SW11 CFC

To celebrate National Non-League Day on Saturday 3rd September 2011, Tooting & Mitcham United shall be offering FREE ENTRY to all season ticket holders of all Premiership, Championship and League 1 and 2 clubs at their home game against Wingate & Finchley in the Ryman Premier League, kick - off 3pm. Club address is: Imperial Fields, Bishopsford Road, Morden, Surrey, SM4 6BF. www.tmufc.co.uk

Tooting & Mitcham United are offering half price entry to all of their Ryman Premier League games this season (2011-12) to all season ticket holders of all other clubs - league and non-league - excluding the team they are playing on the day. They are also offering half price entry to all members of the armed forces on production of their I.D badges. A staunch Chelsea area and worth popping along if Chelsea aren't playing or you can't make an away game. Imperial Fields, Bishopsford Road, Morden, Surrey, SM4 6BF.

Thanks for your comments so far chaps and i understand your opinions. Just going back to a few posts..... This idea of an AFC hasn't 'just' come about from myself due to this one bad season, its a feeling i have had and have had mentioned on a chelsea website and fanzine a long time ago, when we were successful, so it is no knee jerk reaction to this season. As for fans of lower league clubs deep down wishing they were in the premier league like us...oh no they don't, not most of them anyway, and i am one of them. I am also involved in non league football, followed my club since a kid, do alot of work for it and prefer the non league to modern prem league anyday. And most non league fans follow their local clubs simply because they prefer it to the big stage, so we don't envy the big leagues. An AFC refusing promotion being unrealistic, i understand that. But i'd like to look in to that situation in more detail. Clubs have been refused promotion by the league, and clubs have refused promotion in the past to my knowledge. Non league football being of dire quality, not from what i have seen over many years. I've seen just as many excellent quality games as i have in the big leagues, and ive seen just as many poxy games in the big leagues. Just look at chelsea's latest performances with all the superstars, ive certainly seen more entaining football in the lower leagues lately. I will always be chelsea first and foremost in my heart - but pre modern day. As for me staying at home if i don't like it - i do just that thanks, or follow my non league side. I've been to the occassional modern cfc home game over recent years and felt nothing but contempt for the saddos sitting around me (not including our real fans of course), have felt totally embarrassed when 1,500 away fans outsing 35,000 home 'fans', and felt totally ripped off with every penny i had to spend at the club. A sad feeling considering for 17 years i felt nothing but pride at a chelsea home game, even when we had a two bob team. As i said before, if this is what is called progress, then its not for me. An AFC would be a return to the way things should be and that suits me, chelsea of old in my eyes.

Things do change but not always for the better. Football and chelsea in current times have not in my opinion. Being forced to sit down at £50 a time and more often than not having to sit next to some bloke in his 40's who has 'supported' chelsea for 3 years or a foreign tourist with a chelsea shirt on who couldn't give a toss about chelsea when they were being knocked out of the littlewoods cup by scarborough, is not progress in my opinion. Whether the chelsea they are watching are top of the premier league or not. Having the choice to stand if you want for a reasonable price and watching the game amongst chelsea fans who are passionate about the club even if they are bottom of the blue square premier, is my idea of following a proper chelsea fc. I totally respect our genuine fans who are happy with current times, thats their opinion. But i dont respect the gloryhunter or fashion following tourist who seem to outnumber the real fans nowadays. Nor do i respect being forced to sit for £50. Good on the hardcore shed 50 for trying, but i think their loyal talents are wasted at that tourists theatre that is now stamford bridge, that 50 would be more appreciated at an AFC version. What i have done to try and get those missing ingredients back is to come on here and see what peoples opinions are on an AFC club.

Ideally, if it became successful, i'd like to refuse promotion into the football league and stay as a non league club, to avoid the AFC version having to become an all-seated, overpriced haven for gloryhunters as well. Thats the whole point of starting an AFC. It may sound un-ambitious, but to me its very ambitious. To enjoy being a football club again and not a tourist attraction like the current chelsea fc is now. Those chelsea fans you say are accused of not being real fans - i am one of them just the same as you. I've lived the bad and 'good' times, but prefered the bad as the club was a more genuine club in genuine times. Ideally, i'd like an AFC version to be more successful then we was back then but a proper club again at the same time.

Fair enough mate, i fully expect opinions like that. I see how this would not appeal to those used to bigtime current chelsea and the big stage of the premier league/champions league etc, its just that chelsea's original and natural pre modern day identity and what i would call a proper old skool football day experiance is much more important to me. That is what an AFC version would bring back in my eyes, i dont care about the big stage. I enjoyed our second division days the most anyway.

Just out of interest, I would like to ask what the general feeling would be amongst chelsea fans on the formation of an AFC Chelsea, similar to the current AFC Wimbledon, FC Man. Utd, AFC Liverpool etc? The reason i ask is that i am one of so many old skool chelsea bods who has become so disallusioned with modern day football and the modern day chelsea, and the growing feeling of 'we want our chelsea back' that there is amongst many fans, thus this feeling seems to creep ever nearer to the formation of an AFC Chelsea, and i would just like to know how much support this idea would have and just how many of us would actually follow the re-birth of 'old' and 'proper' chelsea as i myself would see this being if formed. As a quick introduction to myself, i am one of the old skool herberts who was there when we were sh*t, first and second division, simod cup, home and away, every week. You name it, i was there with chelsea, fantatically for 17 years. But no matter how bad chelsea were and how little we won, that didn't matter to me as i loved that club more than life itself. I envied no other no matter how much more successful they were as chelsea was the best club in my eyes. They were my local team as i am a battersea boy (though i now live in kent), i loved the old stamford bridge (despite it being a bit of a dump by then), our blue shirts and shorts with white socks looked better than any other clubs colours, our proper old badges (the round lion rampant and one with the stars either side), our away support, our songs, the shed, west stand, benches, the atmosphere even with small crowds etc etc, all made me so proud to be chelsea. Sod success, chelsea was the bees knees without it. But by 2002 i could take no more of all the changes for the worst. All-seater stadiums were not for me, the worse atmosphere as a result, the rip-off ticket pricess, being surrounded by posh boy gloryhunters and japanese tourists on their gloryhunting fasion following mission, the lack of togetherness as a result cos these people weren't proper chelsea, the new current badge with its cartoon charachter lion in the middle of it....chelsea fc was now dead in my eyes. I missed the buzz of my terracing, getting in for more reasonable prices, having a sing song with real chelsea bods who actually knew the words to our songs, and the feeling of camoradary of being in the company of real chelsea fans like me who loved the club for all the same reasons, even if there were only 15 - 16,000 of them, which was better than being in modern day stamford bridge with 30,000 gloryhunters. But thats just me and how i feel as a football and chelsea fan. I love the traditional game and chelsea fc of old, the way it should be and have stayed in my eyes. Things have to change and be improved, yes. But not for the worst, which is what the modern game and club is nowadays to me. So i keep getting this nagging feeling eating away at me in the back of my mind, how i'd like to get my old chelsea back, even if it had to be re-born and on a much smaller scale. I'd still prefer that to modern cfc as it would be alot nearer to the way things were, and that is what i would need to get that old chelsea love and buzz back. My vision would be for this new AFC Chelsea to be formed, owned and run by genuine chelsea fans, old and new. To start off in the non league, with our own ground of just a 5,000 capacity to start with, as close to the current stamford bridge as possible to preserve our identity, with terracing behind both goals and seats down the sides. To keep as much of the traditional old chelsea identity as possible. Call the new ground The Bridge, the home terrace The Shed, the strip would be royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks and bring back the lion rampant and stars badges, albeit having to make slight adjustments to them due to copyright reasons, but still closer to the real thing. With the prices being much lower to watch a game, hopefully crowds will be of a fair size near to capacity at least, but all being genuine chelsea bods with not a cringeworthy gloryhunter in sight, and a blinding old skool atmosphere to go with it. So that would be enough for me, not the exact same thing as the chelsea of old, but as near as you could get, and alot nearer than this modern day thing we have now. Some people would say an AFC Chelsea would be plastic chelsea, but it would be the original real thing to me, just re-born with some unavoidable changes, but with all the real genuine people and chelsea identity associated with it, it would be chelsea of old. And you couldn't get more plastic than current 'chelsea fc'. We may not be playing man.utd, spurs etc on a regular basis, but we could still enjoy a proper football day out again and that is a big consolation, and if other club fans copied our idea then the big old rivalries could continue as before, because i don't think its only chelsea fans getting pissed off with this modern era. And being involved with non-league football already as i am, i know that it offers the proper football day experiance and that cannot be beaten. So you can keep your premier league and champions league, i want my chelsea back. And starting again would appeal to me personally. This idea will have its support and knockers, but i would just like to know the general feeling towards it please, even if i am hugely outnumbered in my thoughts. Cheers.