QPR and AFC Wimbledon have shown how ridiculous 2001 merger idea really was
This week saw AFC Wimbledon leave their temporary home at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium and play their first match at Plough Lane since May 1991.
The fixture against Doncaster capped off the club’s remarkable rejuvenation after the original Dons were annexed to Milton Keynes 18 years ago.
It was somewhat ironic this season to see the Dons feature in four ‘home’ matches in W12 before moving to their new ground, almost 20 years after discussions took place over a potential merger of QPR and the former Wimbledon – now MK Dons.
The early years of the century were difficult times for both Rangers and Wimbledon, two founding members of the Premier League, heading nowhere fast following their relegations from the top flight in 1996 and 2000 respectively.
In 2001, Rangers, faced the prospect of life in the third tier for the first time since 1967, in administration and drowning in debt following the ill-fated sale of the club to music impresario Chris Wright five years earlier.
The Dons, playing in front of a near-empty Selhurst Park, were owned by a Norwegian consortium with little interest in funding a new ground, who sounded out then-Rangers chairman Nick Blackburn about the possibility of merging the two clubs.
Wimbledon chairman Charles Koppel proposed to Blackburn that the new team would play home matches at Loftus Road in the Championship.
Club colours would be a combination of blue, white and yellow and the team would be managed by then Dons boss Terry Burton.
Merger propositions were nothing new to QPR fans who, along with Fulham supporters in 1987, fought off a plan to merge the two local rivals and create Fulham Park Rangers.
Subsequently, once news of the discussions were leaked, the outrage from Rangers and Wimbledon fans saw the idea wither on the vine.
With Rangers haemorrhaging money and manager Ian Holloway left with nine contracted professionals, two of which had long-term knee injuries, as he tried to plan for the 2001/02 season, the unthinkable prospect of QPR moving to Milton Keynes then reared its head.
On a May Bank Holiday Sunday, entrepreneur Pete Winkelman, backed by Chelsea property developer Andrew Ellis, met with fans group QPR 1st in the Queen Adelaide pub in Shepherd’s Bush.
After a slick video presentation showing plans for a new stadium, Winkelman insisted only his consortium who could save the club from extinction by moving to Milton Keynes and said he’d be making a £2.5m offer to Wright.
Vehement opposition from QPR supporters ensured the move never materialised and Winkelman turned his attentions to Wimbledon, whose owners, much to the anguish of their fans, saw a request to relocate up the M1 accepted by the FA, with no grounds of appeal available.
In 2003 Winkelman bought Wimbledon from the Norwegians and in 2004 renamed them MK Dons – severing all ties with their former home.
It was claimed at that time that moving away from their spiritual homes was the only way QPR and Wimbledon could possibly hope to move forward in the new millennium.
But since those brief discussions took place, Rangers have not only survived, but been promoted three times – twice to the Premier League.
They have beaten the likes of Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea along the way in addition to winning at Wembley in front of the biggest ever crowd for a play-off final against Derby.
Wimbledon’s fans, burning with the injustice of their club being taken away from them, started a new team in 2002 that would play in the Combined Counties Premier Division – the ninth rung of the English football pyramid.
Within 10 years they were promoted to the Football League and in 2016 they went up to League One.
On Tuesday, the club began life at the new Plough Lane with a 2-2 draw against Doncaster that moved them up to 11th – eight places ahead of their divisional rivals from Milton Keynes.
It proved conclusively that the idea of mergers are something no club should ever entertain.
