THE CHERRIES MAY GIVE YOU THE PIP!!

 BOURNEMOUTH-Who are they??!! Only kidding!!

AFC Bournemouth is based at Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, in Hampshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League. The club was 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. By then 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 Division League Cup in 1946 and joining the newly reorganised FL 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, the Cherries would go on to win the Third Division title in 1986–87. They spent three seasons in the second tier but enter 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 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. Boscombe: Although the exact date of the club's foundation is not known, there is proof that it was formed in the autumn of 1899 out of the remains of the older Boscombe St. John's Institute Football Club. The club was originally known as Boscombe Football Club. The first president was Mr. J. C. Nutt.

In their first season, 1899–1900, Boscombe competed in the Bournemouth and District Junior League. They also played in the Hants Junior Cup. During the first two seasons, they played on a football pitch in Castlemain Avenue, Pokesdown. From their third season, the team played on a pitch in King's Park. In the 1905–06 season, Boscombe graduated to senior amateur football.

In 1910, the club was granted a long lease over some wasteland next to Kings Park as the club's football ground by local businessman J.E. Cooper-Dean. With their own ground, named Dean Court after the benefactor, the club continued to thrive, and dominated the local football scene. The same year the club signed its first professional player Baven Penton. Around about this time, the club obtained their nickname "The Cherries". There are two leading explanations of how the club gained the nickname: from the cherry-red striped shirts that the team played in, and, perhaps less plausible, because Dean Court was built adjacent to the Cooper-Dean estate, which, it is believed, may have contained many cherry trees!!

For the first time, during the 1913–14 season, the club competed in the FA Cup. The club's progress, however, was halted in 1914 with the outbreak of World War 1, and Boscombe returned to the Hampshire Leaague. In 1920, the Third Division of the Football League was formed, and Boscombe were promoted to the Southern League, finding moderate success. Bournemouth struggled in the Football League but eventually established themselves as a Third Division club. Bournemouth remains on the records as the longest continuous members of the Third Division. As a league club, Bournemouth had to wait until after the Second World War before winning their first trophy. This was accomplished as they beat Walsall in the Third Division (South) Cup in the final at Stamford Bridge. 

Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic. 

To make the club more representative of the district, the name was changed to Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic Football Club in 1923. During the same year, the club was elected to the newly expanded Third Division South. The first league match was at Swindon Town on 25 August 1923, which Bournemouth lost 3–1. The first league game at Dean Court was also against Swindon, where Bournemouth gained their first league point after a 0–0 draw.

The team's red-and-black kit, introduced in 1971, was based on the AC MILAN strip!! This was the era of Ted MacDougall, a prolific goalscorer who, in an FA Cup tie in November 1971, scored nine goals in an 11–0 win against Margate.

AFC Bournemouth The club adopted the name AFC Bournemouth for the start of the 1971–72 season, with the intention that the club would appear first in alphabetical lists of English clubs. Whilst also keeping the acronym AFC (Athletic Football Club) as part of their name. A year later, the club adopted a new badge as a symbol of its progress. 

The stripes in the background were based on the club shirt, while in the foreground is the profile of a player heading the ball, in honour of Dickey Dowsett, a prolific scorer for the club in the 1950s and 1960s. Watch out for The Cherries match result today at Man City @ 4.30