Carl O'Malleytalks to AFC Wimbledon's commercial manager Keith McGuinness, a boyhood Arsenal fan won over by his employer's crusade to put things right
"Resurrecting the club from its ashes as, say, 'Wimbledon Town' is, with respect to those supporters who would rather that happened so that they could go back to the position the club started in 113 years ago, not in the wider interests of football."
- Football Association commission, 2002
It has been 11 weeks since AFC Wimbledon proved the above statement false. Most knew it at the time but looked the other way as nothing could be done about the rebranding of Wimbledon FC and its relocation to Milton Keynes.
The remarkable achievements in the intervening years – among them five promotions in nine seasons and an English league record of 78 games unbeaten – have culminated in a return to the pro ranks that begins on Saturday for the fan-owned club, with a home match at Kingsmeadow against Bristol Rovers.
AFC Wimbledon was established when the FA Cup winners of 1988 were renamed MK Dons and peddled 60 miles north in brazen display of commercialism suffocating sentimentality. Some fans weren’t for rebranding and jumped ship to build their own success story. Today, around 2,500 of them own a share of their club and a piece of its journey over the last decade.
They were modest beginnings in the Combined Counties League. That historic win over Liverpool was a faint memory, but the bigger picture was not lost on the support and their belief and dedication has seen the team build a lasting legacy, one perhaps to surpass even that of the ‘Crazy Gang’.
It’s a rare beast they’ve created, a fan-owned club that is run without debt but has embraced the commercial side of the game. Shamrock Rovers is an obvious comparison and their success over recent years must have taken some inspiration from the resurrection of the ‘Dons’.
The fans weren’t happy to just create a new club and wallow in the lower leagues and higher moral ground. They wanted to ensure their new club would show it could be “in the wider interests of football”.
Under the guidance of ‘The Don’s Trust’, the club has not been afraid to embrace the commercial side of progress, but has also stayed close to its roots by relying on the extraordinary commitment of volunteers.
The two sides to the club - humble beginnings and lofty ambitions - complimented eachother nicely on the way to League Two. As commercial manager and Dubliner Keith McGuinesss explains, the story of the club wins a sympathetic ear and doors stay open that little bit longer.
He knows because it was sold to him when commercial director and founding member Ivor Heller took him on with the club in the Ryman League almost six years ago. He soon wanted to be part of “righting a wrong”. Each day at work, is another step towards achieving that.
“The first game I went to … the buzz around the place was amazing. There were 100-plus volunteers working on a match day to get the game played, everything from the turnstiles, to collecting money and the catering. It’s infectious.”
The “family culture” still exists. The club bar is still a major income stream, where fans and players gather after the game for weekly man-of-the-match awards.
“The club still relies very much on volunteers, we have about two to three hundred, not on match days, but on the stadium working group, fundraising working group, finance working group, which is all non-match day stuff.
“It’s about 100 on a match day. If you think about how much it would cost to pay 100 people to work a day, it’s been hugely beneficial to the club.
“They’re all ages, all backgrounds. A huge mix.”
McGuiness says it’s similar to the GAA club scene, but likens it more to an English rugby club “where everyone mingles before and after the game and they have a drink at the bar. It is very community oriented.”
It’s a philosophy that permeates throughout all levels of the organisation.
“(Manager) Terry (Brown) tries to bring that to the team as well, he tries to create this family atmosphere and it has worked because he did a phenomenal job getting us promoted last season.”
They expect that community to grow this season, from average attendances of 3,500 last year to 4,000 this season but, despite chief executive Erik Samuelson’s publicly-stated ambition of reaching the play-offs this year, Brown has been less bold in his prediction.
In fact, he has sought to play down expectations and has spoken about a “glass ceiling”, with one more promotion, not necessarily this season, about as realistic as it can get for a club runs as it is.
McGuinness isn’t in the business of predicting how matters on the pitch will go, but sees “consolidation” as the main objective. Treading these uncharted waters would be fine for now because there’s a lot to get used to on and off the pitch.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “if you finish in seventh you’re in the play-offs. In the Conference there were some teams you might expect to get three points off but when you look through the teams in League Two there are no easy games.
“So, realistically we’re looking at consolidation, hopefully around mid-table. We will have one of the smallest (playing) budgets in the league, though.”
Nothing like a challenge. Dons fans were reared on being the outsiders. A little bit different than the rest, they were banished altogether and revelled in it, rebelled against it and proved they and their club are in the greater interest of sport, not just football.
A new journey begins tomorrow.
