This Saturday, Burnley will play a team for the first time. Our visitors at Turf Moor will be First Division new boys Franchise FC.
Let's get this clear. We're not playing Wimbledon this weekend. On 28 May, Wimbledon FC shut down. That was the day when, with the blessing of the powers that run football, Wimbledon were replaced by Franchise, a new club that will shortly be playing its games in Milton Keynes. Franchise occupy the place in the Football League that used to be Wimbledon's, but they have no claim to the proud history of Wimbledon FC. There are not the club that won the FA Cup in 1988, or that which knocked First Division Burnley out of the FA Cup as a non-league side in 1975. They are not, in short, the club we played last season. We didn't beat Franchise 3-2 at the Turf or take part in a deadly 0-0 draw away. We haven't played Franchise before. They are a club with no tradition or history.
Wimbledon's history and heritage belong to AFC Wimbledon, the supporter-run club which was created from the ashes of Wimbledon's demise. Their place in the League may have been stolen by the Milton Keynes franchise, but the soul of Wimbledon belongs with AFC and its supporters. AFC Wimbledon is the continuation of what Wimbledon did and what they represented. The real Wimbledon will be playing Frimley Green in the Combined Counties League this Saturday. We can only wish them well as they attempt to see Wimbledon rise from the non-league all over again.
Franchise are a new venture, owned by a couple of Norwegians and run by a South African, being a key part of a leisure and retail property development in Milton Keynes. Football's a lovely game these days, isn't it?
Don't be fooled into thinking there's anything that couldn't be avoided in all this. Do you honestly think that there's no patch of brown land in South West London where Wimbledon couldn't build a new ground? There's an area of wasteland on Plough Lane that has been refused planning permission to be turned into a supermarket, for example. Don't be convinced by tales of poverty either. Franchise's owners claim to be broke, but they can afford to spend a whole wad of cash on pro-Milton Keynes PR, and have recently turned big profits on player sales.
This isn't about building a football ground. It's about constructing a leisure and retail development with a football ground attached. It's about making money out of doing so. It's about a bunch of people in Milton Keynes who've been trying to persuade every struggling club in the South East over the last few years to play in Milton Keynes, and have finally found a club whose owners are unscrupulous enough to do so. It's about people who bought a Premier League football club for a whole heap of money, didn't realise they might get relegated, and are now looking for a way to make money on their investment. Don't imagine this has anything to do with football.
So what's it got to do with us? Well, you're a football supporter, aren't you? When this has happened once, what's to stop it happening again? The Football Association, which (a) runs football in England, (b) expresses the opinion that the Milton Keynes franchise is wrong and (c) insists it can do nothing to stop it happening, claims that no precedent has been set. Clearly, that's bollocks. Any half-decent lawyer for the next club that wants to 'move' will find it easy to argue that what has been allowed for one club should not be denied to another.
So what's to stop it happening to Burnley? Barry Kilby wouldn't do it - he has, to his credit, been outspoken about the wrongness of the Milton Keynes franchise - but what happens if all these rumours of financial crisis turn out to be true? Just imagine that now, or sometime in the future, Burnley hit rock bottom and become a cheap prospect for a speculator with an eye on a killing. What's to stop it being us?
Even if not, what's to stop it being several other clubs? Then what value does a competition have when we're playing artificial clubs with meaningless names in new towns? Fancy a competition where every so often one of the teams we're playing ups sticks to play in a more lucrative part of the country? I don't. I want us to play clubs that have a recognisable identity, a grounding in their community, and tradition.
So what can you do? Not much, sadly. If there's a lesson to be learned from this it's that we didn't take the threat of franchising seriously and we - both the supporters and the media - didn't mobilise until it was too late. I suppose like many people I always had it in the back of my mind that the football authorities wouldn't allow franchising to happen. Well, now I finally know that those who run football can't be trusted to make intelligent decisions, and it's down to us to be their consciences in the future. AFC Wimbledon, and the excellent Wimbledon Independent Supporters' Association (WISA) have been overwhelmed with goodwill, but we didn't do enough for them when it might have counted.
That said, your goodwill, and support for, AFC Wimbledon clearly cannot do any harm. They deserve it. What they have achieved since 28 May in launching their club has been remarkable. It would be great if our members, who overwhelmingly live in the area that the Combined Counties League covers, could get along to an AFC match when it doesn't clash with a Burnley game and give their support.
When it comes to playing Franchise, we can only hope that justice prevails and we give them a right good stuffing. Off the pitch, the Directors of Franchise should be given the cold shoulder treatment in Turf Moor's corridors of hospitality, although I don't expect they will. It would be good, too, if the home supporters could vocally express their contempt of franchising in the presence of the Franchise directors. Let's show them what a real football club looks like.
ASDA are involved in the Milton Keynes stadium deal - naturally there's a supermarket to be built in this - so perhaps you can think about this when you decide where to do your shopping. By coincidence ASDA has just opened up a new shop about five minutes from my house, but they'll not see a penny from me.
Then there's the away game, which may well take place at Milton Keynes. (It's against the rules to 'move' in mid-season, but Franchise have as much regard for rules as they do for supporters, community, tradition, etc., while the shiny suits of Soho Square can be relied on to do nothing, naturally.) Please, please, think about staying away from this match in May. It's hard not to watch Burnley, but please give it serious thought. You can hit the franchisers in the pocket. You can play your part by not giving them your money, and in doing so undermine their pathetic venture. Vote with your wallet. That's the language they understand. If Milton Keynes fails, franchising fails. Stay away in May.
Burnley supporters have given a good account of themselves here, with both the Clarets Independent Supporters Association and - I'm proud to say - the Burnley London Supporters' Club having voted to call on their members to boycott the away match. Everybody must make their own decision, but when it comes to it, please think of what Wimbledon supporters have lost.
Spare some time to think about it on Saturday, too, during the game that should never have happened.
