The F*cking Sweetest Revenge Story in Sports

imagine your childhood Club the team your dad took you to Growing Up Remember the shitty hot dog he bought you the smell of the air the sound of the crowd now it's not a great Club but it's your Club a scruffy Underdog that took no from anyone and every once in a while gave it to his pompous Pricks who thought they owned the league and on occasion they would win and now imagine all of a sudden some ungodly Rich who knows nothing about your sport buys and takes your team from you takes your players your stadium and even your history and moves them to a different city gives them a different name and tells you to like it how' that make you feel would you just lie down and take it or would you fight this is a story of a small community that got over hard but instead of taking it they said a big old you to the ruling class and fought to bring their Club back to life and they were helped along the way by a world famous YouTuber and two different football video games but i' digress this is a video about about AFC Wimbledon and maybe the greatest Revenge story in sports now A Story begins with a team called Wimbledon FC which was founded in 1889 remember that year for later they're based out of a southern burough of London and yes it is where the famous tennis tournament is held but they also play footy there their local Club Wimbledon FC was an amateur side that lived in obscurity for most of its history that was until the 80s when seemingly out of nowhere they became the Cinderella Darlings of the football league taking themselves from the amateur leagues to the professional leagues and gain promotion four times in 9 years to make it all the way to the Top Flight of English football the highlight of their fairy tale rise was making it to the FA Cup Final in 1988 Unfortunately they ran into an all-time Liverpool side that were done breezing their way to a league title or merely showing up to collect their domestic double versus the far inferior Wimbledon everyone thought it was a foregone conclusion everyone but the Wimbledon players who were known by another name at the time the crazy gang and when you fight a crazy gang you never know what's going to happen it was a nil-nil contest for most of the first half before Wimbledon nabbed a goal off of a setpiece right before the halftime whistle and from that point on they defended their goal like a Swifty defense tailor and they held on valiantly until the hour mark when a penalty was awarded to Liverpool and John Aldridge who had bagged nearly 30 goals for Liverpool That season stepped up took a relaxed breath and blasted it right only for wion's keeper and Captain Dave bezant to save it notably this was the first ever penalty saved in the FA Cup Final ever Wimbledon would go on to hold on for what many consider is the greatest upset in FA Cup history and as the final whistle blew the BBC commentator proclaimed that the crazy gang had beaten the Culture Club it was easily the greatest achievement in Wimbledon FC's history but their FA Cup win would actually have a number of negative effects on the club for the years to come the rapid rise in the ' 80s made them a relatively young professional side and the owner claimed that he was losing money hand over fist thus he was forced to sell off a lot of the best players then the Hillsboro disaster occurred which saw nearly 100 people killed in a horrendous human Crush incident and the subsequent tailor report would lead to a mandate that all modern football stadiums be converted to all seedar this was an issue because wimbledon's home ground of plow Lane have remained largely untouched since their non-league days and converting it to an all-seater was deemed financially Impossible by their owner at the time so until they could secure a new stadium it was decided that starting in 1991 Wimbledon would play their home games at selhurst Park the home grounds for Crystal Palace about 6 miles away from plow Lane initially this was promised to only be a temporary solution until they could secure Stadium development in Wimbledon but they would remain sharing ground with Crystal Palace for over a decade the team would fall in hard times attendants fell through the floor and the millionaire owner failing to find any suitable solutions for new stadium decided to jump ship selling the club to two Norwegian businessmen in 1997 who subsequently sold plow Lane a year later to Safeway supermarkets and that wasn't even the worst thing that would happen to them in 1997 as in the same year a Consortium led by ex music promoter Pete winkman and backed by ikia and Walmart were looking to get a retail development deal off the ground in Milton keing a relatively new town created in Northern greater London to alleviate housing congestion in London this retail development deal would include in Ikea a super Walmart and notably 30,000 CER Sports Stadium a stadium worthy of a Premier League team the issue was the local team was playing in the eth division of football at the time linkman who had self- admitted to not knowing a thing about football came up with a scheme instead of doing a rexim and empowering a local Milton Keen side to rise to the ranks of the English football pyramid organically and creating a team that the community could feel invested in he thought why not skip all that and just put an already established team in the stadium cuz in his mind he could double dip the big name team would attract locals to the new stadium all the while bringing in the old fans of the team that he was relocating and all of them combined would bring in more foot traffic for Ikea and Walmart it was a win-win win yes this man was the Michael Scott of sports ownership he had absolutely zero fundamental understanding of how Sports and fandom works and with this ignoramus at its home this Consortium begin plotting on poaching a team to put in their shiny new stadium now for many Americans watching this you probably won't B an ey because sports teams relocating caps all time the Las Vegas Raiders were originally the Oakland Raiders who became the LA Raiders before moving back and BEC the Oakland Raiders again and now have recently relocated for the fourth time to become the Modern Day Las Vegas Raiders Sports franchising is so deeply engrained in our culture that we probably don't even notice it I'm sure many watching this overseas have heard of one of the most iconic American sports teams the LA Lakers many might assume that they're called the Lakers because they're based in La nope they're also a franchise the Lakers were originally based 2,000 Mi away in Minneapolis Minnesota and they get their name from Minnesota's nickname as the land of a thousand lakes and I don't know if you ever been to La not a lot of lakes in fact it's built on top of a desert so yes we Americans are quite numb to the greedy machinations of our billionaire Sports owners but it's a very different story for cousins across the pond Sports franchising didn't exist there it was and is still seen as a dirty word because their local football teams were built around the community that they were founded in and the idea of uprooting them and planting them somewhere else in the country was considered Blasphemous it was aing to rip in the heart out of a city but that was exactly this ex music promoter's plan he would gladly devastate an over 100-year-old football Community all in the name of Walmart now he would offer a stadium to many clubs but none of them took the bait wisely so winman switched up his tactics and started looking for more vulnerable targets and that's when he put it sight on wimon FC now while wion had enjoyed a healthy stint in England's Top Flight they were still hammering money and to make matters worse their new foreign owners stripped the club of most of their assets and with attendance dwindling at curst Park wion FC seemed to be dying a slow death it would all come crashing down at the end of the 2000 season when after 14 years on the top flight Wimbledon would suffer for relegation back down to the championship with the team relegated and moving towards assured bankruptcy it was then when winlan approached the foreign owners with the proposition of relocating the club to Milton Kings and they were open to the idea a new stadium had always been the end goal dating back to the previous owner and so it would be announced in 2001 that for the first time in British history a football team would be relocating to a new city this move was obviously infuriating to The Wimbledon fans but it also caused a controversy with the wider football community and even the fa themselves who saw the dangerous precedent this would set and so the fa actually stepped in and shut down this proposal but Winkleman was able to weasle his way into the appeal courts and after much deliberation an independent commission ruled 2 to one in favor of allowing the move and just like that Wimbledon FC was shanghaied from their Community their players their coach and worst of all their history was taken away from them yes winman signed the check so he felt that he owned all the trophies that Wimbledon had won before he got there and thus wimbledon's crowning achievement the 1988 FA Cup along with the rest of their sizable trophy cabinet was shipped off 90 km North to Milton Kings and the only thing that the fans were left with their old ground plow Lane was now being turned into a supermarket on that day Wimbledon FC had effectively been erased from existence Wimbledon FC would enter Administration shortly after and it was then that Winkleman and this Consortium would outright purchase the club in their entirety and as if the stupidity couldn't get any worse winlan thought it was a brilliant idea to rename the team to MK Don MK for Milton ke and Don's to pay tribute to their place of origin wimble Dawn somehow wigman hoped that the Wimbledon fans would continue to support the team and Wimbledon fans predictively said go yourself but unfortunately no amount of cursing or protesting was going to bring back their Club so they did the next best thing that anyone could do in the situation the only sensible thing that someone could do in this situation they drank heavily and it was here at the Old Pub where the Wimbledon players would drink after matches that an idea was born why not create a new club From the Ashes of the old and start from the very bottom of the nonf football league and they promised that this new club would always be fandon so that something like this could never happen to them again it sounded ludicrous but that is what these heartbroken fans did none of them had any experience or idea on how to run a football club but they were pissed off and motivated which is an underrated combo and with that they did their research and went and spoke with the London fa who helped them with establishing a new club and the most important part on the registration form was when they were asked for the date started they wrote down 1889 and the London fa actually approved it they knew everyone in the football World knew everyone in the country knew who the true dawn were and with that AFC Wimbledon was Reborn so step one done step two they needed a team so they actually held open tryouts at a local park anyone who thought they were good enough they could try out ultimately they would have over 230 applicants and from that crop would emerge the inaugural AFC Wimbledon Squad they arranged a deal to play at Kings meow Stadium which is about a 15-minute drive from Wimbledon Commons and more importantly they found their first sponsor and this sponsor couldn't have been more perfect as it would be football manager that would on the front of AFC Wimbledon shirts and I don't know if you ever played football manager but for those who haven't it's a sports simulation game or the most fun you can have at it is taking a team from the very bottom of the English pyramid all the way to the top and then for FM to go and sponsor a team trying to do that in real life is just brilliant marketing they proudly have been with AFC Wimbledon for every step of their journey and are still their shirt sponsor to this day in fact it's the longest run shirt sponsorship in British sports but much like how football manager was the perfect sponsorship for a Wimbleton sangalo has been the perfect sponsor for me listen if you want to buy some of these sickest obscure kits from around the world then sangalo is the site for you they are the official sellers of some of the best teams on the planet that only the finest football connoisseurs would know about just how obscure well this dope ass kit that I'm wearing from Zan FC I can guarantee that you've never heard about it because you can Google them and almost nothing shows up I didn't even know that was possible in 2024 but me being a longtime fan of theirs knows that zman FC is one of the fastest rising clubs from The Ivy Coast you know know the country that just won afcon NBD or green is more your color then check out the stunning kit from Verdes FC oh you never heard of them either oh you're telling me you've never heard of the four-time champions of believe bro you got to step your game up and if you too want to start feeling Superior to your friends today then you've got to get your hands on some of these ultra rare kits click on the link on the top of the the dooblydoo thank you singala for sponsoring this video now back to the show and so with everything set in 2002 a FC wimon will begin their Journey at the very bottom of English football their first friendly match drew a crowd of over 4,500 people and even though they lost fournil they celebrated like they had just won the league and that first loss it was nothing but a false start because from 2003 to 2004 AFC wimon would go on an outrageous 78 match unbeaten streak it was and still is the longest unbeaten streak in British football history needless to say they flew up the ranks of non-league football and in only 9 years they were back in the professional tier of English football a remarkable climb for any club let alone a fan-owned club and is made even more remarkable because they are the only Club in the 21st century to make it from non- League to the pros and it was at this point that one of the biggest YouTubers in the world would bring their story to the masses now if you're on this platform you know or at least have heard about John Green while he's probably more well known for his books his Vlogs his movies John Green on on his brother's gaming channel would often play FIFA quite awfully might I add and after he heard about AFC wion's story he became enraptured by them he started a FIFA series with a Wimbledon that guarded millions of views and that's when John got the idea that maybe he could send the ad revenue from the series to the actual AFC Wimbledon and so he called them up and asked if he could sponsor them AFC Wimbledon didn't know who he was but after a quick Google they said hell yeah brother and not only does this don't forget to be awesome badge feature on their shorts it would even go on to name the northand at Kings metal Stadium after John Green but what was even Spiker was that by AFC Wimbledon making it to League 2 they would finally be playing in the same league as their moral enemies MK Dawn now MK Don over this time had their highs and lows Beyond being the most hated Club in England they also garnered reputation as a breeding pool for young Talent like their origin they were keen on poaching up and cominging talent nurturing them in their system before selling them off for huge profits their most notable alumni being former England International Deli Alli as far as their play on the pitch goes they had risen as high as the championship just one division below the Premier League before tumbling all the way back down to League 2 after all the Carnage tearing a team away from its Community short cutting their way up the football pyramid and pissing off the entire football World in the process It ultimately LED them all the way back to Wimbledon pretty much making this entire experiment pointless because a club that started from nothing with a fraction of their money had risen to the exact same league in under a decade and were now one of the most beloved Underdog clubs in the world while you will be hard pressed to find a team more hated anywhere than MK Dawns it must have been a Bittersweet feeling for AFC Wimbleton seeing MK Dons twice on the calendar I must imagine it was like Luke Skywalker seeing Darth Vader knowing that his beloved father had been taken from him and Twisted by the dark side and there was no bringing him back back all that was left to be done was to defeat him now League 2 was actually not the first meeting between these teams their very first meeting was in the second round of the 2012 FA Cup in a heated match MK Dons would strike first before AFC wion would equalize and almost Take the Lead only to concede in heartbreaking fashion in the 93rd minute from an outrageous slick that MK Dawn supporters would go on to dub as the heel of God yeah yet another dick punch for the Wimbleton fans as for their first meeting in Le play it would be on AFC wimbledon's home ground of Kings meow Stadium initially it was a Cy match that held to a stalemate until the hour mark when Jake Reeves of AFC won Will Blast home a knockdown and then shortly after Lyall Taylor hit a low driven shot from an audacious angle to seal won's first ever Victory versus the club that had stolen their progenitor and the crowd was rapturous they had finally done it they had finally beaten the that had stolen the club but wimbledon's res Direction wasn't fully complete not quite yet that last piece of the puzzle was getting their home back they needed plow Lane back unfortunately the original plow Lane was sold off to become a supermarket so they didn't have that option but they would secure a site of a former Greyhound Stadium only 200 yards away from the original plow Lane and with funding mostly raised from AFC Wimbledon fans and a donation from a local business owner a new plow Lane stadium was constructed eventually opening in 2020 sadly we all know what was going on in 2020 and no fans were allowed to attend their first matches played there what made it worse was the fact that AFC Wimbledon had never beaten MK Dons at plow l in fact after that first win versus MK Dons AFC wimon would never beat MK Dons again in the 13 matches against each other they had drawn four times AFC wble did w once and MK Dons had W eight even with their team back their history back and their Stadium back MK Dons still owned them at least on the pitch with all that in the air on March 2nd of 2022 it would Mark the first ever meeting of MK Don's and AFC Wimbledon at plow Lane in which Wimbledon fans could actually attend and after 90 minutes and 12 yellow cards it looked like MK Donson beaten streak would continue that was until this happened back now to Reeves once again stead high and forward Brown now with the opportunity play K up in the center oh it's a chance for ctis it's it we on yes yes it's Ro G everything about this goal was poetic the lackluster effort from a mercenary fighting for a paycheck versus the freedom fighter reclaiming his homeland and to win it right at the death of the game just like how MK Dons had hit them with the heal of God late it was just a chef's kiss as Ron and Curtis swept it in plow Lane erupted into unrestrained Elation the FA Cup win might not have touched the heights of this singular moment and as Curtis rushed toward the crowd he picked up a child before being engulfed in a sea of humanity this was for their Community their home their club and above all this was for the people of Wimbledon 22 years they had waited for this moment over two decades they had to be patient start from nothing scrape and Claw their way back home but finally finally they were Vindicated and everything had come full circle the fans the community of Wimbledon were back at plow Lane and they had beaten the bastards that had once taken everything away from them and I know this is cliche but I don't think there was ever a more AP time to say that football won that day MK Dons would eventually return all the history and trophies to AFC Wimbledon although Pete winman still being the complete douche that he is claimed that AFC Wimbledon had no right to any of these trophies because technically they aren't Wimbledon FC and petty like this has been going on between the clubs since their Creations AFC wilon have been reprimanded by the fa multiple times for refusing to post the dawn's part of MK Dons on the scoreboard or print their full name in their pre-match pamphlets and then there was the incident that occurred before this last glorious match which you can clearly see a Wimbledon player during pre-match warm-ups just blasting balls intentionally into the MK Don's crowd I'm not going to say his name cuz Mama didn't raise no snitch but God bless this man whoever you are and that is currently where the greatest Revenge story in sports will end for now this rivalry is still quite young and I'm sure a sequel video will be in order in a few years until then thanks for watching thanks toam for helping me out edit this video thank you to all my patrons keeping alive and well and yeah till next time boys stay thick

Channel: The Fat Asian

Views: 371,198

Keywords: bmonus, The best revenge story in sports, AFC Wimbledon has the sweetest revenge story in sports history, The sweetest revenge story in sports, the fat asian, MK Dons, Wimbledon FC, John Green

Id: wg__hkYkaE0

Length: 20min 24sec (1224 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2024