WISA has written the following open letter to the Football Association. WISA has recently been in consultation with the Dons Trust and is also urging all Wimbledon supporters and friends to send their views to the FA.
Open Letter
To: Mr Ian Watmore, Chief Executive, The Football Association
Lord Triesman, Chairman, The Football Association
Mr Andy Anson, Chief Executive, England 2018 Ltd
Dear Sirs,
The Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association (WISA) is dismayed to discover that Milton Keynes has been selected as a 2018 candidate host city. WISA is particularly disappointed that the Football Association’s own ambiguous processes have once again given support and credibility to football franchising and the dangerous precedent that it could have set in English football.
I do not need to remind you that the Football Association and the Football League both opposed Wimbledon FC’s relocation to Milton Keynes. But negligence by the Football Association -- the same Association responsible for England’s 2018 World Cup bid -- and by the Football League, in failing to act with due diligence, resulted in Wimbledon FC’s then owners forcing independent arbitration via the threat of legal action. By choosing to avoid legal action through the appointment of an independent three-man commission, and effectively handing this commission the authority to make the final decision in this matter, both the Football Association and Football League abdicated their responsibility to uphold the rules governing the location of football clubs.
The latest misguided decision by the Football Association, in choosing Milton Keynes as a 2018 candidate host city, has successfully managed to undermine the foundations of England’s 2018 World Cup bid. WISA remains mystified as to why the Football Association has once again decided to so publicly punish Wimbledon supporters, renewing the hurt and pain caused by the shameful decision of the Football Association Commission to allow Wimbledon FC to relocate to Milton Keynes, a decision which at the time seemed certain to destroy another community’s football club.
Jim White, writing for The Times, correctly asserted: “And now the 2018 bid committee have gifted Winkelman and MK that place in the football firmament he promised eight years ago. Meanwhile, in Wimbledon they must be looking on in astonishment at the glittering rewards of theft”.
By selecting Milton Keynes as a 2018 candidate host city, the Football Association has sent out a clear message to the world that it is willing to reward a town that has an unequivocal lack of ambition, appetite and understanding of football. The residents of Milton Keynes quite simply failed to develop and nurture their own football club. Instead, they effectively leap-frogged the entire pyramid structure of English football. Thanks to the decision of the three-man commission, Milton Keynes were handed a team which at that point was in the (then) Division One, without having had to go through the normal process of developing a club that advances on merit by the accepted method of scoring more goals and winning more games than its opponents.
In a word, they cheated. And cheating has no place in football. Yet by this latest decision, the Football Association has condoned an act of thievery which strikes at the very integrity of the game.
There is considerable irony in the Football Association’s inclusion of Milton Keynes as a 2018 candidate host city for a competition that is designed to demonstrate to a global audience the enduring appeal of the “beautiful game”, while promoting fair play.
Sadly, the Football Association has now pronounced it acceptable for a town which stole another community’s football club to be considered part of the footballing elite in this country. In doing so, the Football Association has abandoned its duty to act as a custodian of the game.
Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association strongly urges the Football Association to remove Milton Keynes from the list of candidate host venues for the 2018 World Cup.
Yours sincerely,
Simon Wheeler
Chair, Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association
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