An open letter to Milton Keynes fans

This is your chance. For the first and only time I'm going to address the people who could be deserving of the name 'Milton Keynes fans' instead of Franchise customers. It doesn't take much either, just a few simple requests and I see no reason why Franchise customers can't be transformed, almost overnight, into Milton Keynes fans. I'll list the requirements and then look at them in greater detail afterwards:

1. Tell your football club to drop the 'Dons' nicked-name from its team name.
2. Accept that what Pete Winkelman did in luring Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes was wrong.
3. Stop claiming any continuing connection to Wimbledon FC, other than personal supporting history.
4. Stop repeating lies you've been told about Wimbledon FC, particularly when you insist on repeating those lies to Wimbledon fans who know far better than you do.

That's about it really. Not much to ask. Do those things and I'll respect you as a Milton Keynes fan instead of a Franchise customer.

And why should you do this? Because some Wimbledon fan on the internet asked you to? No. Do it because by doing so you demonstrate to the whole football world that you actually understand WHY your club is despised as Franchise FC and WHY Wimbledon fans like me and many fans of other clubs continue to view you as customers of a franchise and not fans of a football club. Do it because you have much to gain by doing so and absolutely nothing to lose. And that last point is important - you have nothing to lose, at all, by doing what I've outlined above, but you have so much that you could gain in respect and reputation as fans, both in the short term and in the long years ahead.

Let's look at the points in more detail...

1. Tell your football club to drop the 'Dons' nicked-name from its team name.
You aren't the 'Dons', you never have been the 'Dons'. Wimbledon are the Dons (our nickname, one of many we have, comes from a school connection), Aberdeen are the Dons (their's comes from a river), Hendon are the Dons (their's comes from their town name), but you are not the 'Dons'. You are Milton Keynes and your team name should be about your town, not someone and somewhere else's. 'Dons' for you is not a badge of pride and courage, it is a mark of shame and cowardice, because you are refusing to face that you are nothing to do with Wimbledon (or Aberdeen, Hendon and other legitimate 'Dons') or its football club.

I know the dogmatic response you will give - 'we're keeping the name to honour ex-Wimbledon fans and to reflect the club's history'. These are after-the-fact attempted justifications that are completely hollow. If the name of your team should honour ex-Wimbledon fans, it would be Wimbledon FC still, not 'Milton Keynes Dons' - your fight on this was lost in 2004, it is no less lost now and it's time you recognised that. If the name of your team is to reflect the club's history, it would be Wimbledon FC or even Old Centrals. It isn't, again this fight was lost a decade ago and this pathetic claim that 'Dons' somehow gives you honour and history is a fiction that only a few of you believe.

I recognise, of course, that some of you are now so chained to the defence of the 'Dons' nicked-name, that you would probably walk away from your club if the name was dropped. (I've seen several claim exactly that.) And if you've just agreed with that sentence, then ask yourself what it is you think you're supporting? Have you become so madly deluded over the years that you would walk away from your football club because of dropping some other team's nickname, but you didn't walk away from a club that changed from 'Wimbledon FC' to the completely different 'Milton Keynes Dons FC'? Can you not see how completely illogical and mad that would be? And yet that is what you are asking others to believe you would do - you'd abandon your football club because of a name change, even though you didn't because of a previous, more radical, name change. If that doesn't strike you as being incredibly ironic, not to mention absurd, of you, then it should, because it is.

You've taken great pride in your long chants of 'MK Army' recently, well now's the time to start earning some actual respect as the 'MK Army' and to stop pretending you're the 'Dons'. Stop wallowing in the past, stop clinging on to things that aren't yours and embrace the bright future that a Milton Keynes football team actually has, because the 'Dons' is holding your team back and dragging it down, stopping you from creating a football team that your whole town can be proud of and get behind. (And yes, yes it is. Hard though it is for some of you to accept, the 'Dons' stops many in MK from being able to adopt the club as their own. Face up to it, it's true.)

2. Accept that what Pete Winkelman did in luring Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes was wrong.
It was wrong. He's admitted it was wrong. It still is wrong - passage of time has not made it any less wrong. And he's still benefitting massively from the actions he now accepts were wrong. So stop defending him and stop trying to rewrite history in a desperate attempt to prove he was right to do what he did when even he accepts it was wrong. He's wallowing in enough cash from his property deals that he doesn't need you perpetuating lies and misinformation to try to cast him in a good light.

Admitting these things about Winkelman will not somehow absolve others of blame. Do you really think any of us are going to forget what Hammam, Koppel, Gjelsten, Rokke, Parker, Stride and others did to destroy our football club? Do you really think we don't curse their names whenever the subject comes up? The only difference with Winkelman is that he's still there making money off the whole business and still lying about us while he's doing it. By constantly trying to paint him as a good guy in this, all you do is strengthen our resolve to publicise the truth about what he did. (Sound familiar? Yes, that's right, you continually strengthen my resolve to keep Winkelman being held accountable. Ironic, right? By trying to defend him you just make things worse. You should recognise this logic, because it's what you've tried using to stop me posting about all this. I know all this. I know what I'm doing. Do you?)

By all means defend yourselves as football fans, when you've earned that right, but stop defending a man who rightly receives all the disgust and disdain that's thrown his way for the things he actually did do.

3. Stop claiming any continuing connection to Wimbledon FC, other than personal supporting history.
Milton Keynes Dons is not a 'legal continuation' of Wimbledon FC, the legal entity owning the Football League share changed in 2004. Fact. End of. (As some are fond of saying.) That really should be the end of it and it is a continuing embarrassment that some of you persist in clinging on to Wimbledon connections. You have a new club, a Milton Keynes club, formed in 2004. Enjoy it, go have fun with it, but stop pretending it's anything to do with Wimbledon FC.

And if you were a fan of Wimbledon FC before supporting Milton Keynes, then fine, be nostalgic all you like for those days, revel in your personal memories, regale all you please about those times, but for goodness sake accept that you are supporting a different club now - a Milton Keynes club - because that is the cold, hard truth.

4. Stop repeating lies you've been told about Wimbledon FC, particularly when you insist on repeating those lies to Wimbledon fans who know far better than you do.
You think you know the facts because you've read some carefully cherry-picked documents linked to on your SA website? Those aren't the facts, those are historical records, some inaccurate, that tell you little unless put in context. The people most qualified to put them in context are the people who lived through those times. And yet, time after time on forums, messageboards and comments we find Franchise customers (because that's what you're back to being by doing this stuff) who weren't there at the time, spouting what they claim are facts about the move.

I know why you're doing it, you think you're defending your club, but you're not. You're spreading lies, bitterness and hate. It's that simple. You're the problem, not us. If you just stopped posting the lies about Wimbledon FC and its fans, then I and others would never have to come along and correct all of it, and by doing so drag Milton Keynes back into the mud you are so desperately trying to pull yourselves out of.

Decisions, decisions
So what's it to be? Are you Milton Keynes fans or Franchise customers? Are you embracing the future or clinging to the past?

Don't do it for me - I'm just some bloke on the internet who's holding up a mirror for you - do it because it's the right thing to do. Do it because it's the best thing for Milton Keynes' football club. Do it precisely because your football club isn't going away and you should have one you can be proud of, not Franchise FC that wallows in the past and celebrates wrongdoing. 'No one likes you' you sing - but you do care, any football fan would, so now's the time to do something about it.

Wimbledon FC finances - the liquidation lies

Time for a history lesson. Many Wimbledon fans already know this stuff of course, but if anyone has ever told you that "Wimbledon was financially unsustainable" or similar, using it as a glib justification for the Milton Keynes move, then tell them it simply isn't true and never was.

Let's start with some cold facts - Wimbledon FC Ltd's accounts from 1995-2000 (the year Winkelman approached the club about an MK move):

1994-95 - operating profit £874,757
1995-96 - operating profit £1,775,708
1996-97 - operating loss £193,539
1997-98 - operating profit £4,928,194
1998-99 - operating loss £5,236,214
1999-00 - operating loss £2,437,814

That's an accumulated operating loss over six years of less than £300k.

Yes, you read that right, over those six years Wimbledon FC Ltd was profitable much of the time and virtually broke even. It was not in a hopeless state financially and it did not have massive accrued debt - those are total fictions and accounting tricks made up later.

Now, accounts are complicated and I have very deliberately simplified things down to the operating profit/loss in order not to get mired in the details. Within the accounts are many nuances (1998's had to be restated for instance, resulting in a much larger profit figure than initially stated), but the overall picture is clear - Wimbledon FC Ltd was categorically not a financial basket case at the time of the Rokke/Gjelsten takeover ('97) and it was still financially viable at the time Winkelman approached the club with the MK scheme.

Naturally Sam Hammam will forever be damned for removing the covenant from Plough Lane and then selling it to a supermarket, but under his stewardship (sold up in '97, left the board in '00) the club itself managed to stay comfortably in business, usually via player sales. It is only after the Norwegian duo invest ('97) and then take full control ('00) that the club starts to be run differently and the losses mount up, losses that include a reversal in transfer policy with the purchase of Hartson for £7m - money that was believed to be being invested by the Norwegian duo, but was in fact just creating debt to the club's owners, Rokke/Gjelsten. It's into this situation that Winkelman appears with his promise of riches in Milton Keynes.

Understanding the timing is key to undertsanding the truth, rather than the lies that have subsequently been told.

Relegation in 2000 clearly had profound financial consequences for the club, but at that point there was nothing inevitable about what would happen next. The figures prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if the owners had sold players, cancelled contracts and budgeted sensibly for life outside the top division, then the club could have continued to operate. The owners chose not to do that, but instead devoted all their efforts to trying to secure the MK move.

You simply cannot ignore the effect that Winkelman's approach has in 2000 on the actions of Rokke/Gjelsten. Consequently one cannot do anything but hold him and the MK consortium responsible for their part in events.

The only thing the club needed saving from was two owners hell bent on moving it to Milton Keynes, when it could have gone back to being financially viable in London. As awkward as the facts are for those who wish Wimbledon FC had really been unsustainable, the accounts going back over years prove it wasn't. It means one still has to hold Rokke/Gjelsten/Koppel directly responsible for the club's destruction, but be under no illusions, without Winkelman and the MK consortium there could and should still be a Wimbledon FC playing in London. Rokke/Gjelsten/Koppel fired the gun that killed Wimbledon FC, but Winkelman loaded it for them.

On the inside looking out

It's not often I'm able to give credit to something that emanates from within the boundaries of Milton Keynes, but, as the blog I'm linking to shows, not everyone there bought into Franchise FC or the lies told to make it happen. (I know of many others in MK who stoutly opposed the move from the start and still do.)

http://chrispowellsflatcap.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/growing-up-with-franchised-football-a-personal-history/

It's a fascinating piece, revealing many of the issues I've pondered over in the last 10 years, particularly about how the youngsters that were spun the lies of Koppel and Winkelman would react as they grew up and learned the ugly truths. Of course, not all of them are able to follow the enlightened path that this Charlton fan blogger has - some will be forever blind to the truth - but for anyone that has ever doubted that there was a point trying to stop the lies of Koppel, Winkelman and some misguided Franchise customers from being allowed to spread unchecked, this blogger is living proof that it always has and always will be worth it. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but he provides an eloquent and well-reasoned counterpoint to the morass of witless, pro-Franchise jabbering that comes from most Franchise customers on the internet.

One last sock

Funny the things that sometimes draw one back to a subject, in this instance it's an article by Mark Mardell on the ongoing US government funding crisis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24545697

He uses a phrase to refer to the Republicans that resonated with me in relation to Franchise.

“Rather like a man who has been almost stripped naked refusing to remove one last sock, claiming his dignity depends on it.”

This is exactly what some Franchise customers continue to do with regard to dropping the 'Dons' nicked-name from their team name. The rebranding of Franchise has left them naked ever since 2004 when all but the 'Dons' nicked-name were stripped away. They claim this 'one last sock' is all that stands between them and the indignity of admitting they are no longer Wimbledon FC. Yet they have been naked in the eyes of all others for 10 years, fooling only themselves that any shred of dignity has been afforded to them by the 'Dons' sock.

It's an image that should sear itself into their minds, because at every game they are naked, wearing one last sock and imagining it gives them something that it does not. Lose the sock – clothe Franchise properly in the garb of Milton Keynes, the way it should be. Only then can Franchise progress with any dignity or respect.

The ugly truth about Pete Winkelman

Last week, in the run-up to a highly emotional and potentially explosive 2nd Round FA Cup tie between Franchise FC and Wimbledon, Pete Winkelman, chairman and owner of Franchise, made extremely provocative accusations in the press about Wimbledon fans deserting their club and not buying it out of administration. The problem? None of it was true.

Here are just some of the stories, based on interviews and press releases from Winkelman, all of which contain the same deliberate goading and provocation of Wimbledon fans:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/nov/27/peter-winkelman-mk-dons-afc-wimbledon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20329528

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2239203/Pete-Winkelman-defends-MK-Dons-ahead-AFC-Wimbledon-clash.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/mk-dons-owner-i-now-accept-moving-was-pretty-crass-but-we-run-a-good-club-8359891.html

There are more examples, virtually every newspaper and football website ran the story, some of them without even questioning Winkelman's claims. As you can see from the links above, both David Conn and Mihir Bose looked deeper and questioned both the accuracy and the wisdom of Winkelman's claims - why seek to antagonise and provoke Wimbledon fans in the build-up to such a sensitive match? Was Winkelman trying to set the record straight in his moment in the spotlight? No. What Winkelman was doing was trying to re-write history in a quite shameless attempt to disguise his own guilt and to blame Wimbledon fans who were doing nothing more than trying to save their football club. The truth is revealed by comparing the actual facts to Winkelman's completely inaccurate version...

Timeline

6th June 2003 - Wimbledon FC Ltd enters administration - administrators speak to the press and state that Milton Keynes is the only option for the club.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/jun/06/newsstory.sport3

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wimbledon/2968272.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2405494/Wimbledon-go-into-administration.html

The quotes from the administrators are unequivocal:

"Whilst not welcomed by many, it is becoming increasingly clear that a move to Milton Keynes is a key element in ensuring that the club has the facilities commensurate with its ambitions."

"We and the directors believe, with the enthusiasm shown in Milton Keynes and the dedicated efforts of the club's staff, we will in due course see a successful outcome."

"Hopefully we will be able to rescue the club and have a successful relocation to Milton Keynes."

There is no suggestion of keeping the club in London and there is no offer made for the fans to buy the club. They are only looking at Milton Keynes.

10th July 2003 (5 weeks into administraion) - this article appears in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2407444/Three-weeks-for-the-Dons-to-save-themselves.html

Its damning contents put the lie to everything Winkelman told the press last week:

"The irony is that by now Wimbledon could have been saved. I understand that there was an 11-hour meeting at the administrators' offices in Euston 10 days ago to discuss a rescue plan put together by Wimbledon chairman Charles Koppel."

...10 days before the article, little more than 3 weeks into the administration...

"Present at the meeting were John Cove, Milton Keynes Council's head of community and economic development, and Peter Winkleman, the music promoter whose idea it has been to take Wimbledon from south London to Milton Keynes."

...Winkelman claimed he did nothing for 7weeks! Yet little more than 3 weeks in he is meeting with the administrators. It gets worse...

"Everything seemed to be going well until Winkleman spoke. He has a 25 per cent stake in Wimbledon's Milton Keynes project, but said he wanted 51 per cent. He was also upset that, under the Koppel plan, Wimbledon would initially ground share with Watford or Northampton, only moving when the development was completed. Winkleman said Milton Keynes was tired of waiting for its football and the club must move immediately, even to a temporary ground."

...not only is Winkelman meeting with the administrators but he is already demanding more of a stake in the club and blocking any suggestions of delaying the move to MK further. And it gets worse still...

"He has also given the administrators just over £300,000, which was used this week to pay the June wages of the players - May's wages remain unpaid. This gives Winkleman an inside track with the administrators."

 ...only 5 weeks into the administration he has already given the administrators £300,000 - how is that "doing nothing"? And how can he possibly have forgotten his position at the time, as quoted...

"Winkleman refuses to discus details but said: "We are at the beginning of the process that everybody wants. The end of the road must be Milton Keynes. Technically, the club is dead. I don't want to give false hopes but you can't keep Milton Keynes waiting for its football.""

...he is already stating that the end of the process must be Milton Keynes, yet just last week he expresses his surprise that the fans didn't try to buy the club.

Conclusions
There are only two possible conclusions to the evidence - either Winkelman knowingly lied in an attempt to provoke Wimbledon fans or his memory of events is so completely inaccurate that he needs sitting down and reminding step-by-step of what he actually did.

Before anyone gives Winkelman the benefit of the doubt and presumes he's just misremembering, remember who accompanied him to the meeting with the administrators just 3 weeks into administration? It was then MK Council employee John Cove - the very same John Cove who is now Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Dons Football Club Sport and Education Trust and works closely with Pete Winkelman. Surely John would have had a word with his boss to inform him of his mistakes before he repeated them to every single media outlet in the country? Apparently not.

And now let's return to the subject of why Winkelman made these accusations against Wimbledon fans last week. The suggestion that he did nothing for the first seven weeks of administration had never been made until last week - Winkelman had allowed 9 years to pass without so much as a hint of it, but with days to go to a potentially explosive and guaranteed to be tense first encounter between Franchise and Wimbledon, he drops an apparent bombshell into the media, knowing full well that either they wouldn't check or couldn't find the evidence that what he was saying was completely untrue.

If Winkelman claims his memory was failing him, then why did John Cove not correct him? Are they both suffering from the same tragic amnesia?

If Winkelman knew what he was saying was untrue, then why was he deliberately seeking to antagonise and goad Wimbledon fans in the run-up to the fixture?

Whatever answer you come up with to those two questions, Winkelman is unfit to be the chariman of a football club when he was prepared to risk the safety of thousands of innocent football fans just to wage his own petty vendetta against the Wimbledon fans who he wronged by trying and succeeding to take away our football club.

It is an absolute disgrace that Winkelman's comments last week, now proven to be utterly without foundation and wholly untrue, go unapologised for. At the very least he should be offering a full apology to all Wimbledon fans for making completely false statements about us, and if he is so incapable of remembering the truth or stopping himself from spreading these lies, he should seriously consider his position as chairman of Franchise FC.

Dear Pete Winkelman...

If you're ever in the vicinity of Pete Winkelman, remind him of this quote, one of many similar ones he has made lately:

"I did a deal that was wrong and the owners [of Wimbledon at the time] were wrong. I'm not proud of the way football came to Milton Keynes,"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/nov/27/peter-winkelman-mk-dons-afc-wimbledon

Then ask him these questions...

If you know it was wrong, why have you not apologised to the people you wronged - Wimbledon fans?

If you know it was wrong, why do you continue to insult and accuse Wimbledon fans of desertion when you know it was your fault their club owners' abandoned them?

If you know it was wrong, why do you so doggedly cling on to the 'Dons' nicked-name that the people you wronged have asked you to remove?

If you know it was wrong, why have you never once said sorry to anyone? (Because you haven't, saying "it was wrong" is not an apology.)

If you know it was wrong, why do you keep trying to justify your actions instead of just accepting it was wrong and making amends?

The truth is Pete, that the facts of what you did don't change (see previous blog entry http://truthaboutfranchisefc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/pete-winkelman-and-mk-council-facts.html). Trying some hindsight revisionism based on a brief period of administration that happened long after you'd done all the damage you needed to to Wimbledon FC, will not change anyone's opinion of you one jot.

If Pete Winkelman wants anyone to forgive - we'll never forget - then first he's going to have to actually apologise for his actions, drop the 'Dons' and actually accept what he did was wrong, rather than just make weasel-worded quotes to the press about it that he makes worthless through his continued attacks on Wimbledon fans and flaunting of our club's nicked-name. Pete Winkelman - are you a man or a spineless spin-merchant?

Pete Winkelman and MK Council: the facts

Between 1999 and 2001 Pete Winkelman, as part of the Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium, approached a number of Football League clubs from other towns with the offer of a stadium in Milton Keynes that the clubs would not have to pay for because it would be paid for by enabling development.

Those clubs included Barnet, Crystal Palace, Northampton, QPR and Wimbledon. None of them approached Winkelman, they were all approached by him.

In June 2000, Pete Winkelman acquired the domain names bearing the name MKDons.

Milton Keynes Council was a part of the MKSC, as was ASDA/Walmart.

John Cove, an MK Council employee at the time, accompanied Winkelman on visits to football clubs to help put the MKSC's proposals.

The land on which the 'free' stadium was to be built was owned by MK Council.

MK Council was an integral part of the MKSC and knew about the approaches to Football League clubs from other towns, effectively sanctioning those proposals rather than supporting one of its own local clubs.

In 2001 the owners of Wimbledon FC agreed to Winkelman's proposals and applied to the Football League to move to Milton Keynes.

In May 2002 Wimbledon FC was granted permission to move to Milton Keynes by an FA Commission. The Commission report placed great store by the evidence given to it by Pete Winkelman, including many promises about retaining the Wimbledon FC identity.

These are the facts. This is the cold, hard, unvarnished truth. There are no excuses for what was done. This was a clinical, knowing exercise by Winkelman, MK Council and others in the MKSC to approach football clubs from other towns and to keep doing so until one of them agreed to move. If it hadn't been Wimbledon, then it would have been someone else, as was later confirmed by the head of Denbigh Land - Property Week article from 14/5/04 - "The Scheme {MK Stadium} will go ahead" insists Richard Foreman, a director at InterMK's development consultant, Denbigh Land and a former director at Lambert Smith Hampton who has advised the consortium for  more than four years. "It has the total support of the council and the worst case is that we have a year and a half to find another club."

There has been no apology from Winkelman or MK Council to Wimbledon fans for their actions, despite Winkelman's most recent claim that he knows what he did was wrong. ("I’m not proud of the way this club came to be. It’s very hard for me to live with that..." is one of the quotes from the last 2 days.)

No amount of hindsight attempts to blame Wimbledon fans will change these facts. There is no 'smoking gun' that either makes it anyone else's fault that Winkelman and MK Council did what they did, nor is there any excuse for their actions - they set out to take a football club away from another town and they succeeded.

These are the facts. This is the truth. It will not change because someone digs up tiny details. The truth has been known since 2002 and nothing has been revealed since then that has changed the facts above.