AFC WIMBLEDON
Authentic Signed Wimbledon Photos, Boots, Shirts, Gloves and Displays
AFC Wimbledon is a professional football club currently based in Kingston upon Thames, south west London, England, which has played in League One, the third tier of the English football league system, since promotion in 2016. Their home stadium is Kingsmeadow, a ground shared with Chelsea Ladies and up until 2017 with Isthmian League club Kingstonian F.C.
The club was founded by former Wimbledon F.C. supporters in 2002 after the Football Association allowed that club to relocate to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, 56 miles (90 km) north of Wimbledon. The large majority of Wimbledon F.C. 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opposed to moving the club so far away from Wimbledon, feeling that a club transplanted to a distant location would no longer represent Wimbledon or the club's legacy and traditions. Wimbledon F.C. moved in 2003 and formally changed the name of the club to Milton Keynes Dons in 2004.
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. They are the first club formed in the 21st century to make it into the Football League.
In December 2017, the club received final permission to begin work on the construction of a new stadium on the site of the defunct Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, only 250 yards away from Plough Lane, Wimbledon F.C.'s home until 1991. The club aim to have the stadium ready to move in to in 2019. It will have an initial capacity of 11,000, with the option of increasing to a 20,000 capacity at a later date.
