarly interested to konw Great Uncle Bulgaria's thoughts on the matter....

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dons11 says...
1:38pm Thu 26 Jan 12

that is the prime objective womblestodons. which is the why the club itself has not commented. you say that althoughout the 90s merton council were not interested and refused to get wimbledon back, which i remember very well too. what you need to understand is that this was just lies spun to us by sam hammam at the time. his plan was always to franchise the club off to somewhere else. have a look on youtube, there is a 30 min video from the london programme all about wimbledon fc. in it sam is talking about moving to selhurst park and the taylor report. he clearly says he has no intention of moving back to wimbledon or getting us our own ground. he chose to move to selhurst because it was cheaper than building a stadium in wimbledon. we were lied to by the owners of the club, the same owners who sold us to business men from norway on the understanding they could move us to anywhere they wanted.

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Purplecharlie32 says...
2:41pm Thu 26 Jan 12

Franchise FC!? From a woman that probably doesn't even know the offside rule!?
This is totally and utterly absurd. AFC are not the true 'Wimbledon' either as they are based no-where near Wimbledon! So if that's the case, neither of us should have 'The Dons'.
Merton Council did nothing to help us when we needed to find a ground and now they're saying there's an issue with it!?
We are MK Dons and I am very proud to be an MK Dons fan. I will fight this along with all other MK Dons fans. No one like us, no one likes us, we don't care, we are MK! SUPER MK!

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dons11 says...
2:55pm Thu 26 Jan 12

we are 4 miles from the centre of wimbledon, you are 3 miles from the centre of milton keynes. whats your point? and also being sexist doesnt help your case.

as i said earlier, keep the dons tag, just a reminder to EVERYONE that your not good enough to earn your league place

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dons11 says...
2:57pm Thu 26 Jan 12

also you all keep saying no one likes you. thats true, and theres a very good reason why

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Purplecharlie32 says...
3:03pm Thu 26 Jan 12

My point is that you're still not in Wimbledon and I'm not being sexist. I'm a woman and I'm very passionate about football, especially MK.

But we don't care. No-one likes you either but you just don't sing about it.

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dons11 says...
3:05pm Thu 26 Jan 12

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

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blackwellj26 says...
3:05pm Thu 26 Jan 12

When AFC Not-In-Wimbledon change their name to AFC Kingston this might be an acceptable argument.
Millwall have not played in the Millwall area since 1910, why is that not an issue?
AFC fans need to forget the past, they are a club entirely based on hatred hence why I despise them.

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The Don! says...
3:13pm Thu 26 Jan 12

I think there should be a 'Dons Cup'. Each year, AFC, MK and Aberdeen fight off for a years rights to the Dons name!

Come on you DONS!

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dons11 says...
3:18pm Thu 26 Jan 12

ok all of your arguments seem to stem from the fact that we dont play in wimbledon, please remember that our club was started by fans, not stolen by a rich businessman. we have no financial backing, and yet still managed to get 5 promotions in 9 seasons. now as im sure you are aware, or at least you should be if you have half a brain. its pretty much impossible to build a stadium with no money (there being no football stadium in wimbledon at the present time). so the only option we had was to play as close as we could to wimbledon, which is kingsmeadow and is only a stones throw away from wimbledon. we have also said many times this is only a temporary arrangement and are seeking to build a stadium in wimbledon, but this takes time. so your argument is pointless. also as i have said many times, keep your bloody name, your club does not deserve to have a community identity as you have not earned it. no milton keynes club climbed up through non league and up to the premiership. and we are not a club built on hate, we are a club built on passion from our supporters who want to watch a team in yellow and blue play in our community, we are a team that almost every football fan in the country can identify with, and wish us well. yes we dont like MK Dons, but you have given us every reason not to like you

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KeepCalmCarryOn says...
3:19pm Thu 26 Jan 12

blackwell - I doubt if hatred would get you five promotions in nine years, a stadium at bursting point and visits from Wimbledon legends from the sixties until the present day.

The fact that the likes of Roy Law, Bobby Ardrey, Dave Willis and John Martin want to come and watch us is exactly why we remember the past.

As you may have noticed many of us don't care what name is appended to Franchise and think this campaign a waste of time and effort.

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Womblestodons says...
3:19pm Thu 26 Jan 12

Yeah great idea - there could then be a European Champion league match with Dons of Denmark - see link below


Dons Attraction Guide - South Denmark Denmark | Tripmondo
... Denmark). Make the most out of your trip to Dons. ... "Jelling" is a village
situated in Vejle municipality, Denmark on the Jutland peninsula. Previously the ...

www.tripmondo.com/de
nmark/...denmark/don
s/attractions-in-don
s/ - Cached - Similar

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Purplecharlie32 says...
3:20pm Thu 26 Jan 12

And as our song goes, we don't care. We may not have come up through the leagues, but you will go no further whilst we ever improve.

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dons11 says...
3:27pm Thu 26 Jan 12

ever improve? what league were wimbledon fc in when winklemen stole them? the championship, oh of course, i had forgotten that league 1 was above the championship lol. all you have done is dropped 1 league, and with all of winklemans money, and made a loss every season. we have been promoted 5 times since then with no relegations, without financial backing and turned a profit every season. so please, explain that to me again because everything you say makes me smile :)

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MK Fan says...
3:33pm Thu 26 Jan 12

This is a complete waste of taxpayers money at a time when parliament is already under scrutiny. Shame on everyone linked to this!

Whatever side of the fence you sit, if this was such a big issue to WISA, Kris Stewart and AFC Wimbledon it should have been raised and dealt with at the time of the Accord. They chose not to so move on.

As many AFC Wimbledon fans are pointing out, this campaign is a complete embaressment to a club who should be celebrating their first season in the Football League.

1000 votes doesn't even represent 30% of the AFC Wimbledon support - a clear sign that few people care about this issue.

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LeGrosSP says...
3:33pm Thu 26 Jan 12

Stop the bickering!

It's obvious that a lot of AFC Wimbledon (or is it AFC Kingston) fans still have grudges against MK Dons (Or is it Bletchley Dons) by the fact they're petitioning to have their name changed.

Congratulations to both teams on recent exploits. MK Dons pushing for promotion to the championship and AFC Wimbledon for their 5 promotions in 9 years.

Hopefully you'll be playing in the same league some time soon when AFC will be able to sing about being better than the Dons rather than being hung up on a name...whoever's it is...

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The Don! says...
3:38pm Thu 26 Jan 12

Don King could present the Dons Cup

Dons!

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Craig C says...
10:44pm Thu 26 Jan 12

What a waste of Parliamentary time - embarrasing to see an elected MP with nothing better to do.
Get over it!!

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tjames says...
4:34am Fri 27 Jan 12

bliars babes--as useful as chocolate teapots

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Notsirallan says...
10:02am Fri 27 Jan 12

Merton Council ? - they did SFA for The Dons when they were a top-flight club.
And that's why there's been no football in the borough for 20 years.

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dons11 says...
10:22am Fri 27 Jan 12

so want to comment on http://www.miltonkey
nes.co.uk/news/local
/we_are_mk_dons_fc_f
ull_stop_1_3455487

but refuse to sign up to a milton keynes website. its a funny read through, makes me laugh how blind and deluded "some" MK Dons fans are. they still dont realise they we lied to by Hammam, lied to by Koppout and lied to by Gollum (Winkleman). such a deluded little club, really makes me chuckle

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Craig C says...
10:31am Fri 27 Jan 12

re dons11 comment - "such a deluded little club" - If you look at it the the little club is WAFC not MK Dons
Have you ever had 19500 at a home game ? Not even sure Wimbledon FC even achieved such a high attendance.

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Purplecharlie32 says...
10:31am Fri 27 Jan 12

At the end of the day should a member of parliament not be interested in slightly more important topics!?

We are not deluded, we are supporters till the end and no matter what happens I will always be an MK fan and am very proud of that fact.

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dons11 says...
11:27am Fri 27 Jan 12

yes we regularly sold out selhurst park, in fact our last season in the premiership, our average attendance was over 18,000. also check this out http://i43.tinypic.c
om/xqfjwy.png
this is the away fans stats from THIS SEASON. yes thats right, on average, our "little club" takes 4 times the amount of fans to away games than your franchise. high five? oh yeah lol

side note, hope the link works, cant see it through websense at work :(

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Purplecharlie32 says...
11:29am Fri 27 Jan 12

I've been quite polite towards the AFC fans on here, however, if people keep calling us a franchise, I shall revert to what I normally call AFC. We have some very amusing chants for AFC at our matches.
I fully intend to do everything I can as an MK fan to make sure this never happens and I'm sure many fans will back me up.
You may have a regular attendance, but so do we. We have loyal, true fans who follow MK all over.

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KeepCalmCarryOn says...
11:40am Fri 27 Jan 12

purple - I'm sure your chants are widely recognised as the height of football wit, maybe almost as widely as the club is recognised as Franchise FC. I do agree though that this is a fuss about nothing and current football debate should be about the likes of Darlington and Northwich and how you protect such clubs. Call yourselves what you like and we'll call you what we like.

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dons11 says...
11:45am Fri 27 Jan 12

ok maybe calling your fans deluded was a little mean, although did say it was only "some". i just find it interesting that a lot of the facts that some milton keynes fans quote and on the MK news site are very incorrect. although i can understand why. you need to remember that in the old wimbledon days, we were lied to by our owners, a lot. and we never knew. we believed them when they said the council wouldnt help us get a ground. turns out when AFC was formed and we went to the council ourselves, the council told us that the old wimbledon never asked them for help to get back to wimbledon. we know that it was wimbledons owners that screwed us. but as i say, a lot of the info mk fans use as their argument is not true. such as "the club was dying" no it wasnt, we were making a profit, had ok attendances, not great, but ok. all the pitiful attendances quoted were after the move was comfirmed. and the information about our debt was falsified by winkleman to get the move he wanted, he didnt show any player sales for that season
"we dont play in wimbledon" we play as close as we can, wimbledon is on the edge of merton, and kingsmeadow is only 4 miles from the centre of wimbledon. even then, we are working with the council to move back.
"we are a hateful club and do nothing but moan about mk dons" again not true. no we dont like mk dons, but we dont sing songs about you at home games, we try to pretend you dont exist, we concentrate on our own club. if we were ever to meet, i guarrantee you that if we were to have a game at mk arena, the away end would be empty. we simply wouldnt go.
"why didnt we fight this hard at the end of the WFC era?" we did. we faught long and hard for years. i personally remember protesting at every game for at least 2 years. we tried to buy the club off the norweigans twice to stop it, but winkleman already had his eyes set on our club and nothing was going to stop him. i know your passionate about your club and i commend that, but that was my club, andi was just as passionate about it as you are now, but they were taken away from me. how would you feel if some business man came and took MK dons away to another part of the country and changed the name, the kit, the badge, and gave away all the history? it would be awfull, which is why the main thing we protested about after the move was to stop this happening again to anyone else.

i am not trying to be mean in this post at all, and am being 100% genuine. we know you exist, we dont like it but there is nothing we can do about it, personally i dont care if you keep or drop the dons, i just hope our clubs never meet

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Purplecharlie32 says...
11:46am Fri 27 Jan 12

Sounds like a plan to me. I could argue this all day and I know that you could as well. We'll always hate you and you'll always hate us. End of.

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Purplecharlie32 says...
11:49am Fri 27 Jan 12

I think the clubs never meeting is a very good idea. I dread to think what would happen.
Let's just hope this stupid notion goes no further and we'll go back to singing songs about you and you can go back to pretending we don't exist.

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Womblestodons says...
11:58am Fri 27 Jan 12

Makes me sad that there's still so much bitterness between the 2 teams after 10 years. Everyone should be allowed to support who they want and move on. Instead of dredging up all the old arguments. Am I alone in wishing both sides well? Its still a part of our joint heritage after all. So 'come on you dons!' Lets hope we never play each other if we cant forgive and forget. Cant we be agreed it was not (a) the players fault and (b) both sets are fans are passionate about their club

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dons11 says...
12:07pm Fri 27 Jan 12

its not the fans fault, either side, but there is still 1 person who is very much at fault, and will never be forgiven as was his lies and scheming that made me lose my beloved Wimbledon FC, and that is Pete Winkleman, owner of MK Dons. when he is dead, hopefully after a very painful death, i will move on. i stopped following football for 8 years because of what he did to my club

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Craig C says...
12:19pm Fri 27 Jan 12

Dons11 - I think you need to think before saying anymore - To wish that a person is "dead" and has a "very painful death" is getting a bit extreme.
You need to put the whole thing in context and move on.
Womblestodons made a good point about not keep dredging up old arguments. Your local MP should know better than to stir up this hornets nest.

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Womblestodons says...
12:23pm Fri 27 Jan 12

I was so sad at the time too. We both lost our beloved wimbledon fc and I had a heavy choice on who to follow - I chose MK as I supported the players and went to a lot of away games up north where I live. And Deano has been a true example to both clubs...

But now you potentially have something thats even better - your own club which is becoming more and more successful mirroring the days in the late 1970's. Lets look to the future but still be proud of our roots. I went to the QPR game still proud to wear my WFC scarf and a lot of QPR fans shook my hand to recognise our great tradition.

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Purplecharlie32 says...
12:37pm Fri 27 Jan 12

I agree Craig C, she should have just let it lie. This has done no good but to anger local MK fans.
Dons11, it wasn't just him. Hamann lied to us left, right and centre. You can't blame Winkleman and you shouldn't wish anybody a painful death.

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BathWomble says...
12:42pm Fri 27 Jan 12

There would be no reason for everything to get dragged up again and again... if Franchise dropped the 'Dons'. Simple and obvious. Why Franchise customers are fighting this is beyond comprehension when it would give you what you claim you want, which is for all this to be put behind us. Yet you won't do it. Remove the last vestige of connection to Wimbledon and we can all go our separate ways. You know it, so do it and stop using our nickname to prolong the animosity and hatred.

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Purplecharlie32 says...
12:46pm Fri 27 Jan 12

BathWomble - we are not using your nickname to prolong anything. You need to drop the Wimbledon - why should you keep that!?
Call us what you like, we don't care. We really don't.
There are more important things going on in the World and this is a complete and utter waste of Parliament time.
We'll just get on with things until we hit the same league, should that ever happen.

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dons11 says...
1:09pm Fri 27 Jan 12

i can understand that your loyal to your club, but you would feel very differently if someone came along, took your club away from you, moved it halfway across the country, changed the kit, the badge, the name, and claimed to be founded that year. yes there are more involved and they will never be forgiven either, but winkleman was the achitect of my clubs descruction, he lied and cheated his way to stealing my club, and putting the local club in milton out of business and you all think he's great for it. seriously THINK ABOUT IT!!! if someone deliberately killed a friend of family member of yours, would you forgive them 10 years later when they came out of prison? no. i know thats a harsh analogy but he killed my club and you all think its great, im sorry but i dont. i do my best not to think about it, and thank god afcw worked out as they have renewed my love for the game, but i will never forgive him for what he did, NEVER.

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KeepCalmCarryOn says...
2:01pm Fri 27 Jan 12

If they dropped the name - personally I don't care one way or the other - then something else would be found to bring the matter up again. No bad thing either, people need reminding so that other clubs are protected. In the meantime football fans should spend more time worrying about clubs in danger not club names.

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