Historical Football Kits

 

Wimbledon

Formed 1889

Elected to Division Four 1977. Became Milton Keynes Dons 2004.

Kit History

1910 a

1935 a

1954 a

mid 1950s j

1960-1961 f

1961-1962 k

1962-1963 b h

1973-1974 h

1974-1975 b

Adidas

1977-1978 b h k l

Adidas

1978-1980 k l

Adidas

1980-1981 l

Osca

1981-1983 c k

Barralan

1983-1984 k

Spall

1984-1985 b g

Spall

1986-1988 d b i

Hummel

1988-1989 m

1989-1990 d

Hummel

1990-1991 i

Admiral

1991-1993 d i

Ribero

1993-1994 d i

Own brand

1994-1995 b d

Core

1995-1996 d

Lotto

1996-1997 d

Lotto

1997-1999 d i

Lotto

1999-2000 i

Puma

2000-2001 b i

Puma

2001-2002 b

Patrick

2002-2004 b

 

Background

The extraordinary rise and fall of Wimbledon has few parallels in the history of football. Formed in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Centrals, they adopted the name of Wimbledon FC in 1905. The club played on Wimbledon Common until 1912 when they moved into Plough Lane, their home for the next 75 years. Seven years later they joined the Athenian League, moving up to the Isthmian League in 1921.

Wimbledon became one of the leading amateur clubs in the country, winning the Isthmian League eight times. After winning the prestigious FA Amateur Cup in 1963, the club turned semi-professional and joined the Southern League.

In 1977, following epic FA Cup battles that included taking mighty Leeds to a replay, the Dons were elected to the Football League, adopting an all-white kit to mark the occasion. After a modest first season, the club were promoted and relegated four times in succession. In 1983 they began a remarkable run that took them all the way to the First Division in 1986. The upstart club, dubbed the "Crazy Gang," defied critics by finishing in sixth position in 1987 and then, against all the odds, beat Liverpool to win the FA Cup in 1988. Their tactics of playing long balls to their fast strikers combined with the uncompromisingly physical defence of Vinnie Jones and John "Fash the Bash" Fashanu won few friends but confounded many more purist sides.

Within days of their FA Cup triumph, the club announced plans to leave their cramped Plough Lane ground to move into a new stadium in their native borough of Merton. These plans came to nothing: with Plough Lane unsuitable for redevelopment, the club sold it off and moved into Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace in 1991. Remarkably, despite limited resources and modest attendances, the Dons continued to thrive, finishing in the top nine between 1994 and 1997, when they also reached the semi-finals of both the League and FA Cups. A move to Dublin was floated but was dropped when the FA and UEFA pointed out that the club could not continue to play in the Premier League if they were based in the Republic of Ireland. This marked the beginning of the breakdown of the relationship between the club and its local fan base.

In 1999, the club's colourful owner Sam Hammam sold Wimbledon to a Norwegian consortium who installed Egil Olsen as manager. The new owners were looking for a return on their investment and were not prepared to pump money in merely for prestige. On the last day of the 1999-2000 season, Wimbledon finally succumbed to relegation. Despite fears that the club would go into free-fall, they narrowly missed out on a play-off place in the next two seasons.

Meanwhile, however, the search for a permanent home resulted in a decision to move the club to Milton Keynes. The majority of Dons fans, alienated by the attitude of the club's owners, formed their own club, AFC Wimbledon in 2002. While the reviled "Franchise FC" club played out its final games at Selhurst Park in front of fewer than 3,000 spectators, the fans' club was regularly attracting larger gates despite playing at the base of the pyramid.

In September 2003, Wimbledon moved into the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes, despite having gone into administration, owing over £20m. Six months later a local consortium led by Peter Winkleman bought the club and saved it from liquidation. Stranded at the bottom of Nationwide Division One, the decision did not save the club from relegation. The following year, Winkleman announced that the club was to be renamed Milton Keynes Dons and adopt a new badge and colours. All ties with the old club were effectively severed.

While Milton Keynes Dons have struggled, AFC Wimbledon continue to thrive in south-west London and in 2005 fans mounted a legal claim to become the true inheritors of Wimbledon FC's history. This action was settled in August 2006, when it was agreed that the "physical patrimony" (presumably lawyer-speak for ephemera such as photographs, programmes etc) would be passed to the London Borough of Merton.

Sources