AFC Wimbledon vs MK Dons

Here is a great video about fan-owned AFC Wimbledon and their first match against MK Dons (formerly known as Wimbledon FC):

“It’s nice to know the trick that football has played on all the fans is to make you think that results are everything that matters. You know, when you get relegation, worse that can happen! That’s Nonsense! The worst that can happen is your football club gets taken away from you by someone who doesn’t understand the game. Well, we’re the antithesis to that ’cause we have started over and everything we do is all about us” – AFC Wimbledon fan

Partizan Minsk – another self-managed football club

Here is a bit of information about a club in Belarus called Partizan Minsk. You can also read more on their website if you speak russian 🙂

“In Belarus there is a very special club. Until 2010 it was called MTZ-Ripo. The club gained international attention not so much by his sporting achievements, but also by the anti-racist commitment of its fans and an active anti-fascist fan culture that was and is unique in Eastern Europe. Today the name of the club is Partizan Minsk and it is a self-managed football club.”

Another article about Partizan Minsk is found here in Belarus Digest. FC United is also mentioned in the article 🙂

How did we get here

Fanatics-Spectators-Observers or Customers

It is sad that in the UK and probably elsewhere across Europe you have to be a certain age to recall when times were so much simpler-and cheaper, when going to watch a game simply meant turning up on the day with a bit of cash and a lot of passion.

So where and when did things start to change and why.

How did simple fans evolve into the various brackets of sub-species, that I see at Champions League level-you know like at Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich where a small group, typically a couple of thousand young passionate flag waving ultra’s, for want of a better term are positioned behind the goal to add a little colour and noise to what is a global event. They are treated like old fashioned performing monkey’s in a 1980’s circus –just something to appease the purists that at least a few genuine local fans are still allowed permission to participate in what has now become little more than a global corporate junket.

This sad and pathetic state of affairs has not happened overnight I rely on other contributors from across Europe or further afield to share their stories of the changing face of football support –what I will try to do here is tell you mine-A Mancunian’s tale. I will try to keep it brief !

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