AFC Wimbledon travel north from London on Sunday to face MK Dons in the second round of the FA Cup. It is fair to say there has never been a game like this before,and many in football have been waiting for this, quite keenly, for a long time.
There are very few battle lines drawn more clearly than those between MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon. Almost everyone in football will have a side, the vast majority being on the side of AFC Wimbledon. The divison between the two clubs is so stark that many of the AFC fans refuse to even watch the match, the staff of MK Dons have been asked to not visit the stadium of AFC Wimbledon in anticipation of the game and the AFC board will stand on the terraces rather than enter the boardroom of MK Dons. And yet, this hatred was grown entirely away from the football field as on Sunday the two teams will meet for the first time in history.
MK Dons came to exist following the transplanting of the old Wimbledon, once of the Crazy Gang in the late 1980s, from their south London home to the outskirts of Milton Keynes, a move undertaken by owners looking to increase revenue and one that saw virtually the entire fan base disconnected from the club in one of modern football's most controversial and universally opposed moves.
The fans of Wimbledon were left behind- their club and history ripped away from them in a cold act symbolic of the rapidly evolving nature of football. In the aftermath a core group of fans formed a new club, AFC wimbledon.
It is a fan owned club which was formed from scratch to ensure the survival of their club and during its short life the progress has been remarkable. The new club started life down in the low regional leagues but following 5 promotions in 8 season they have, almost miraculously, made it back to the football league and now sit just one league below MK Dons. Sunday's FA Cup tie is the first time the two have met since the demise of the original Wimbledon, and it's not taken lightly.
Football lives on rivalries, and those rivalries are intensely interwoven, often symbiotic, relationships. They require two sides and, as such, no matter how intense the hatred might seem it is hard to imagine any hatred could be so intense that one set of fans would rather never play, or even see, the other club. Although perhaps the term "rivalry" is slightly reductive in this context. But that's how some AFC Wimbledon fans view MK Dons. The emotion has been described as follows by AFC Wimbledon fan, Aled Thomas- writing in When Saturday Comes:
"This is not "rivalry". Wimbledon fans feel very strongly about the murder of our club and the removal of our rightful League place, and we are in no mood to forgive and enjoy a game of football with those who committed such acts..."
AFC Wimbledon have made a request to MK Dons that none of their staff visit their ground in London for the purposes of scouting in advance of the tie. They advised MK Dons that if they do scout at Wimbledon's away games it would be better to avoid wearing any badges or clothing that could identify them as MK Dons staff.
The AFC Wimbledon board have also declined the offer of the usual hospitality from the MK Dons board, and will sit with the AFC Wimbledon fans rather than go to the opposition boardroom and engage in pleasantries.
For many of the AFC fans the wish is that this game didn't have to happen. The club's chief executive Erik Samuelson told Reuters, “It's a very difficult game because for the majority they would rather the game was not being played.
"I've spoken to a whole range of people who are going and the feedback I'm getting is that they really don't want to go and I don't want to give (MK Dons) any money but I need to be there to support my team…Some are saying that nothing will drag me there under any circumstances.”
The AFC Wimbledon fans have released the following video in the build up to the game, showing the history of the club in its old form and new (h/t 101greatgoals.com)
