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Spurs set for ground-share with MK Dons after 'positive talks'

tommo84

Proud to be loud
Aug 15, 2005
6,116
11,088
Anyone think we need to get some AFC Wimbledon banners?

Not opposed to a year outside London if it is unavoidable - but that club symbolises all that is wrong in football

All that is wrong? Really

Diving
Agents fees
Dual ownership of players
Poaching youngsters from the academies who pay for their development
FIFA corruption
Foreign owners
The exploitation/circumvention of FFP

Even as a Newport Pagnell native I can empathise with people disliking 'the franchise', but the soundbite that they are 'all that is wrong with football' is complete bullshit. All of the items I've listed above are entirely separate from how one lower league club opportunistically userped the league place of another lower league club which was homeless, dropping down the leagues, and struggling to survive financially.

The owner of MK Dons is much more engaged with their local community than many of their lower league counterparts and their youth academy has already contributed a great deal to the national game, even though they themselves have been the victim of poaching youngsters with the Welsh lad George Williams(?) leaving for Fulham recently at the age of 16. He went to the same school as me.

So if you hate the Dons for how they came to exist, so be it and I completely understand and empathise. But please, lets not pretend they are 'all thats wrong with football'. They're not even the biggest thing wrong with football.

Personally I'd have a much bigger issue with it if Spurs signed Ched Evans or even just participated in a money-spinning friendly in Qatar to help the cause/line the pockets of Sepp Blatter and his corrupt cronies.
 

Don_Felipe

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2004
2,294
3,918
All that is wrong? Really

Diving
Agents fees
Dual ownership of players
Poaching youngsters from the academies who pay for their development
FIFA corruption
Foreign owners
The exploitation/circumvention of FFP

Even as a Newport Pagnell native I can empathise with people disliking 'the franchise', but the soundbite that they are 'all that is wrong with football' is complete bullshit. All of the items I've listed above are entirely separate from how one lower league club opportunistically userped the league place of another lower league club which was homeless, dropping down the leagues, and struggling to survive financially.

The owner of MK Dons is much more engaged with their local community than many of their lower league counterparts and their youth academy has already contributed a great deal to the national game, even though they themselves have been the victim of poaching youngsters with the Welsh lad George Williams(?) leaving for Fulham recently at the age of 16. He went to the same school as me.

So if you hate the Dons for how they came to exist, so be it and I completely understand and empathise. But please, lets not pretend they are 'all thats wrong with football'. They're not even the biggest thing wrong with football.

Personally I'd have a much bigger issue with it if Spurs signed Ched Evans or even just participated in a money-spinning friendly in Qatar to help the cause/line the pockets of Sepp Blatter and his corrupt cronies.

Yes, maybe my comment was a bit simplistic - I suppose what I meant was:

They are: "Symbolic of how money trumps community in modern football" - and I'd include a lot of your suggestions above in that - MK Dons are far from the only example, and you'd probably find plenty of examples at Spurs as well.

Interesting to see your comment about how MK Dons have engaged with their local community - would love to know more about that - I guess things are not black and white.

I just don't feel that comfortable about Spurs getting into bed with them... maybe that's ultimately irrational...
 

spursram

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2013
1,910
2,904
One point to mention though, part of us staying in Tottenham was due to local economy, can the current economy (particularly pubs) survive for a year without matchdays?
There will be a lot of construction workers around the place over the course of the whole working week. There should be an economic spin off from that.
 

davidmatzdorf

Front Page Gadfly
Jun 7, 2004
18,106
45,030
There will be a lot of construction workers around the place over the course of the whole working week. There should be an economic spin off from that.

There are also the usual 'local labour clauses' in the S.106 Agreement. The development will be required to employ at least XX% of the construction and associated staff from people who live locally, i.e., in Haringey - and they will go on to spend their wages in local shops/boozers/etc. There are monitoring systems in place to ensure this actually gets done and my experience is that, whilst the local authorities usually have a system for enforcing these clauses, developers are often quite slipshod about keeping records.

The developers will also be required to participate in an approved construction training scheme, which supplies trainees from local (generally disadvantaged) youth, who then have to log specific skills training and get reported upon by the on-site supervisors. The local system in North London is managed by a housing association I used to work for and it is enforced with some rigour.
 
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