Peter Winkelman: 'I'm not proud of how football came to Milton Keynes' | David Conn

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In the buildup to an emotive FA Cup date with AFC Wimbledon, the man behind the Dons' controversial move a decade ago has admitted the deal was wrong – but has defended its success

From the upper tier of the vast, steepling, 30,000-seat stadium nearing completion for the current 7,500 regulars of MK Dons, the football club he infamously moved up from south London, Peter Winkelman is hitting back. Deluged with fury again over that move, of Wimbledon to Milton Keynes, Winkelman, the ex-music industry entrepreneur with his trademark shaggy hair and spectacularly persuasive manner, is raging against the supporters who founded their own club in response, AFC Wimbledon.

Since the fates drew AFC Wimbledon, still supporter-owned, triumphantly promoted last year into the Football League, to play Winkelman's MK Dons for the first time, in the FA Cup second round this Sunday, Winkelman has been seeking to cast off the role as a villain in the story. He prefaces his case by accepting that getting Milton Keynes a league club by moving an existing club from elsewhere, which he relentlessly promoted at the time, was, in hindsight, wrong.

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