Wimbledon to move to Milton Keynes

Wimbledon Football Club have announced that they are to move to a new home ground at Milton Keynes in two years' time. The English First Division club have been homeless for 10 years since leaving Plough Lane in 1991 and have been tenants at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park during this time.

Wimbledon officials have been searching for a new location for the club in recent years with Dublin touted as a possible choice not too long ago. However, the club announced today that it has reached an agreement with the Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium to build a £50million stadium in the area. The club will today submit its application for permission to relocate to the Football League and the organisation is then expected to make a statement on the proposal sometime this afternoon.

"We are the only professional club in the country without our own ground and we will be making a formal application to the Football League to relocate," explained Dons chairman Charles Koppel to The Sun newspaper. "This is a unique solution to a unique situation as Wimbledon need stability after 10 years without a home. There will be some people upset over this but there will be no re-branding of the club. It will remain Wimbledon FC and play in the same colours. We aim to take our history and heritage and build upon it further."

Pete Winkelman, leader of the Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium, said: "We are delighted that Wimbledon has agreed to move to Milton Keynes. We can offer the club a warm welcome and a unique solution to its unique problem. There is tremendous support for this locally, Milton Keynes is currently the largest urban population in Europe without a professional football team and we can offer Wimbledon the home it has been looking for since 1991."

However, Wimbledon's supporters have vowed to fight against the proposed move. Lawrence Lowne, chairman of the Wimbledon Independent Supporters' Association, described the club's plans as a mockery. "They are looking at the history of the club which has been going since 1889 and saying `let's just forget it'. The fans will not go to Milton Keynes in a million years," he said.

The fans intend to rally support from Merton Council, whose area covers their former ground at Plough Lane. They also plan to appeal to Merton council leader Andrew Judge and local MP Roger Casale as well as Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and Richard Caborn, the Minister for Sport. Lowne will also make representations to the Football League in the hope they will block the move as they did when Brentford proposed a switch to Woking.

Lowne is confident that the supporters can win their battle against club officials. "The 2003-2004 season is a very long time ahead and a lot of things can happen between now and then. What I would say to Charles Koppel is `if you cannot find a solution which keeps the club near Wimbledon then sell to someone else'. The football club isn't just about pounds, shillings and pence. It is about tradition, it is about fathers and mothers and children going to the matches together and they are trampling on the tradition of a lot of people. We won the battle against the club moving to Dublin and we can do it again," he warned.

Filed by Amanda Fennelly