This article is more than 16 years old

This article is more than 16 years old

The latest chapter in one of the most controversial sagas in recent footballing history has been written, as the Football League has given Wimbledon permission to change their name to Milton Keynes Dons FC.

The move, which is bound to infuriate already outraged London-based fans, comes in time for this Thursday's publication of the fixture lists for the 2004/5 season. The club will officially change its name "once the formalities regarding the share transfer have been completed and approved by the League."

Wimbledon moved to Milton Keynes in September 2003 but were relegated to Nationwide Division Two at the end of last season.

They currently play at the National Hockey Stadium, but hope to eventually move to a new 28,000-seater ground in Denbigh.

The InterMK consortium headed by music promoter Pete Winkleman is poised to complete a takeover and take the club out of administration.

After Wimbledon announced interest in finding a new home away in Milton Keynes in 2001, the FA took more than a year to approve the move.

The decision was criticised by many supporters across the country as US-style "franchising", a common practice whereby top sports teams are regularly bought and sold and move from city to city.

In the summer of 2002, outraged Dons fans formed a breakaway non-League club, AFC Wimbledon, which joined the Combined Counties League.

Despite the independent commission's ruling that the formation of such a club "would not be in the wider interests of football", AFC Wimbledon have thrived, climbing to the Ryman First Division.

As Wimbledon's move was delayed several times, the club was placed in administration and many top players were sold. The move to the National Hockey Stadium last September could not prevent relegation.

A statement from Winkleman's consortium said: "We feel the name 'Milton Keynes Dons FC' will represent the past, present and future and place the club at the heart of its new community.

"The FA Commission recommended that the club should always retain a link with its former identity."