AFC Wimbledon: A Fan owned club, with a home once more.

This is the story of an FA Cup-winning, first-tier English team that all but died - but was saved by the loyalty of its fans. The club lost its stadium, its players, its money, its kits, its staff - and even relocated to a different part of the country.

But thanks to its supporters, it never lost its soul.

Charlie Rowan is back with another poignant foot ball story and his second feature-length piece; This is the story of how Wimbledon FC defied the odds to make an extraordinary fan-powered comeback.

The club now known as AFC Wimbledon, are currently building a 9,000-seater stadium back at Plough Lane in Wimbledon, South-West London. But the club didn't always have a local home. For almost 30 years, the team weren’t even in the Borough of Merton.

Part 1 - The AFC Wimbledon Story - How we got to where we are today

Part 2 - Interview with Ivor Heller, Commercial Director of AFC Wimbledon

Part 3 - The Fans - Interview with Ben Reynolds and Reese Fletcher

Part 4 - Plough Lane - Interview with Joe Giordano about the new Stadium

PART 1 - The Story of Wimbledon FC, MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon

Wimbledon FC - The Crazy Gang and Sam Hammam

Everything was going so well back in the late 70s and 80s when they rose from the lower leagues to the First Division. There was hope that the club would continue to prosper after The Dons beat one of the greatest ever Liverpool sides to win the FA Cup in 1988. This Wimbledon team was infamously nicknamed “The Crazy Gang” - down to the players and chairman’s incredibly passionate, boisterous and aggressive behaviour. The team picked up an unfeasible number of yellow cards, but not many people cared. The club was a positive place to be.

Vinnie Jones asking what the ref wants for Christmas

That was until everything started to go wrong. The Hillsborough Disaster Inquiry report, originally published in 1990 by Lord Peter Taylor, declared that terraced grounds (such as Wimbledon’s Plough Lane stadium) were unsafe.

Wimbledon FC therefore had to move to Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace’s ground, where they would ground-share with the Eagles. Later in the 90s, controversial ownership decisions left the fans in utter shock and dismay.

In 1995/96, Sam Hammam - Wimbledon’s Lebanon-born owner - proposed that the club should move to Dublin, Ireland. His motives were then thoroughly questioned and were protested by the WISA (Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association). “Dons’ followers were furious - they would be effectively disenfranchised from the club their money had built,” according to Jim Wright, writing for The Guardian in 2003. To move more than 380 miles away from Wimbledon was deemed absurd and the deal - rightly so - collapsed.

One member of the WISA was quoted in an interview with The Set Pieces saying: “He [Sam Hammam] started walking around with bodyguards as I recall: that had never, ever happened before… He was an intensely dis-likeable little creature, who masked it well, played people as he needed to, and who thought he was the club.”

There were constant calls for him to leave, and he seemingly listened to these when he sold 80% of his shares in 1997 and the rest in 2000, to two Norwegian businessmen - Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten - who became joint-owners of Wimbledon FC.

Wimbledon FC moves to Milton Keynes and becomes MK Dons

Wimbledon were the only club in all four English football divisions not to have their own stadium. They were still ground-sharing with Crystal Palace at this point, but that became less practical once Wimbledon were relegated from the Premier League. They were now in the same division as Palace (the Championship, or, as it was known before the 2004/05 season, the First Division), and their chairman Charles Koppel was open to moving.

Pete Winkleman, a Milton Keynes-based property developer, suggested that The Dons relocate there.

Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, was a new town built in the 1970s that didn’t have a substantial team. He offered to help fund a new stadium there. Winkleman proposed this idea to many other clubs - including Luton Town, Queens Park Rangers, Barnet and Crystal Palace among others - but they all declined to relocate. All apart from Wimbledon.

The decision to move almost 60 miles away from their home sparked a lot of anger. Some fans felt as if their club had gone from plain view. Charles Koppel stated: “As chairman of the club, I have always said that we would look at all options available to us [and this] is by far the best and only immediate option for us.”

And the club did move to Milton Keynes, under the same name and logo of Wimbledon; in 2004, however, the club re-branded to Milton Keynes Dons with different kits and a new logo. Some Wimbledon fans chose to support Wimbledon FC (later rebranded as MK Dons), but others decided to transplant the soul of Wimbledon into another club.

The story of AFC Wimbledon begins

Wimbledon had lost its stadium, its players, its money, its kits, its staff, a division to play in - but it was not dead. The fans were the soul. The fans remained.

In 2002, on the day of the announcement that most Wimbledon fans were dreading, a small group of these supporters set up a new club named AFC Wimbledon. And to avoid being exploited by one figure or a small group of people, it was made sure that the fans would own the club. So they elected a board for the Dons Trust, which would effectively take over the duties of the club owner.

Trials were held down at the local park - Wimbledon Common - to recruit players and a squad was built.

The Dons successfully applied to the Combined Counties League - English football’s ninth tier - to play in the 2002/03 season. Blue and yellow home kits were designed to continue the recent colour theme of Wimbledon FC, with Sports Interactive - the developers of Football Manager - the shirt sponsor.

The new logo was not dissimilar to the old one sewn onto Dave Beasant’s kit when he lifted the FA Cup trophy as captain of Wimbledon at Wembley Stadium in 1988. They hired backroom staff and a manager, and found a home at Kingsmeadow - albeit ground-sharing with Kingstonians FC. But the fans were mostly pleased that football was back in South London.

AFC Wimbledon - Climbing up the League Ladder

Wimbledon FC may have fallen, but AFC Wimbledon looked set to rise.

And they did. In the first season, the club's average home attendance at league fixtures exceeded 3,000 - more than Wimbledon FC’s (eventually MK Dons) average attendance in that same season, in the First Division. They finished third place in the league and the following season they were promoted to the Isthmian League Division One. The original Wimbledon FC rose through the lower leagues to reach the EFL (English Football League) in a journey which is often clichéd as a “fairytale”. But could AFC Wimbledon replicate the same feat?

It all came down to a penalty kick. After being promoted four times in eight seasons, AFC Wimbledon were in the Conference play-off final against Luton Town on 21st May 2011. Danny Kedwell placed the ball on the penalty spot; if he scored this, The Dons would be in the EFL. Kedwell’s strike rippled the net and Wimbledon fans erupted. The Dons were in League Two.

It has only been an upwards journey for the club since then. AFC Wimbledon became an established League Two side during the early 2010s and, in 2015/16, they achieved promotion through another penalty shoutout in the play-off final against Plymouth Argyle. Adebayo Akinfenwa came off the bench on the 30th May 2016 and scored an emotional penalty to send Wimbledon to League One. In that same year, Wimbledon successfully applied for planning permission to build a new stadium on Plough Lane. This stadium would bring a club back to Wimbledon after 30 years away.

Now, we are in 2020. The Dons are close to finishing the build of the new Plough Lane stadium and they are due to move in for the first game of the 2020/21 season. The supporters are thrilled that they are moving back into a place they can finally call home. But the stadium build is not the end of AFC Wimbledon’s magical story.

Wimbledon are in League One, having finished one place above the relegation zone (20th). But they want to push on. A new stadium could well be the start of a new era for the club on the pitch and off it.

So, what’s next for The Dons? What were the greatest moments as a Wimbledon fan? What is the upside of having a club that is owned by the fans?

In this feature piece, Charlie Rowan speaks to key figures that have an emotional connection with Wimbledon FC and AFC Wimbledon to uncover the answers for some of the story’s most significant questions.

Part 2: Interview with Ivor Heller - Commercial Director at AFC Wimbledon

Ivor Heller has been a Wimbledon FC supporter since the early 1970s. He was also a founding father of AFC Wimbledon and he has held the role of Commercial Director at the club for more than 18 years.

Heller spoke to The Sporting Blog to tell us his experiences as a fan, his role in setting up AFC Wimbledon, how he feels now the club is moving into a new Plough Lane and more.

How Ivor became a fan and memories of the FA Cup

He told us his experiences as a Wimbledon FC fan: “I became a Wimbledon fan at the age of six. My first game was in the early 70s, nobody’s totally sure quite when it was; I think it was in the 1971/72 season but I’m not one-hundred per cent certain.

“I got my first full season ticket in the 1974/75 season, and that was when the Wimbledon story really started. We went from being a good non-league club to being the biggest non-league club. This was the season when a manager called Allen Batsford took over - he won the FA Amateur cup the year before with Walton and Hersham FC. He played Brighton when Brian Clough was the manager and beat them. We only had six players that played for Wimbledon at the time. But he came over and brought 5 players with him and then added a couple more.

And that blended into a squad that lost its first game of the season 2-0 to Nuneaton - you still remember these things - but then we went on this unbeaten run right the way through to Christmas. And during that, the FA Cup started. So, we had to play the preliminary qualifying round - I think by the time we reached the first round, we had already played eight matches.”

“The first round of the FA Cup - this is where I think the fairy-tale started - the weather was awful and we were against Bath City.

Now, obviously we’ve got a lot of clubs nearby. You’ve got Fulham, their game was postponed because of the weather. You’ve got Chelsea, I think they were away but their game was also postponed. And Crystal Palace were due to play Bristol Rovers; their game was also postponed.

The only game that was actually allowed to take place was ours. So, everybody - bearing in mind Bristol is very close to Bath, so the Bristol fans came and supported Bath - else came and supported Wimbledon and a massive crowd, this was the first time I’ve ever been in a really big crowd - I think they gave the official crowd at 5,700 or something but there were loads more than that, it was packed.

It really was an amazing atmosphere, an amazing day. It was 0-0 in the 92nd minute of the game - Bath City were third in the Southern League and we were top - and in that minute, Mick Mahon smashed one in! It was absolutely brilliant and everyone went crazy!”

He added: “Then, after beating Bath, we drew Kettering Town at home. Kettering were one and two with us all season - so now, probably the two best teams in non-league football at the time have drawn each other. That was unbelievably exciting. A lot of Kettering fans came. We beat them 2-0 at an absolute canter. We started to look really good.

“We were in the third round of the cup for the first time ever - and the draw I’ll never forget. We took radios to school and listened to it there, and the draw was always 11 o’clock on a Monday, after the round. And we drew Burnley away. Now, Burnley at the time were third in the first division, they were an amazing team full of internationals.

It wasn’t the most glamorous fixture, but it was one where we were absolutely surefire to be beaten to pieces. And anyway, we went up to Burnley - to just put this into context there is an argument whether it was 65 or 55 years since a non-league side won at a first division side’s ground - and we beat them 1-0 at Turf Moor.

“It really was incredible. No one believed we stood a chance at Burnley. But the most annoying thing of the lot is that there is no film of that game and the reason why was because Bob Lord, who was Burnley chairman at the time, was also chairman of the EFL and he was so disgusted at what had happened on the pitch that he burnt the film! Burnley were 1-25 on to beat Wimbledon and we beat them! We were on television everywhere, everyone was all over us and you can imagine it was the biggest story.”

“The draw was on the Monday and we drew Leeds United. Leeds, who were in the European Cup final five months later against Bayern Munich, were arguably the best team in Europe at the time and they had won the league a year before - I mean it’s Leeds United, Billy Bremner, Allan Clarke, Trevor Cherry all played for them.

“I was only 11 years old so I wasn’t allowed to go, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. We went up there and held our own, held our own and held our own. And then, I think it was in the 67th minute, I had two radios and a television on, I had posters all up over the wall, my scarf was on, so was the hat I always used to wear when I went to the football - basically, everything was there - I was in my front room and they got awarded a penalty.”

When they got the penalty, I went ‘Oh no, we’re finished now’. Peter Lorimer, the guy that took Leeds’ penalties had the hardest shot in the world. Our current club president, and Wimbledon’s goalkeeper for this game, Dickie Guy saved the penalty! And we went on and drew with Leeds United!”

Heller explained: “The replay was scheduled for the next Tuesday night, but it was cancelled because of really bad weather. The next day there was a queue that was a mile long because people wanted to buy tickets for the replay. And then they found some forged tickets on the market place and they moved the game to Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace’s stadium. So, the next week, the game was on at Selhurst Park and I couldn’t sleep! I was so excited, I bunked off school, that was the only time I ever bunked off school.

I was the first person in the stadium, so I had to get to the front of the stadium because I’m so small I wouldn’t see anything - I’m only five feet tall you see, I was even shorter back then. The crowd that night was 45,500! The crowd at Elland Road, Leeds’ stadium for the first tie, was 45,000! So, 90,000 people saw us play Leeds - remember we were still non-league at this time! It was absolutely unbelievable. We lost that night to a deflected own-goal. It was 1-0, and we scored a disallowed goal; we gave Leeds United the biggest scare you could imagine!

Joining the Football League

“We then went on and won the Southern League that year. After we won the Southern League, we had to apply to be elected to be a part of the football league. With everything that happened - we got knocked out the quarter-finals of the trophy, we won the London Senior Cup, we won the Southern League cup, we won the Southern League and we had the best FA Cup run ever, it was remarkable - you’d think we would walk in. But it was a close shot, you see, and we didn’t get voted in."

He told us: “The next season, we got knocked out by Brentford in the second round of the cup - there’s no shame in that - and we went on and we won the league again. We applied for election, but we didn’t get elected. The year after that, we were doing very well at the top of the league, we got through to the third round of the FA Cup again - this was now remarkable that a non-league team could do this - and we drew the late Jack Charlton’s Middlesborough. Boro were right at the top of the league at the time. They came down to Plough Lane, and Jack Charlton complained about the pitch. And we drew 0-0 with them down at Plough Lane.

We came up to Middlesborough for the replay, and we lost 1-0 to them because of a penalty. Graeme Souness was playing for Middlesborough, as was Terry Cooper - the established England international - they had a really strong team, it was totally remarkable. And we went on again, we won the London Senior Cup again, we won the Southern League cup again and we won the Southern League.

This time, a campaign was mounted, we won that campaign, and we were allowed in the EFL. It was June 14th, 1977. That was one of the best days of my life. So, we were back in the league, and that night, I made a prediction to myself that in 10 years time we would be in the First Division and we would win the FA Cup. How I wish I had a bet on it.

“I know Kenny [Dalglish], and the day that we won the FA Cup against Liverpool - the team he was managing - he told me that was his worst day in football. But he's very magnanimous about it. Kenny Dalglish is a very top man. He’s a super human being.

“The run to get out of the divisions, it was a yo-yo. But it was Dave Bassett, when he took over, he was the guy that actually shaped it and that was when the Crazy Gang was formed. This was long before the likes of Vinnie Jones, though.

The Crazy Gang actually started in 1977, when Bassett gave up playing and went into coaching the reserves. So, we got people like Wally Downes coming through, some of these players that went on and became very famous footballers - that was how it all started. I always like to get the record straight, because the Crazy Gang started a long time before you’d think and I think it’s very important that people know this. By the time Vinnie came along, the Crazy Gang was well established - he did make the craziness a lot worse, though, I have to tell you.”

We asked Heller what Wimbledon FC meant to him: “To me, Wimbledon FC was my life. Which is why I did what I did, and we did what we did. There are no doubts, it is the single biggest factor in my life. And in 2002, when everything changed, that was it for me. There was no other route, it was just this is my football club now and this is my life. And that was it.

“I was told the night before that we were moving to the town I shall not name. I got a phone call from someone I knew at the FA who said that Wimbledon are being allowed to relocate to the place that should not be mentioned. And I had already held discussions with Chris Stewart who was the chair of the Independent Supporters Association, I was already the vice-chair of the Dons Trust at the time, but I talked to him about the absolute certainty that if they gave us permission to relocate 50 miles away, we would start again.

“Oh, I one-hundred per cent saw a future for the club. We had already started, on the day of the decision, and we were making a roadmap of how we were going to start a new club up.”

He described what it was like to be a founding father of AFC Wimbledon: “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. The one thing that I know, apart from just my family, when I am dead or gone, I will be remembered for something. And that’s for setting up for AFC Wimbledon. There’s no one that can ever take that away from me. Chris Stewart and I bought the original limited company, we started it, we got everything set up and then we sold it to the Dons Trust.

“I always knew we would do it [rise from the ninth tier of English football to the third tier], by the way. Remember this is the person that predicted in 1977 - and I’ve got a witness - we would win the FA Cup and be in the First Division ten years later. In my lifetime, will we see AFC Wimbledon in the Premier League? I’m not sure about that, probably not. But you never know.”

The club was never incredibly wealthy. But it did really well on the pitch. We asked him what factors allowed this to happen: “It is undoubtedly about the spirit around the place. An attitude of, ‘we don’t care who you are, we can and we will actually overcome.’ Bear in mind, in 1986/87, that first year, we did the double over Manchester United, we beat Chelsea 4-0 at Stamford Bridge, we beat Manchester City at their ground - we beat everybody, we beat Tottenham Hotspur away, we beat Liverpool away, we were the first team to win at Anfield for 42 matches that season. We were the last team to beat all of the ‘big five’ away from home!

“I’m most proud about AFC Wimbledon being fan-owned, ethical, we do things properly and we constantly break through the glass ceiling that everyone else sets for us.

“Now the club is moving back into a new Plough Lane. I’m well known for saying this, but I’ll give this to you exactly the way it is. In 2002, when we went and set up a new club there were an awful lot of people that turned around and said, ‘you’re mad, football fans can’t set up a football club, they can’t run a successful football club.’ Not one or two, lots of people said that.

My attitude to this was, ‘actually, we are very well qualified to set up and run a business.’ So once we actually set the football club up, bought the ground and a few other bits and pieces, we had some stated aims. So there were some stated aims and ambitions, and one of them was to be in the EFL and lots of people laughed at us.

“They literally laughed at us and said, ‘You’ll never be able to achieve that.’ So, when we stated that aim we did that in eight years. But the biggest one is when we said, That was the one that got everybody falling about and laughing.

Now, I understand why they were falling about and laughing because it does seem like an impossible dream. But, it never was an impossible dream. It was always something we knew that we could do. One of our stated aims was to return to the borough of Merton, preferably in Wimbledon.’ And now we’ve done it! ‘

That stadium, I was there yesterday and the day before, and it’s utterly, utterly mind-blowing that we’ve managed to do what we’ve done. There’s no other way to look at it - it’s completely mind-blowing. And long may that last. That’s the miracle. There are many other things where you could turn round and say, ‘This is something unbelievably special.’ But to actually do that, it is a miracle. I’m extremely proud of that miracle.”

Heller is currently the Commercial Director at AFC Wimbledon. He said: “Our partnership with Sports Interactive - the company that develops Football Manager - and AFC Wimbledon is the longest-running sponsorship in English football.

“They’ve been our shirt sponsor from day one and that’s one of my proudest achievements because not many commercial directors have got that on their CV, so I must be doing something right.

But more than that, we’ve got this football club that works as a business, as an entity, that is a beacon of hope to an awful lot of people in the football world. And we continue to do good things. As long as we continue to do good things in our community as well as in the football world, that does it for me.”

We asked him what he thinks the potential of the London club is: “Who knows? I’d never limit our potential, nothing would surprise me. Nothing at all. The one regret I ever had with Wimbledon FC was that we never played in Europe when we deserved to. We earned the right to play in Europe but we never got to do so - that’s a diabolical thing. That still wrangles me and that will always wrangle me. I think that’s a big point.”

He said: “People need to understand that we’re a football club, not a political movement. We’re a football club that practices what we preach. We include people in our decisions; we don’t vote on who buys the toilet rolls. There is genuine control. There was an attempt at a takeover at one stage but that got rebuffed. And we are the sort of football club where that can happen. We’re not going to end up with the Saudis taking over us or anything like that, we’ve had lots of offers from lots of people, but we want to remain fan-owned and make it work.

“I could talk forever about Wimbledon. It is my favourite subject. I would like to say just watch your space. Don’t dare let anyone limit your dreams. You’d speak to people and they will turn around and say, ‘I think we’ll do this and I think we’ll do that, we’ll get to this spot, we’ll get to that spot’. But that’s not really what we’re about. No one should limit us. Some people want to, some people don’t think we’re going to be as successful as we want to be. And I’m very much part of the opinion that that’s their loss. Nobody should doubt what we’re capable of or where we’re going. No one.”

Part 3 - Interviewing the fans - Ben Reynolds and Reese Fletcher

Ben Reynolds and Reese Fletcher are two Dons supporters. To capture the thoughts of the people who kept AFC Wimbledon going (the fans), we spoke to Ben and Reese. Ben has been a Wimbledon FC - now turned AFC Wimbledon - fan nearly all of his life.

Reese runs an Instagram fan page centred around AFC Wimbledon called Dons_Bible. They shared their experiences with the club, their thoughts on moving back to Plough Lane, the potential for this special club and more.

Ben Reynolds:

“I was about eight years old when we [Wimbledon FC] won the FA Cup [1988]. I got into football when I was six or seven, so that was a very early memory. I do remember watching that game and having a sort of distorted view as to what life as a football fan was like.

So, I just started supporting this team, we won the FA Cup in the first year and I thought this was what it was all going to be like, all celebrations. But we’ve never really come close to being that good ever since. The FA Cup win would definitely be one of my favourite moments as a Wimbledon fan. We also had a very good season in the mid-90s when we reached the semi-finals of both cup competitions and did well in the league as well. Because I was a bit older, and I understood what being a football fan was really like then, I would probably say that season [1996/97] was my favourite season.

Ben (centre) supporting AFC Wimbledon at Wembley

“I didn’t go to Plough Lane very much. I did go once or twice, but we moved to Selhurst Park - Crystal Palace’s stadium - to ground share after the Taylor report ensured that grounds like Plough Lane were ruled unsafe for fans. I do remember Plough Lane though, it was a rickety old ground. Like most Wimbledon fans, I never really felt that Selhurst Park was home. You would go to matches and see Crystal Palace’s logo and wording all over the place - although there were Wimbledon things as well, you always felt that you were playing home matches at another club’s home. I never really enjoyed watching the Dons there, despite going quite a lot.”

He explained: “I found the club’s ownership during the 90s really disappointing. We were always trying to get back to Plough Lane, that was the intention, but for some reason or another, it never seemed to happen. I don’t know the ins and outs about it - there were talks of [Merton] council being difficult. Sam Hammam was also a really controversial figure, he sold out to the Norwegians and things didn’t really work out with them. I don’t know the precise details of exactly what happened, but I just think that, as a Wimbledon FC fan, it was a real shame. And it did seem that Sam Hammam, despite his bluster, didn’t ultimately have the club’s best interests at heart.

“I felt completely betrayed. I can’t speak for all fans, but the argument is that it was inevitable that we were going to go bust, and without moving to Milton Keynes, there was no hope of us continuing at Selhurst Park. My understanding of it was, throughout the 90s, we obviously had to pay Crystal Palace rent to play at their ground, and the only real reason we could afford to do that was because we kept producing really good, young players and then selling them on. But that isn’t a sustainable business model; you can’t rely on producing those players and selling them on indefinitely.

The argument is that, if we didn’t move to Milton Keynes, we would have just folded. My view is that you can’t really relocate a club around 50 miles away from its home and pretend that it is the same club - it’s not. It was an insult to the fans as well; the fans are the ones that kept the club alive all those years by spending their hard-earned cash on tickets to go and watch the games. And then, effectively to abandon them to move the whole club to a different town altogether, really, you’re letting all of the fans down. That’s how I felt about it, and I think most other Wimbledon fans feel the same way.

He continued: “I wanted to see a future for the club in Wimbledon. But as far as I understand it, it was impossible to find a ground. We couldn’t get planning permission anywhere in Merton. What we were told at the time was that it was impossible for us to return to Wimbledon. But that was certainly what all the fans wanted.

“As soon as they decided to move to Milton Keynes, that was when I knew it wasn’t my football club anymore. I have no affiliation with Milton Keynes. As far as I’m concerned, it is called Wimbledon FC for a reason, it should be based in, or near Wimbledon. I never had any intention of supporting a club in Milton Keynes. I did go to the trials for the new AFC Wimbledon at Wimbledon Common, I was so excited about it.

I wasn’t a bad footballer but I certainly wasn’t at the level you needed to be to join a Semi-professional club. They were open trials, so anyone could go. I went with my dad - it was a blistering, hot day in June or July - and I was so excited that I forgot my boots! I went along with my trainers, and I said to the guy who was the manager at the time, Terry Eames, ‘I’m really sorry Terry, I’ve forgotten my football boots - can I do the trials in my trainers?’.

“He responded, ‘Yeah, yeah, no problem.’ He thought I was a bit mad, but I went ahead with the trial and funnily enough, I scored twice! Anyone that knows me would tell you that was a miracle, ‘cause I never score, I’m a defensive midfielder usually. I played with some guys that were a lot better than me and a lot better than what I’ve ever played with. One or two of them got taken on.

Even though I did score two fortunate goals, I knew I was way out of my depth. But I knew that before I went; there were players there that had just been released by clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, so they were the ones that were going to be picked. I just wanted to go along because it was a kind of historic event. Certainly for me as a Wimbledon fan, and it was great and I’m really glad I was part of it. I will always remember it.”

He added: “I spent a lot of time during the noughties (2000-2010) going to watch AFC Wimbledon as they were playing in the non-league pyramid, that was fantastic. It was a really strange occasion, at times, because AFC Wimbledon were playing teams that were way smaller than them, teams that normally didn’t have any fans going to watch them, and then all of a sudden Wimbledon would turn up with a thousand, two thousand fans - it would be a bit strange. AFC Wimbledon did really well, as you’d expect ‘cause our resources were so much greater, but we did go through that non-league pyramid very quickly in the end.”

We asked him whether he thought the atmosphere will change going into the new ground. “I’m sure it will be different. And I think history suggests that whenever a club goes into a new ground, it does take a bit of time for everyone to get used to it. When Southampton moved from The Dell stadium to St. Mary’s stadium, they went through a period where they weren’t very good at home.

So, you probably would expect there to be a transitional period, but on the flip side, we’re gonna be able to get bigger crowds, I think to start with at least, there will be a lot of new people coming to see what the stadium looks like and hopefully generate a really good atmosphere there. I’m sure in the long-term it will be fantastic for Wimbledon. It’s great to be playing in Wimbledon again after 30 years away from Plough Lane and to move back to the same road, albeit a different end, it’s going to be special.”

He said: “This season we’ve been rubbish, we should have been relegated. They need to make some pretty serious improvements, the thing I’d say though, is who knows when we’ll play on the pitch again? There are some real doubts as to whether League One football will start up again. League One football doesn’t really work at all without its fans because clubs like Wimbledon and the rest of them rely on the gate money to make it a viable business.

Without that, it just doesn’t work. So, it really won’t be until fans are allowed back into the grounds, that I think we’ll even see League One football again - goodness knows when that will be. Not just for Wimbledon, but for all of lower league football, everything is all up in the air at the moment. There’s a situation where a shedload of lower league footballers are going to be out of contract or are out of contract, and who knows what will happen to them as well. I doubt many clubs are going to be signing players until they know when they’re playing again.”

He told us about the advantages and disadvantages of being a fan-owned club: “I think the big thing is that you’re not reliant on the whims of one person, and that really stems from what happened to us at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the noughties.

A small group of people decided that it would be a good idea to move to Milton Keynes. In theory, that can happen with any club that has one person or a small group of people as owners. It is much harder to do this if you’ve got a club that’s run by the fans; as long as we are fan-owned we don’t really have the risk of anything like that happening again, I think that is the big advantage of it.

There is a disadvantage, though. Unlike Chelsea, who were taken over by this Russian oligarch [Roman Abramovich] who has very deep pockets, we won’t be able to spend shedloads of money. There are advantages and disadvantages to being a fan-owned club, but overall I think it is for the best ‘cause you’ve got a whole group of people that are acting in the best interests of the football club, as opposed to any-one person’s main interests.

“I’ve got massive respect for the people that founded AFC Wimbledon in the local park. They have just been fantastic; they’ve done Wimbledon and the local community proud. I think a lot of Wimbledon fans are grateful for what they’ve done for us.”

Reese Fletcher (Dons_Bible)

Reese told us: “One of the best days as a Dons fan was when we beat Plymouth Argyle 2-0 at the play-off final at Wembley in May 2016. It was just amazing. The atmosphere was electric and I think we sold 25,000 tickets which is really good for a small club like AFC Wimbledon. It was a really good atmosphere from both teams. We also beat West Ham United 4-2 in the FA Cup last year - a great underdog win. Another really good time was when we beat Luton Town away from home. We spoiled their party of getting promoted. These were all amazing days out.

“I’d love to see Lyle Taylor at the Plough Lane opening. He’s one of our top goalscorers, an all-round nice person and he’s really passionate about the club. I’d definitely love to see him back at Wimbledon - it seems like he’s going to either Rangers or Galatasaray after he got released by Charlton Athletic. But absolutely when he is older and maybe on the brink of retirement, I’d love to see Lyle Taylor back at the Dons.

“Hopefully, we can get more fans, by moving to this new stadium. We currently get around four and a half thousand fans attending games at Kingsmeadow. A lot of supporters didn’t go to a lot of games when we were in Kingsmeadow because they didn’t really like that it wasn’t in Wimbledon. So, hopefully - now that we’re moving back to Plough Lane - we can get those fans back. And then we can have a better atmosphere with more people, especially considering we’re having safe standing in the singing end. So, it may be really good atmosphere when we return.

Kingsmeadow is quite good because we’ve got a terrace [the Taylor Report meant that only clubs in the top two divisions of English football aren’t allowed terraces] and we all bounce around - it’s really fun and Kingsmeadow has a really good atmosphere, better than most clubs in my opinion.”

Reese added: “It’s really good to be moving to Plough Lane, partly because AFC Wimbledon fans have to travel away from Wimbledon for our home games. We haven’t had a stadium in Wimbledon since the early 1990s, so it will be really good to be back.

“I think our goal is to get to the Championship or even, although ambitious, the Premier League. We got promoted a lot after we started AFC Wimbledon in the Combined Counties League, so we’ve proved that we can do it. I think it’s slow and steady up the leagues now, hopefully.”

We asked him what it is like to run a Wimbledon fan page on Instagram: “It’s really good, actually. I’ve made a lot more mates running the fan page [dons_bible on Instagram], and on the first of September, I would have been doing it for 2 years now. And I’ve actually started to be recognised at games, which is really nice. People come up to me and ask, ‘Are you Dons Bible?’, and it just makes me really happy. I’ve definitely connected more with the club because I have done the fan page - I’ve even got Wimbledon players following me and interacting with the quizzes I post.”

He continued: “Yeah, my followers are definitely excited to move back into Plough Lane. I keep posting updates on how the pitch is looking, the stands - the other three stand are coming in now, which will be good. It’ll all be done in a few months. There’s a lot of excitement about moving back to Plough Lane; it will be a very emotional day for all of the people that followed Wimbledon FC through to AFC Wimbledon.”

Part 4 - The Return to Plough Lane - Interview with Joe Giordano

What will the new Plough Lane stadium look like? And how is it being built — and at what cost? For answers, The Sporting Blog spoke to Joe Giordano, who’s involved with the project as the founder of Bargate Consulting. His London-based firm is working on the Plough Lane build alongside the AFC Wimbledon hierarchy as they bring the club back to Merton.

Joe told us: “It’s about going back to a spiritual home, it’s about going back to where they [Wimbledon FC] started, really. Also, they’re based at Kingsmeadow, which is not exactly South-West 19.

“The opportunity arose a few years ago. Joe Palmer, the CEO, looked at different ways of generating income for the future. It’s important to think about attracting fans to come into the stadium but also other income streams. Because, in reality, there are 20 plus home games in a season and the rest of the time it is just an empty stadium so we’re looking at potentially creating our own pub in the corner which will be used on match-days but also it is being designed so it is accessible when matches aren’t taking place.

“The boxes and rooms throughout the ground could be used for meeting rooms in the future, they could be hired out. Also, we have a double-height, 500-person conference facility in the corner - it’s massive! This room is around ten-metres high so it could potentially be used for gaming - because there are some big screens on the walls - and other ways for the younger generation, potential conferences and people can just hire the space out for non-football activities.

“We have planning permission for a capacity of 20,000 but right now it is being built for 9,300 fans to attend the matches.”

He explained how the build is being funded: “There was a contribution from the sale of the land. Also, there has been a crowd-funding scheme and a bond issued. There have even been some very wealthy locals that have donated a very substantial amount of money, dipping into their pockets and donating tens of millions of pounds.

“This ground is going to be a bespoke design specifically for the purpose of AFC Wimbledon, rather than Kingsmeadow which was shared by some different clubs. It is completely bold. We have one permanent stand which is the West Stand, and three semi-purpose stands around it. But they are virtually permanent, it’s just the way they are constructed. It is focused on the atmosphere, it is focused on the fan’s experiences, that is what it has been designed for.”

He added: “I think there will be a lot of tears at the opening. I think there will be a lot of grown men crying - you do not know the emotion in this football club. This is such a passionate and wonderful football club.

“I think it will increase capacity and by doing that it will certainly increase revenue. I think it will be a great focal point in Merton. In reality, there’s no other club this side of London. You have Fulham across the river, QPR and Crystal Palace are on the other side. The nearest stadium is actually Twickenham, the rugby ground.”

Joe described how the stadium development will help bring more jobs to Wimbledon locals: “Part of our agreement is that we use local tradesmen. We had an open day just before Christmas at the football ground where local tradesmen would apply to do jobs such as painting, electrics, mechanics, the floor - they are all likely to submit a proposal.

“The old Plough Lane had flats built on it, but you can actually see the old Plough Lane from the West Stand.

“We had full planning permission so we had to work closely with the council regarding roadblocks, working times, construction etcetera since we have conditions with the planning permission.”

We asked Joe how he thinks the stadium will affect Wimbledon locals: “I think it will be a great Wimbledon focal point, I think it will create additional revenue for some of the locals. Obviously you have 9,300 fans turning up on a Saturday, so shops will be full. The locals who run the pubs will be very happy, same goes with people that run the local take away restaurants - albeit we have a load of concession stands at the new stadium. We have three bars internally, obviously, we could have our own pub.”

He continued: “It is really nice to deal with a fan-owned club because it is dealing with a different type of individual. For them, it is more of a passion and a journey as opposed to a business. The board are all AFC Wimbledon fans, most of them have been there since day one; they give their time for free.

“I think it is a stadium designed for the 21st century but also trying to future-proof football and the business.

“The club is coming home. And that journey started in around 2002 when the owner moved the club to Milton Keynes, but there was a loyal group of people that said, ‘This is not going to happen’. They all met in Wimbledon Common and they sent an enquiry out for players to turn up and play. And 18 years later they have their own stadium back in Wimbledon.”

Written by Charlie Rowan for The Sporting Blog.