AFC Wimbledon Members to Vote on Up to £3m of Unsecured Borrowing as Trust Flags Going-Concern Uncertainty

The borrowing request

The Dons Trust AGM is on Monday 14 December at 7pm at The Cherry Red Records Stadium, Plough Lane, followed immediately by the AFCW PLC AGM. The board will ask members to approve a resolution allowing the club to take out an unsecured loan of up to £3m if needed. It says it has received offers of unsecured loans that would help the club over the short term, and that more detail will be in the AGM papers.

The Trust is specific about what the resolution does and does not mean. Unsecured borrowing would not be secured against Plough Lane or any other asset of the Trust or the club, and approval would give the board an option to borrow rather than a plan to. The Trust says it does not mean the club intends or expects to borrow the full £3m. It has not said who has offered the loans or on what terms.

An uncertainty last year's accounts did not include

The Trust says the accounts will come to members and PLC shareholders with a material uncertainty about whether the club is a going concern, reflecting uncertainty over its future cash position and the action needed to address it. AFCW PLC's next accounts, made up to 27 June 2026, are due at Companies House by 27 December, and the AGM falls a fortnight earlier.

That is a change from last year. The accounts for the year to 30 June 2025, signed in November 2025 after promotion to League One, recorded no material uncertainty, and the directors said they were confident the group would have adequate resources for at least twelve months. Those accounts showed record turnover of £10.2m, a loss of £2.8m for the year, cash of £1.3m at the year end, down from £1.7m, and net debt of £6.7m, down from £8.5m.

A material uncertainty is a disclosure that the club's ability to keep trading depends on things not yet settled. It is not a finding that the club cannot continue, and the Trust says the boards are concentrating on the actions that would resolve it: managing costs, keeping borrowing options open and pursuing long-term investment.

How long the cash lasts

The Trust's outlook is now that, with the loan options available and careful cost management, it currently expects to manage the club's cash position through to the end of this season and into the next. It describes cash flow as a challenge this season and says finances are tighter without the investment.

The member pack published on 21 October put the position differently. It gave "4 – 6 months until the club's professional viability is at risk without a new model". The Trust does not set out how the outlook has changed beyond the borrowing options and cost management, and the two statements were made in different circumstances, the earlier one before any loan offers had been mentioned.

Bonds

The Plough Lane Bond is the club's other source of short-term cash. The member pack said on 21 October that just under £1m had been raised towards the £1.6m to £1.7m the club expects to repay by June 2027. The Trust now says it has raised just over £1m, and that a significant amount is still to be found. As we reported on 8 November, the club and the Trust owe £7.5m to bondholders, of which £3.1m falls due by 30 June 2027.

Investors, and the ground

Ryan Bertrand, Stuart Fiertz, Oliver Ward and Hugh Rosen continue to work together as Sloane Street Football, and have told the Trust they are talking to potential investors, including some who approached them before and during the process. Sloane Street Capital's withdrawal ended the exclusivity agreed in September, so the board can now speak to other investors while continuing to work with SSF.

On 8 November the Trust reported that SSF intended to return with a proposal on the same terms. The update says any future proposal will be treated as new, subject to full due diligence, approval by the regulator and the EFL, and a vote of members. The Trust adds that the structure put to members, and the legal and governance work behind it, gives it a foundation for whatever comes next.

The Trust is also continuing with its plan to move The Wider Interests of Football, the company that holds Plough Lane, out from under AFCW PLC and into a new holding company with the same ownership. It says that work may not be complete before members are asked to consider any new proposal. Five seats on the Trust board are up for election, four for three years and one for one year, and nominations close at 23:59 on Friday 20 November.

The Bottom Line

A week after the investment collapsed, the Trust has set out its interim plan: an option to borrow up to £3m without putting the ground at risk, continued bond sales, and a wider search for investors. It has also been open that the next accounts will include a going-concern uncertainty that last year's did not.

The AGM papers should give members the detail the update leaves out, including the terms of the loan offers. The accounts themselves are due at Companies House by 27 December.