Dear parents and family of players,

On his first day of being appointed first team manager, Glyn Hodges challenged the academy to enable him to put out an academy XI in a first team fixture.

We honestly feel this is achievable, but it would mean so much more if this feat was done at Plough Lane, the home of the original Wimbledon FC.

Whether your boy is in the current U18s or U9s, it is the clubs dream to give him a home to run out on

As you may know, the club is on the verge of returning to Plough Lane with the new stadium scheduled for completion this autumn.

However, there is a funding shortfall for the final construction contract, which needs to be signed off by February 2020.

The Dons Trust Board have therefore created an initiative called ‘The Plough Lane Bond’ with the aim to raise a minimum of £5m towards the current funding shortfall of £11m.

The more we raise, the better the financial position the club will be in with regard to any further commercial lending required.

As part of this initiate, the academy wants to show their support by purchasing a bond, and we are asking families of players in the academy to donate into the bond to help increase the bonds value, which will go towards helping the club go back home.

No one is obliged to make a donation and there is no minimum or maximum to the amount you can donate.

The bond we purchase we will look to purchase at 0% interest, and in 5 years’ time once we get the value of the bond returned, the monies will go back into the development programme here in the academy.

We are not looking to make money from this, our objective is clearly to come together as help as much as we can, get this club back to Plough Lane.

More information on the initiative can be found here: www.ploughlanebond.com

Michael Hamilton
Academy Manager
AFC Wimbledon