AFC WimbledonSport

The Dons Trust’s South London Press column – Craig Cope, Bury & democracy

BY KEVIN RYE

Although we’re already a few games in, the new season vibe is still very much alive.

It almost always brings with it a sense of optimism. There’s no greater optimism than the start of the journey of fellow fan-owned club Bury FC. 

We know they’ve been through the wringer in recent years, and it’s down to their tremendous efforts, both in ensuring that football continued on the pitch with Bury AFC, and then, in the doughty efforts of fans and the community to return the club to Gigg Lane.

In fact, our journeys could have been very different. Not many people will be aware of the ‘sliding doors’ moment that many Bury fans will talk about, when a young Dave Beasant and co went up to Gigg Lane and won there to seal promotion from Division Four, consigning Bury to the basement for another season. 

Even more of a coincidence is that it happened on nothing less than the 14 May – the same date as our FA Cup win in 1988. A Bury-supporting friend of mine also chalks this down as his first match. 

What you could have won, eh?

They won their first match with a thumping 5-1 victory over Glossop North-End, breaking the attendance record for the North West Counties League in the process.

It’s the beginning of, we hope and anticipate, a wonderful journey that will include some downs, but mostly ups, and crucially, with their destiny firmly, securely, in their own hands.

The new season optimism extends to Plough Lane too. We don’t normally cover on-pitch matters in this column – there are plenty of places to read about that – but it’s worth remarking on the work of our head of football operations Craig Cope. 

Not only has he worked hand-in-glove with the manager and new chief scout, our former centre-back Andy Thorn, to refresh and reboot the squad, but he’s also worked with the fans too. 

Over the summer, volunteers helped to renovate the training ground (something you can watch on the AFC Wimbledon YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K29btXrGtus). 

Having people like Craig who understand the culture, and harness it to achieve our collective aims, is a wonderful thing – some might say a blessing. It’s not always the case, and it shows what kind of a culture we’re building here.

Our consultation over the debt that we hold continues. As I explained in the previous column – https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/the-dons-trusts-south-london-press-column-the-importance-of-membership-and-the-plc-board-reshuffle – it’s a critical piece of work we’re doing that is about both the actual technical side of how we refinance and repay the debt, whilst retaining ownership of the football club. 

I’ve been chairing discussions involving 10-15 members of The Dons Trust at a time, and what has struck me has been the level of serious engagement with the subject so far.

Some have, understandably, questioned why we’re doing it this way. They ask why we’ve chosen to narrow down those we speak to such small groups to start with.

I’ve explained it by saying that whilst ultimately we need to discuss and debate across the whole 4000+ membership, we also need to start understanding the big picture of how fans feel about the debt, what their ‘red lines’ are and what protections we must retain to secure fan ownership permanently, and also, what forms of repayment we could pursue. 

We’ve already had some genuinely interesting and potentially viable suggestions from participants. This is one of the beauties of fan ownership. Ultimately, our membership is a resource, a pool of ideas, insight, and expertise. 

We’re a democratic organisation that owns its football club. A democratic organisation that doesn’t just begin and end with a vote for the board, AGMs, and SGMs.

This is democracy as a process, and as a culture, and that is what the model is all about.

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