AFC Bournemouth

Not to be confused with Bournemouth F.C..
This article is about the men's football club based in England. For the women's team, see AFC Bournemouth Women. For other teams called Bournemouth, see Bournemouth (disambiguation) § Football.

AFC Bournemouth
Full nameAFC Bournemouth[a]
Nickname(s)The Cherries
Boscombe
Founded1899; 125 years ago (1899) (as Boscombe)
GroundDean Court
Capacity11,307[7]
OwnerBlack Knight Football Club UK Limited,[1] a wholly-owned subsidiary of Black Knight Football and Entertainment[8]
ChairmanBill Foley
ManagerAndoni Iraola
LeaguePremier League
2023–24Premier League, 12th of 20
Websiteafcb.co.uk
Current season

AFC Bournemouth (/ˈbɔːrnməθ/ ⓘ BORN-məth) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Formed in 1899 as Boscombe, the club adopted their current name in 1971. Nicknamed "The Cherries", and commonly referred to as Bournemouth, they have played their home games at Dean Court since 1910.

The club competed in regional football leagues before going up from the Hampshire League to the Southern League in 1920. Now known as Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, they were elected into the Football League in 1923. They remained in the Third Division South for 35 years, winning the Third Division South Cup in 1946. Placed in the newly reorganised Third Division in 1958, they suffered relegation in 1970, but would win an immediate promotion in 1970–71. Relegated back into the Fourth Division in 1975, Bournemouth were promoted again in 1981–82 and after lifting the Associate Members' Cup in 1984 would go on to win the Third Division title in 1986–87. They spent three seasons in the second tier but entered administration in 1997 and ended up back in the fourth tier with relegation in 2002, though immediately gained promotion by winning the play-offs in 2003.

Bournemouth entered administration for a second time and were relegated back into League Two in 2008, but ended the year by appointing Eddie Howe as manager. Under Howe's stewardship, Bournemouth won three promotions in six years to win a place in the first tier of English football for the first time in their history. This was achieved with a second-place finish in League Two in 2009–10, a second-place finish in League One in 2012–13 and a Championship title in 2014–15. The club remained in the Premier League for five seasons before suffering relegation in 2020, but they returned in 2022 as Championship runners-up, this time under the management of Scott Parker.

  1. ^ a b "Company details". AFC Bournemouth. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  2. ^ "Club trademarks". AFC Bournemouth. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  3. ^ "AFC Bournemouth". Premier Skills English. British Council. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2023. The AFC is part of the name and not an abbreviation. The name was changed by Dickie Dowsett who was the club's commercial manager and an ex-player. He insisted that the AFC should not stand for anything because that way, the club would appear in alphabetical league lists above Arsenal and Aston Villa and is why the club is the first in the list of clubs on the Premier League and Premier Skills English websites.
  4. ^ "AFC Bournemouth". Premier Skills English. British Council. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2023. The AFC recalls the older name of the club, it represents Athletic Football Club, but it does not stand for Athletic Football Club.
  5. ^ Burt, Jason (8 February 2018). "Ticket-price war places clubs at a tipping point". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Each of the 20 teams in the Premier League are clubs – from Manchester United Football Club to Athletic Football Club Bournemouth (AFC Bournemouth).
  6. ^ "Association Football Club Bournemouth". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  7. ^ "Premier League Handbook 2022/23" (PDF). 19 July 2022. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  8. ^ Tanner, Jack (13 January 2023). "Bill Foley outlines Black Knight Football Club structure". Bournemouth Daily Echo. Retrieved 3 March 2023.


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