Afc Chelsea ?

[Fulham Broadway 16,987]

FC United will never get anywhere near the Championship!!! They are right down the bottom of the league totem pole which is where an AFC Chelsea would have to start, and like i said wouldn't be any better than you or me

I would guess the attendance at FC United is awful now after the innitial hype all the people who were right behind it have quietly gone back to old trafford without even a second look at FC United.

Chelsea FC started at ''the bottom of the League totem pole'' as do all clubs.

FC United won promotion, and has steadily growing following. The relationship with "Big" United is complex; most FC fans still support the club - packing the pubs and Gigg Lane social club to roar United on before FC's games - but they grew alienated, over time, from the business which is Manchester United.

[Ollie 4,400]

As much as i understand everything in the first post, i can never turn my back on chelsea fc, regardless of what happens or where we end up. Its just like AFC Wimbledon (or FC United), the real wimbledon fans stuck with MK Dons, i would always stick with Chelsea FC because its the club i was brought up with. Changing teams is impossible, AFC Chelsea would have nothing to do with Chelsea FC, it would be a completely different team and therefore it would be as tho supporting Chelsea FC my whole life would be a huge waste of time if i supported AFC Chelsea. I understand that Chelsea isn't really Chelsea as we used to know it anymore but its still that team that was founded in 1905 by H.A and J.T Mears. They are still that team that play at stamford bridge and they are still the same team i always supported even if it doesnt seem that way. Supporting a different team just isn't an issue no matter whjat happens.

Edited January 21, 2008 by OllieCFC

[Fulham Broadway 16,987]

I can sympathise with the author, but the thing that bothers me is that he is attacking Chelsea for this change when it is instead just a trend we have seen since the introduction of the Premier League. According to a page I found on the Liverpool University website, it was Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur who originally initiated the idea of a Premier League by threatening to split away from the Football League if they didn't get a greater share of TV revenue. Then of course Sky came along with their millions upon millions and it all just spiralled into what we have today.

It's basically now a choice between supporting a top team with top players and paying through the nose for it, or going to a local or small club and having a drink and a laugh whilst barely watching some average joe's lump a ball attached to some sticky mud in the air. Of course, for a Chelsea fan, this is a choice between sticking with your expensive capitalist club, or betraying them, and this idea of an AFC Chelsea is a compromise between the two, to get over such a suggestion as betrayal. But that's what it is in my eyes. I'm Chelsea, and I'll be staying that way, first and foremost. In the future I could toy with the idea of going to watch my local team, which would currently be Kerry Dixon's Dunstable Town, but that's only obviously if I had some mates in the same frame of mind and I don't see that happening at the moment.

Its true its symptomatic of football as a whole , and not just Chelsea. With satellites roaming space its an ideal opportunity to bring SW6 or Yernited to Mongolia and Tasmania, and ''buy a shirt while you're at it''.

I wouldnt see AFC Chelsea as a ''betrayal'' more a protest, just similar to watching Chelsea and Chelsea reserves.

[Aesthetic Relic 301]

Wasnt the DC United thing set up because of the uproar from fans who werent happy with the Yanks coming over and taking control. They saw it as the soul being ripped out of the club.

I dont think thats happeneing at Chelsea. Football moves with the times and we had to do what everyone else was doing to keep in touch. Thats the way football has become. Lifes a bitch, but I'll always be Chelsea.

If the time comes when something like an AFC does happen I will keep an eye on their results, but Chelsea will always be my priority.

Quad-Blue doesnt roll off the tongue as easily

Edited January 21, 2008 by Tri-Blue

[Elliott 7]

Well Ollie I think with Wimbledon, MK Dons were no longer Wimbledon FC, to just uproot to another town 50 miles away is a great shame and I don't know if I would follow Chelsea if they did that. If they kept the same name, maybe I would, but it would be a massive blow.

The big change in football is it has changed from a professional sport to a business. Both times, revenue making was important, but before money was made to build football teams that will win trophies, now money is made for the sake of making money. People talk of the soul going from their clubs and that is where it's gone.

[Ollie 4,400]

even if chelsea moved 50 miles, i would still support them because they are still the same team, that will probably never happen to us tho thankfully. its impossible supporting someone else whatever the circumstances are.

[EskWeston 696]

Chelsea FC started at ''the bottom of the League totem pole'' as do all clubs.

Actually we was elected straight into the second division in 1905

My point is though what reason can there be for the change of clubs? What are you going to get better at a newly created club? Because it certainly won't be the football. Football has changed, we all know that and it will change again and maybe next time not for the worse.

[Fulham Broadway 16,987]

Actually we was elected straight into the second division in 1905

My point is though what reason can there be for the change of clubs? What are you going to get better at a newly created club? Because it certainly won't be the football. Football has changed, we all know that and it will change again and maybe next time not for the worse.

Lol werent there only two divisions South anyway ? My point is they started off as basically a pub team, not Ruud Gullitts allstars.

I'm not sure the author is advocating a switch btw, just highlighting a disaffection with the way the clubs gone.

Just a guess, but if it did happen there'd be a lot more fans than FC United, as theres a huge concentartion of alienated Chelsea fans in one area -the South East. Uniteds fan base is generally all over the shop.

[MikeCFC 45]

I too can sympaphise with the author but an AFC Chelsea is clutching at straws.Wimbledon only reformed because the club moved away from it's South-West London roots to Milton Keynes,therefore completely losing their identity.i don't think Roman and/or Kenyon would even think of doing that with Chelsea.At least i hope not.

[Elliott 7]

Lol werent there only two divisions South anyway ? My point is they started off as basically a pub team, not Ruud Gullitts allstars.

I'm not sure the author is advocating a switch btw, just highlighting a disaffection with the way the clubs gone.

Just a guess, but if it did happen there'd be a lot more fans than FC United, as theres a huge concentartion of alienated Chelsea fans in one area -the South East. Uniteds fan base is generally all over the shop.

Well they didn't quite start off as Ruud Gullits all-stars, but they were more than a pub team too. We got some high profile players of the time, such as Fatty Foulke in goal, and this was because we already had a stadium. Our beginnings were not normal.

[changingman2000 35]

I can see exactly what the author is driving at, I've been feeling like that since Roman spat his dummy out and binned Jose, just because he wasnt a yes man......Thats when the club became a standing joke in my eyes.

[misschief 24]

If i could only watch it only TV then that is what i would have to do! How can i have an association with another club? Even if it is all Chelsea fans moving over, i am not in it for the fans.

To me the logic of "i want standing, singing and hardcore support at football" is all well and good. But what about the Football? That is what we are all in it for at the end of the day. You would end up going to a game standing and singing and watching a team no better than most of the people in the bloody stands...

I wouldnt go as far as the whole AFC thing but on the other hand there is more to it than just whats going on on the pitch. It shows just how much the game's changed when all the trimmings that go with it are suddenly regarded as irrelevant. Yes, ultimately its about the football but surely its everything else that makes the football worthwhile? Its the 'standing, singing and hardcore support' that creates the atmosphere. If youre saying the atmosphere doesnt matter, then they might as well play behind locked doors and charge us all for watching quietly at home with our cups of tea. How many times have we heard the crowd referred to as 'the twelfth man?' What's wrong with enjoying everything else that goes with matchday - the obsessive rituals (that most of us wouldnt even admit to for fear of changing the outcome of the game), the beer before, during and after, the all singing all dancing days when we were actually allowed to enjoy a game?

[Elliott 7]

The trimmings of a club are even more important than ever misschief, its just that the trimmings have changed from the singing and the atmosphere to the money and the money.

[misschief 24]

The trimmings of a club are even more important than ever misschief, its just that the trimmings have changed from the singing and the atmosphere to the money and the money.

Yeah well, I know thats how it is these days but money's never been my god so I won't be worshipping the changes anytime soon.

[ironhorse 0]

Hi

I am another who has felt chelsea off the pitch has been out pricing the working man & its been going on a long time , i my self started going chelsea in about 72-73 as a young boy , enterance was 50p and the fee has gone up to now £55 a game , but for me there has been times i have to stop going being a working class , out of work or the new job would not cover , rent gas elec food the loan for a car and chelsea , until we grow older get a good job & can afford the dear tickets for a while , each time the club wants to make more till it affects me again , so i am picking my games as i cant afford & at home cfc seems a place that is no1 on all holiday days out for every nation as to hear people talking english is getting rare , but is it wrong !!!! not to the people who run cfc its big bucks comming in , i , you , & the ordinary fan will be pushed out ,

And do you know people who you knew at cfc who felt the same , understand , but will not stop going until affects them personally as its a dog eat dog world , i used to drink with chelsea fans in the 90s some rich season ticket holders ( sth ) & some working class , when there was talk of making a stand & writing to cfc or protesting outside the ground , nothing was done or said by the sth , but to my surprise or not !!!!! the same fans were moaning about tickets & get together & protest as it now affects them !!!! they have got older the money is tight they have a daughter getting wed , & to pay a mortgage and other bills ,

You me and cfc management dont care as its another seat for the big buck yanks japan china ussr french italy & the rest .

so all the talk of what if , shall we , can we , its out of order , will stay in the pub or talk zone like this , but i know where you are comming from

[EskWeston 696]

I wouldnt go as far as the whole AFC thing but on the other hand there is more to it than just whats going on on the pitch. It shows just how much the game's changed when all the trimmings that go with it are suddenly regarded as irrelevant. Yes, ultimately its about the football but surely its everything else that makes the football worthwhile? Its the 'standing, singing and hardcore support' that creates the atmosphere. If youre saying the atmosphere doesnt matter, then they might as well play behind locked doors and charge us all for watching quietly at home with our cups of tea. How many times have we heard the crowd referred to as 'the twelfth man?' What's wrong with enjoying everything else that goes with matchday - the obsessive rituals (that most of us wouldnt even admit to for fear of changing the outcome of the game), the beer before, during and after, the all singing all dancing days when we were actually allowed to enjoy a game?

I am not saying that the atmosphere and everything else that goes with Football is not important or irrelevant, of course it is a very important part of the match day experience.

What i am saying is that should a AFC Chelsea situation arrise you are basically deciding to choose between atmosphere/match day experience or the Football, and i would go with the football everytime. Because that is why i got into this in the first place.

[Fulham Broadway 16,987]

Hi

I am another who has felt chelsea off the pitch has been out pricing the working man & its been going on a long time , i my self started going chelsea in about 72-73 as a young boy , enterance was 50p and the fee has gone up to now £55 a game , but for me there has been times i have to stop going being a working class , out of work or the new job would not cover , rent gas elec food the loan for a car and chelsea , until we grow older get a good job & can afford the dear tickets for a while , each time the club wants to make more till it affects me again , so i am picking my games as i cant afford & at home cfc seems a place that is no1 on all holiday days out for every nation as to hear people talking english is getting rare , but is it wrong !!!! not to the people who run cfc its big bucks comming in , i , you , & the ordinary fan will be pushed out ,

And do you know people who you knew at cfc who felt the same , understand , but will not stop going until affects them personally as its a dog eat dog world , i used to drink with chelsea fans in the 90s some rich season ticket holders ( sth ) & some working class , when there was talk of making a stand & writing to cfc or protesting outside the ground , nothing was done or said by the sth , but to my surprise or not !!!!! the same fans were moaning about tickets & get together & protest as it now affects them !!!! they have got older the money is tight they have a daughter getting wed , & to pay a mortgage and other bills ,

You me and cfc management dont care as its another seat for the big buck yanks japan china ussr french italy & the rest .

so all the talk of what if , shall we , can we , its out of order , will stay in the pub or talk zone like this , but i know where you are comming from

Some good points. The club couldn't give a fuck whether its Dave from Sussex whos scraped the admission together or Mitushi, a rich tourist from Japan , who's loudest noise throughout the game is the click of his Sony digicam.

People just see it from a me, me, me perspective without looking at the wider picture.

[EskWeston 696]

Some good points. The club couldn't give a fuck whether its Dave from Sussex whos scraped the admission together or Mitushi, a rich tourist from Japan , who's loudest noise throughout the game is the click of his Sony digicam.

People just see it from a me, me, me perspective without looking at the wider picture.

At the end of the day all the club sees is how many seats they have sold. Attendance is not an issue at the moment so there isn't much chance of ticket prices going down, what incentive do they have? Attendance was an issue for CL group games and cup games and they reduced the ticket prices for those so they are at least doing something.

You name me one club in the world who actually looks after their fans as number 1! Even clubs like Barca and Real Madrid who are owned by the fans have massive ticket prices, again because they always sell out.