AFC Bournemouth

Also written as Bournemouth.

The club

Bournemouth were founded in the autumn of 1899 as Boscombe Football Club. They became Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic on election to the Football League in 1923, and took the name AFC Bournemouth in 1971 in order to appear first alphabetically among English clubs. They play at Dean Court in Kings Park, Boscombe, on land leased to the club in 1910 by the local businessman J.E. Cooper-Dean, after whom the ground is named. It is known commercially as the Vitality Stadium and holds 12,357, the smallest ground in the Premier League. The club are called the Cherries and play in red and black stripes, a scheme used consistently since 1990. Since 13 December 2022 they have been owned by Black Knight Football Club, the partnership led by the American businessman Bill Foley, who bought the club from Maxim Demin. Foley bought the stadium freehold in April 2025 and announced a redevelopment to around 20,000 seats, with scope to reach 23,000, without closing the ground; construction was scheduled to start in July 2026.

Recent seasons

Bournemouth were relegated from the Premier League in 2019/20, finishing 18th with 34 points. They spent two Championship seasons: sixth in 2020/21 with 77 points, losing in the play-off semi-finals, then second in 2021/22 with 88 points, securing automatic promotion with a 1-0 home win over Nottingham Forest on 3 May 2022 under Scott Parker. Back in the Premier League they were 15th in 2022/23 with 39 points, 12th in 2023/24 with 48, and ninth in 2024/25 with 56. In 2025/26 they finished sixth with 57 points from 38 games: 13 wins, 18 draws and only seven defeats, 58 scored and 54 conceded. That was the best league finish in the club's history and took them into European competition for the first time. The eighteen draws are the defining oddity of the season: very few defeats, and a low conversion of level games into wins.

Honours and landmarks

The club has never won a major national trophy. Its honours are the EFL Championship title in 2014/15, the Third Division title in 1986/87, the Associate Members' Cup in 1984 and the Third Division (South) Cup in 1946. Promotion to the Premier League in 2015 was the first time the club had reached the top flight. Record attendance at Dean Court is 28,799 against Manchester United in an FA Cup tie on 2 March 1957, set in the old ground, which was demolished and rebuilt in 2001; no post-rebuild record was found in a form worth quoting. Steve Fletcher holds the appearance record with 726 games across two spells between 1992 and 2013, and Ron Eyre is the leading scorer with 229 goals in 378 appearances between 1924 and 1933. The record fee paid is £40.2m for Evanilson from Porto in August 2024; the record received is £65m for Dominic Solanke to Tottenham in the same month. The club went into administration twice, taking a ten-point deduction in February 2008 with debts of around £4m and a further 17-point penalty in 2008/09 for breaching Football League insolvency rules.

Notable scorelines

Record win in all competitions is 11-0 against Margate in the FA Cup on 20 November 1971. Record league win is 8-0 away at Birmingham City in the Championship on 25 October 2014. Record defeat is 0-9, twice: at Liverpool in the Premier League on 27 August 2022, and against Lincoln City in 1982. The heaviest Premier League win under recent management was 5-0 against Nottingham Forest on 25 January 2025.

Head-to-head notes

Bournemouth do not publish all-time head-to-head records on their own site, and no reliable published all-time series record could be established for any of their 2026/27 opponents; treat any such figure as unverified. Recent meetings are on record. From the first half of 2025/26: lost 4-2 at Liverpool on the opening day, won 1-0 at Tottenham on 30 August, beat Brighton 2-1 at home on 13 September, drew 0-0 with Newcastle on 21 September and 2-2 at Leeds on 27 September, beat Fulham 3-1 on 3 October, drew 3-3 at Crystal Palace on 18 October, beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 on 26 October, then lost 3-1 at Manchester City on 2 November and 4-0 at Aston Villa on 9 November, the season's worst result. Against the promoted clubs the meetings are older. Hull City drew 0-0 at home on 28 August 2021 and won 1-0 at Dean Court on 22 January 2022. Coventry City drew 2-2 at Dean Court on 27 November 2021 and lost 3-0 at home on 18 April 2022. No meeting with Ipswich Town could be confirmed from the sources read.

Right now (2026/27)

Marco Rose is head coach. His appointment was announced by the club on 20 April 2026 on a three-year contract, and he took charge from 1 June 2026, succeeding Andoni Iraola, who left at the end of 2025/26. Rose, 49, previously managed Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig.

Summer business to 31 July 2026: in, the centre-forward Alvaro Rodriguez from Elche for £25.7m on 14 July, the defender Jaheim Azzouz Scafe from AFC Wimbledon for an undisclosed fee on 17 July, and the goalkeeper Ben Westcott from Peterborough United on a free on 25 July. Out, Marcos Senesi to Tottenham Hotspur, agreed 30 June and effective 1 July; Hamed Traore to Marseille for £6.4m on 2 July; Owen Bevan to Dundee for an undisclosed fee on 10 July; Michael Dacosta to Moreirense on a free on 15 June. Romain Faivre went on loan to Auxerre on 3 July, Alex Paulsen to Motherwell on 13 July and Alex Jimenez to Fiorentina on 16 July.

Pre-season has been productive in front of goal: 4-1 at St Pauli on 24 July and 5-2 at Augsburg on 30 July, both in Saalfelden, with Genoa on 4 August and Mainz on 15 August to come. The Premier League season starts on 21 August 2026; Bournemouth open away at Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday 23 August, kick-off 14:00 BST. The Europa League league phase draw is on 28 August 2026 and the first matchday is 16-17 September, the club's first appearance in a major UEFA competition.

Note on sourcing: afcb.co.uk returned truncated content to automated fetches, so the club's own site could not be read directly.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.