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.

Damaging divisions

The ugly prospect of Wimbledon having to play Franchise has reared its head again with the draw for the second round proper of the FA Cup. Both sides have to negotiate replays, but in an attempt to goad the Football Gods into preventing the tie happening, I'm presuming that this time it will ocur. So... these 'damaging divisions' that I've titled this piece with, that's about Wimbledon fans, right? Wrong. It's about what this match, particularly when it takes place in Milton Keynes, will do to Franchise FC.

I'll get my personal opinion out of the way first - I never want us to play Franchise, I will never go to a game at Franchise's stadium and I will never directly financially reward Winkelman for his actions in instigating and completing the destruction of Wimbledon FC. So of course I will not be going to any game between the two teams. Many Wimbledon fans differ in their views on this. Some want to go and have a big presence there, some want a total boycott, some would go to a home game but not to Franchise, some want the game to happen and some don't. There are as many different opinions as there are Wimbledon fans.

Based on the above, surely the conclusion is that this issue will split the fanbase? Yes... Wimbledon fans will always be divided in their opinion of Franchise and what to do about it. But the key word there is 'always'. These are differences of opinion that have been there from the very start, have been discussed a thousand times and that come up every time someone mentions a fixture against Franchise. It's not new and the actuality of the fixture happening, while it will cause a great deal of emotion, will not bring forth any new divisions. The day after the game, we will all still be Wimbledon fans, we will all be looking forward to our next game that's not against Franchise and we will all still have our individual attitudes to Franchise and the prospect of playing them. Nothing will have changed. The result on the pitch will have been irrelevant, except to determine whether Wimbledon progress in the FA Cup. The day after, Wimbledon goes back to normal. But what of Franchise?

Franchise manager Karl Robinson is quoted in the press as doing a 'dance of joy around his living room' at news of the cup draw. A number of the usual suspect posters on Franchise forums are positively bursting with delight about the prospect of playing the real Wimbledon. To read some of the comments you would think that all their birthdays and Christmases have come at once. And why? The most sense I can make of many of the incoherent babbling is that they seem to think it's a great chance to rub the noses of Wimbledon fans in the dirt for the 10 years of pariah status that Franchise and its customers have had. Never mind the illogicality of it (pariah status was achieved by franchising another town's football team), does this glee at the fixture happening make any sense for Franchise?

Pete Winkelman has said he is excited at the tie happening, but thus far his response is quite reserved. Perhaps that's because he has realised some of the consequences of this fixture taking place in MK. Let's start with shirts. Wimbledon play in blue and yellow colours. Standard practice at all games is that away colours cannot be allowed in the home sections. Anyone turning up to the game in any Wimbledon top, will be refused entry to the home sections - a first for Franchise. For the very first time they will be forced to face, very directly, that they are not Wimbledon. It may not sound like much, but when Franchise inevitably has to announce that anyone wearing a Wimbledon top will have to go in the away fans section, then the message it sends could not be clearer about the delusions and denial that some have been under for the last 10 years. That's going to be a very bitter pill for some of the Franchise customers to swallow. Yet it does have to happen, Franchise cannot allow Wimbledon shirts in the home sections or they will be breaking one of the fundamental rules of crowd control in modern football. It's unthinkable that they allow the possibility of large numbers of away fans to infiltrate the home sections of the ground. And that's just the start of things.

The noisiest among the Franchise customers online are already gleefully planning all the songs and chants they will be aiming at whatever Wimbledon presence there is in the ground. Almost without exception these chants involve harping on about the past, who the 'real' Wimbledon is and spiteful attacks on Wimbledon fans actions. Not a problem you might think, but what about the customers from Milton Keynes who are just there to watch their football team? What about the families that Winkelman has been so keen to nurture as the future of his club and town? All the proposed chanting and vitriol is going to produce is an atmosphere of hostility. And since it's all based on past events, those new customers may well look on with disbelief at what's going on. It will be a very stark reminder for them that they are supporting a team that refuses to let go of its past and embrace its future in Milton Keynes. Every chant from Franchise about 'We're the real Dons' or similar will be a cringeworthy reminder to those in MK that it isn't really their team, it's still someone else's.

You may think I'm overstating the case, but however few people are put off by it, those are people being lost by Franchise. The more a core cabal of Franchise customers push the 'Dons' issue and the more vitriolic they become towards Wimbledon fans, the more they lose sight of the actual future of their club - a Milton Keynes team in Milton Keynes.

The media will, of course, be all over this game like ants on a sugar high, and that's not going to help Franchise either. All the old wounds will be ripped open, all the reminders of how MK stole Wimbledon's Football League place from its fans - all the negative publicity that Winkelman desperately doesn't want in trying to build up customer support. Nothing has changed remember, Franchise isn't suddenly in the right and Wimbledon in the wrong... nothing about the facts has changed and bringing them back up will only damge Franchise, not Wimbledon.

So picture it, in the aftermath of the match, Wimbledon fans emotions will be raw, whatever the result, but for Franchise customers the consequences will only just be starting. How can a customer base so obsessed with clinging on to the 'Dons' nicked-name ever really be a part of Milton Keynes? How can customers so obsessed with getting one over on a club nearly everyone admires for what it has achieved, expect to reap anything but condemnation and hate for their actions? How can MK residents faced with the bitterness and obsession of some Franchise customers with clinging on to the past ever really take Franchise to their hearts?

Much more may come out of the day, when it arrives, but as the grim reality of events unfolds for Franchise customers, we will see a very different outcome to things than many currently expect.

Facing the truth

Facing the truth is what this blog has always been about - accepting reality, no matter how distasteful it is. I've had to face many unpleasant truths over the last 10 years and I've done so and then got on with life, facing the future with new hope - with every unpleasant truth accepted I have "moved on".

I've accepted that my club, Wimbledon FC, was dead on 28th May 2002.
I've accepted that Milton Keynes took my club's Football League place.
I've accepted that Wimbledon had to start again from the bottom of the football pyramid.
I've accepted that people in Milton Keynes go to watch a football club playing locally.
I've accepted that a football club will prosper in Milton Keynes.

That's just a few of the big things - I've had to accept so many more little bitter pills over the years. And I've done so... swallowed every last one, because denying the truth and reality is pointless and only harms the person in denial.

And what of those on the other side of things? What of the group of Franchise customers who have spent the last 10 years peddling lies and misinformation about the creation of Franchise FC? Some of them are still at it, but just occasionally, usually when Franchise loses, a drop of truth seeps out from the sodden despair. Point in case this weekend... here's a quote from a Franchise customer taken from here (includes offensive language): http://www.concreteroundabout.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5408

"When Winkleman told us at the SA AGM back in the summer that he was spending some money this season, I’m willing to bet the majority of us in attendance thought he meant on the team. Not on more hotel rooms. If he fancied being a hotelier he should have just {expletive deleted} built one without the encumbrance of someone else’s football team."

There's a lot more moaning in the post, but I'm just highlighting the little sliver of truth that slid in... "someone else's football team". See, even the most vociferous Franchise customers know Milton Keynes has someone else's football team and, from time to time, they are made to face the fact that it was always about the property deal and not the football club. Their forums are often more bothered about the new M&S, Primark and hotel rooms going in than they are about the football club.

Normal denial will be resumed soon enough of course and those grovelling around Winkelman will continue to spew out the tired mantra about having him to thank for bringing football to MK (he didn't, MK already had football), but it's not hard to see through the cracks in the concrete facade to the truth beneath - they know it's someone else's football team and they know it was just a property deal. One day, they may even discover some guts and common sense and drop the 'Dons' nicked-name of shame, but that may be a while yet. Until then, continue to enjoy their guilt-ridden suffering.

Paranoid delusions

Ever heard of a football statistic called the 'Red cards to fouls ratio'? No, neither had I. There's a good reason for that - it's of no use to anyone and it's indicative of nothing. However, if you're a Franchise customer, it now apparently means that there's a refereeing conspiracy against Franchise FC. No... I'm not making this up, I'm really not. I know it sounds like far-fetched fiction, but that really is what some of them are claiming. And it's not just one of their usual-suspect loonies on a forum either, it's their customer association:

http://www.mkdsa.co.uk/index.php/1019-are-referee-s-targeting-mk-dons

They end that article by writing, "Have the Dons been targetted unfairly by referees? We'll let you make your own judgement.", but that's a clear judgement in itself - the entire basis of the piece is that Franchise is being targeted, otherwise why write the piece? The only purpose to it is to suggest there is bias against Franchise.

And the whining emanating from some Franchise customers has gone up in volume too, particularly since some paranoid person came up with the 'red cards to fouls ratio' statistic in a vain attempt to prove there's bias against Franchise. What makes it so absurd is that the statistic has no meaning - there is no correlation between fouls and red cards. Indeed, the four red cards Franchise has received this season are all excellent examples of why - they have all been straight red cards. Uncontrolled, studs-up lunges, elbows to the head and similar violent conduct charges get straight red cards.

There is no statistical connection whatsoever between the number of fouls in a match or by a team and the number of offences for which one can receive a straight red card. Bear in mind further that a red card can be received for offences that aren't even fouls! Get sent off for dissent and that's not a foul, but it will still be a red card.

Clearly the paranoia and victim mentality that I wrote about only yesterday are starting to spiral out of control with a growing number at Franchise. Doubtless they are still fooling themselves that it will lead to a 'backs to the wall' fighting spirit, but unfortunately for them, it won't. (It never has. Those pretending anything I've ever written has 'strengthened their resolve' or encouraged customers to attend Franchise, are only fooling themselves.) What it will lead to is more paranoia, greater indiscipline, internal divisions and penalties from the authorities for bringing the game into disrepute. This stuff does filter down to players, who aren't usually the sharpest tools in the box, and it will be in their minds come game time. And anyone with any sense at all knows how that ends up... more whining, more dissent, more berating the officials and... more red cards as a result. Self-fulfilling paranoia. It happens because the players are making it happen. Tell them it's not their fault and they will make it happen even more. It's a vicious circle, which right now Winkelman is helping make spin ever faster.

Frankly I am amazed that Winkelman has not only let things go this far, but has in fact been the main instigator in encouraging this idiotic notion of a referees conspiracy against Franchise. I'll give you a prediction though... He'll be backtracking within the week after someone has a quiet word with him behind the scenes.

Bunker mentality

One hears a lot of nonsense talked in football circles about using an 'us against the world' mentality to motivate players - even Sir Alex Ferguson has been attributed with using such a technique. The problem is that you can only do this on select occasions, otherwise what happens is you create a culture of paranoia, bitterness and victim mentality. And the powerful effects of such a culture within a group of players is not to be underestimated.

Franchise customers have long been ridiculed for their attempt to adopt the Millwall 'No on likes us, we don't care' anthem - it really is utterly cringeworthy - but now it seems the victim mentality and paranoia have spread all the way up to the chairman and owner. Witness Winkelman's reaction yesterday to Franchise's fourth red card in four games:

http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/sport/football/mk-dons/chairman-pete-winkelman-demands-answers-after-another-dons-red-card-1-4201211

It's embarrassing on every level. Why is the chairman out there talking to the media when the manager usually would? Can Robinson not be trusted to speak following his team's abysmal disciplinary record? Why is Winkelman blaming the officials for his own players' indiscipline? Why is Winkelman making up lies - Lewington is not grabbed by the throat - about an incident in the game? Why does Winkelman think that the style of football they supposedly play should influence referees' decisions about foul play?

The questions keep stacking up and the only answer is that the Franchise owner has fundamentally lost the plot. Perhaps the pressure of running a loss-making football franchise as part of his property development is starting to tell? One thing is for certain, when the victim mentality and paranoia at Franchise has spread throughout the entire organisation - customers, manager, owner, players - then the only way for them is down, because the mental-energy sapping nature of such an attitude, game-in game-out, creates a spiral of resentment and lashing out that simply makes the problem worse.

Franchise customer forums are even openly discussing the possibility of a referees conspiracy against them! All this from a club that only 2 seasons ago recorded an English football record 128 yellow cards in a single season, has had the manager sent to the stands on a number of occasions and which has been warned about its disciplinary record before.

It is of some amusement to me personally that I have been accused in the past of helping to strengthen the support for Franchise FC by helping foster this kind of 'bunker mentality' among the customers. Well, perhaps today they will realise the bitter end result of adopting such a mentality over a long period - it breeds the paranoia and victim mentality that helps cause yesterday's events. They could all of course have just faced up to the truths a long time ago, wiped the slate clean and started anew, free from guilt, blame and negative thinking, but they've chosen not to, and so we get to witness the embarrassing spectacle of Winkelman basically accusing referees of conspiring against his team. Oh dear, oh dear.