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AFC Wimbledon

This article is about the club formed in 2002. For its origins, see Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes and Wimbledon F.C.
This article is about the men's football club. For the women's football club, see AFC Wimbledon Women.

AFC Wimbledon
Full nameAFC Wimbledon
Nickname(s)The Dons
The Wombles
Founded30 May 2002 (2002-05-30)
GroundPlough Lane
Capacity9,215[1]
OwnerThe Dons Trust
ManagerJohnnie Jackson
LeagueEFL League Two
2023–24EFL League Two, 10th of 24
WebsiteClub website
Current season

AFC Wimbledon is an English professional association football club based in Merton, London. The team compete in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system.

The club was founded in 2002 by former supporters of Wimbledon after the Football Association allowed that club to relocate to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, about 60 miles (97 km) north of Wimbledon. Most of the Wimbledon supporters were very strongly opposed to moving the club so far away from Wimbledon, feeling that a club transplanted to a distant location would no longer represent Wimbledon or the club's historic legacy and tradition.[2][3][4] Wimbledon moved in 2003 and formally changed the name of the club to Milton Keynes Dons in 2004.[3][5]

When AFC Wimbledon was formed, it affiliated to both the London and Surrey Football Associations, and entered the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League, the ninth tier of English football. The club has since been promoted six times in 13 seasons, going from the ninth tier (Combined Counties Premier) to the third (League One).

AFC Wimbledon currently hold the record for the longest unbeaten run of league matches in English senior football, having played 78 consecutive league games without a defeat between February 2003 and December 2004.[6] They are the first club formed in the 21st century to make it into the Football League.[7]

The club was initially based at Kingsmeadow, a ground bought from and then shared with Isthmian League club Kingstonian until 2017, and with Chelsea Women from 2017. In November 2020, the club moved to Plough Lane, a new stadium on the site of the defunct Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, only 250 yards away from the original Plough Lane, Wimbledon's home until 1991. The new stadium has an initial capacity of 9,215,[1] with the option of expansion to a maximum 20,000 at a later date.[8][9]

  1. ^ a b Plough Lane
  2. ^ Parker, Raj; Stride, Steve; Turvey, Alan (28 May 2002). Report of the Independent Commission on Wimbledon F.C.'s wish to relocate to Milton Keynes (PDF). The Football Association. pp. 17–18, 61–67. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2004. Retrieved 13 December 2014. The proposal has met with considerable opposition, and not just from the WFC fans. ... [M]ost of the hundreds (over 600) of communications we have received have argued against the proposal. They have generally been from individual WFC fans. 57. Supporters' associations and individual fans from many other clubs and people from as far afield as the United States, Australia (Wimbledon Supporters Downunder), Russia and Norway have also expressed similar views. ... The fans are not of the opinion that a club in Milton Keynes is better than no club at all.
  3. ^ a b White, Jim (11 January 2003). "Pitch battle". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 5 June 2009. Ten miles from Selhurst Park, in Kingston upon Thames, the following Saturday, the streets around the tidy little Kingsmeadow football ground are filling up an hour before kick-off. It is here that Wimbledon fans, fed up with the direction in which the owners were leading the object of their love, have set up a football club of their own. ... Wimbledon fans were in seemingly perpetual dispute with the club's owners. At times last season, the vitriol was so intense that the directors' box at Selhurst Park would be surrounded for entire games with supporters hurling venom at its occupants. ... Early in 2001, Wimbledon's owners announced that they intended to move the club to the Buckinghamshire new town. The fans were adamant that it should remain in their community. 'They wanted to steal our club', says Kevin Rye, of the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association (Wisa). 'Nick it and move it 70 miles north. That's what it is: nothing short of theft.'
  4. ^ "Dons get Milton Keynes green light". BBC. 28 May 2002. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
  5. ^ "AFC Wimbledon Website, Honours". AFC Wimbledon. Archived from the original on 5 December 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
  6. ^ "AFC Wimbledon set English record". BBC. 13 November 2004. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
  7. ^ "The REAL Wimbledon are promoted to the Football League". Soccernews.com. 12 July 2012. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  8. ^ "AFC Wimbledon can build new stadium at Plough Lane after council agreement". BBC. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  9. ^ "Home Sweet Home". AFC Wimbledon. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.

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