AFC Bournemouth, nicknamed the Cherries, is an English football club from the seaside town of Bournemouth, Dorset, formed in 1899 out of the remains of the older Boscombe St.John’s club. The new club played in the Bournemouth & District Junior League before joing  the Hampshire League.  Bournemouth was ambitious and when the Football League formed a Third Division in 1920 comprising the Southern League First Division clubs, Boscombe successfully applied to join the remaining teams in the rump Southern League. Three years later, Boscombe successfully applied to join the football league League. To mark the occasion (and to attract wider support locally), the club changed its name to Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, the longest name in League history. They were to remain in the Third Division (South) until 1958 when they became founder members of the new (national) Third Division, where they remained until they were relegated in 1971. They bounced back immediately under manager John Bond who introduced a new black and red strip, modelled on AC Milan.  In 1972 the club adopted the racer name of AFC Bournemouth and under Harry Rednapp they reached the second tier of English football for the first time in their history in 1987 where they remained for three seasons.   

By the mid-Nineties, financial problems had reached crisis point and the club went into receivership in 1997. A successful bid from the Supporters Trust meant that AFC Bournemouth survived and became the first community owned professional club in Europe. After narrowly avoiding relegation from the Football League in the 2008-09 season, Bournemouth were promoted in 2009-10 to League One. After making the League One play-off semi-finals in 2010–11 and achieving a mid-table finish in 2011–12, Bournemouth won promotion to the Championship at the end of the 2012–13 season, putting them in the second tier of the league for only the second time in their history.  The 2014-15 season was the most successful in the club's history and ended with the club winning the Championship title and promotion to the Premier League under Eddie Howe. Bournemouth defied the odds to retain their place in the Premiership during the following five seasons. They were relegated in 2020 but returned to the top tier in 2022.  The club has played since 2010 at Dean Court which is  currently known as the Vitality Stadium for sponsorship reasons.