Dons Ready To Head Back Home

Erik's joy as club can build future...

- Chris Dunlavy

AFC WIMBLEDON chief executive Erik Samuelson says battling for a return to Plough Lane gave him sleepless nights.

The Dons reformed in 2002 after the original Wimbledon controversially relocated to Milton Keynes and have played ‘home’ games in Kingston ever since.

Yet the club’s founders always dreamed of a return to the borough of Merton, which had been without a football club since May 1991 when the Taylor Report forced Wimbledon into exile at Selhurst Park.

Plans have dragged on and stalled, but on Wednesday Merton Council finally gave the green light to a £25m stadium just yards from the Dons’ old Plough Lane home.

“It’s a marvellous achievement,” said Samuelson, the Sunderland-born accountant who has witnessed six promotions in the 15 years since he first volunteered as the club’s finance director.

“When you’re in negotiations, there are frustrating times. A problem comes up and you think ‘How the hell will we get round this one?’

“You say ‘We just can’t do A’. Then they say ‘Well we can’t do C’. And neither of you can work out what B is!

“Nothing stops me going to sleep but there are times when I’ve woken in the middle of the night and thought ‘I have to get up and shake this out of my head’. It was almost obsessive.”