November 1 – Relocating a club from one city to another may not be that big a deal in the United States, where it is known as a franchise, but in the traditional world of English football it is considered anathema to fans.
Which is why Sunday’s FA Cup first-round encounter between AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons is considered such a grudge match.
Many of the 32 part-time sides from outside the professional pyramid have been drawn against full-time opposition from the country’s third and fourth tiers, League One and Two, all hoping to spring an upset.
Hednesford Town from the English game’s eighth tier is the smallest side left in the tournament but much of the attention this weekend focusses on the clash between two full-time sides whose fans have nothing but contempt for one another.
It all goes back to 2002, when the owners of Wimbledon FC — shock winners of the FA Cup in 1988— uprooted from south London to Milton Keynes, a commuter town north of the capital, and switched its name to MK Dons.
The move was regarded as a betrayal by long-time fans of the original Wimbledon team, who responded by forming a team within weeks, AFC Wimbledon, which started out as a phoenix club but now sits proudly alongside MK Dons in League Two.
Romantic Sunday’s clash most certainly isn’t.
“Rivalries are rivalries. There’s a uniqueness to this one that you won’t find anywhere else in the world of football,” says local BBC presenter Luke Ashmead
“It’s just tempered hatred between the two clubs. Both sets of fans have to tolerate it, there’s no excitement there and it’s not a fun rivalry.”
First-round action kicks off tonight when Tamworth from the National League will try to knock out former FA Cup winners Huddersfield Town. The two top divisions, Premier League and Championship, enter the competition in round three.
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