MK: No way, say fans (TomShaw/Allsport)

The three-man commission convened by the FA to rule on First Division Wimbledon FC's future has got it horribly wrong. Spectacularly wrong. And dangerously wrong.

In voting by two to one to allow Dons chairman Charles Koppel to go ahead with his long-standing plan to move the south London club - that's south London club - to Milton Keynes (that's Buckinghamshire), a dangerous precedent has been set.

Naturally, an FA statement delivered in the aftermath of the decision's announcement argues that they have not opened the way for more clubs to simply move wherever their owners want to take them.

The FA release says officials will look carefully at the decision 'to ensure that it is a one-off'. But realistically, how can it be?

They have allowed a relatively high-profile football club to move 70 miles from its traditional home, its fan base and its 113-year history.

So those in charge of any other club could argue, as the highly unpopular Koppel did, that their financial circumstances are desperate and pressing, that a move is the only way forward - his catchphrase day in, day out.

How can the FA rebuff that argument now it has been successfully used by the Wimbledon chairman and his acolytes? Any club feeling the pinch can now cry Koppel and try to up sticks to where they think life will be more lucrative.

If the panel had said no, that would have been the end of the matter.

Bear in mind that, earlier this season, the Football League twice unanimously voted against allowing Wimbledon to move to Milton Keynes. They also said no to Brentford's plans for a groundshare at Woking.

Bear in mind that, in justifying their vote, they argued strongly that clubs should stay close to their historical roots, their local communities and their fans.

Bear in mind that Koppel called for arbitration on that decision as a last resort to try and save his Milton Keynes dream - and still got his way in the end.

Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association, who have campaigned brilliantly and imaginatively to try and save their club from what has now been approved - its franchising - see the decision as a betrayal of the whole game.

A statement read: 'The only way the commission could have reached this conclusion is to have considered only the personal fortunes of a few individuals and to have ignored the interests of football as a whole.

'The Milton Keynes proposal is not driven by footballing considerations, but simply represents a property deal. Property developers have no place in our game.'

Saying yes to the Buckinghamshire move has wiped out Wimbledon FC: how can the new club in the new town represent London SW19, the 1988 FA Cup winners, Dave Bassett's promotion heroes and fans who live in Wimbledon?

WISA will now consider how to carry on the battle for the Dons: there may still be hope of a successful challenge to this dangerous, demoralising ruling.

As chair Kris Stewart put it: 'Wimbledon supporters have no interest in following the stolen shell of a football club in Milton Keynes.'

Koppel's neat trick of allowing most of Wimbledon's good players to leave the club for knockdown prices last season would seem to suggest that promotion is out of the question next time around. Sacking manager Terry Burton for no apparent reason didn't help either.

So if Milton Keynes comes to pass (in theory, the season after next), will the people of that town flock to watch First Division football?

Is what used to be WFC versus Walsall, Gillingham, Rotherham or Grimsby really going to have them beating a path to the door of wherever the club ends up?

Seems unlikely. It also seems unlikely that Wimbledon's fans, betrayed by those who are supposed to be looking after their club's interests, will bother with too many games at their shared Selhurst 'home' next time around.

A season ticket boycott has so far proven immensely successful, with just a handful of last time's 4,000 holders thought to have renewed. Crowds, never exactly huge, look likely to plummet - and that is entirely understandable. What is there to follow now?

Here's Dons Trust chair Lou Carton-Kelly: 'The heart and soul of Wimbledon FC is its supporters. Without the supporters, there is no club.'

WISA, Merton Council and local MPs all called for the Dons to return to their former Plough Lane home, where widely-publicised surveys showed a new 20,000-seat stadium could be constructed.

That would have been the right solution, but Koppel said independent professional advice said it couldn't be done and that Milton Keynes was more viable.

People who have seen details of that advice, and details to back Koppel's claim that the Dons are losing £20,000 per day at Selhurst, are allegedly incredibly thin on the ground.

Nevertheless, the FA commission has opened the way for a club's identity and history to be discarded, allowing a consortium in a biggish Buckinghamshire town without a Football League club to simply buy one.

Well done everybody.