AFC Varndeanians Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, England. The club are currently members of the and play at the

Withdean Stadium Withdean Stadium is an athletics stadium in Withdean, a suburb of Brighton. It was constructed in 1930. It was the home track of Olympic athlete Steve Ovett. Between 1999 and 2011 it was the home ground of football team Brighton & Hove Albion ...

History

The club was formed as Old Varndeanians Football Club in 1929, when Secondary Old Boys club (which was dominated by former pupils of

Varndean School Varndean School is a secondary school serving a large area of Brighton, England. In 2013, 2017 and 2022, Ofsted inspectors described Varndean as a 'Good' school. Varndean shares the Surrenden Campus with Balfour Primary School, Dorothy String ...

) was renamed and decided only to accept former Varndeanians as players.History part 3
AFC Varndeanians Secondary Old Boys had been members of Division One of the

Brighton, Hove & District League The Brighton, Hove & District Football League was a football competition involving teams in and around Brighton, Hove and Worthing, in England. The league was established in 1903 and reached ten divisions in size by 1967. However, with the numbe ...

, with the new club continuing in their place. They were relegated to Division Two in 1930–31, and after finishing bottom of Division Two in 1934–35, were relegated to Division Three. Old Varndeanians were dissolved during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

before being re-established in 1946, playing at Preston Park. They rejoined the Brighton, Hove & District League for the 1947–48 season, becoming members of Division Three. After finishing as runners-up in their first season back in the league, they were promoted to Division Two.History part 7
AFC Varndeanians They finished fourth in Division Two in 1948–49, after which it was renamed the Intermediate Division. After a fifth-placed finish in 1951–52 the club were promoted to the Senior Division. They moved up to Division Two of the

Sussex County League The Southern Combination Football League (named Premier Sports Southern Combination Football League) is a football league broadly covering the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey and South West London, England. The league consists of e ...

in 1956. They were runners-up in 1956–57 (also winning the Invitation Cup), 1957–58 and 1958–59, before winning the division in 1959–60, resulting in promotion to Division One. The club rules were also loosened to allow brothers and sons of former pupils to play for the club. After finishing bottom of division in 1961–62, they were relegated back to Division Two. They remained in Division Two until leaving the league in 1973. The club rejoined the Brighton, Hove & District League and were placed in Premier Division, which they won in their first season back in the league. The club were Premier Division runners-up in 1979–80, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1995–96 and 1997–98, before winning a second title in 1999–2000. They went on to win retain the title the following season, and after finishing as runners-up in 2001–02, the club were champions again in 2002–03. Old Varndeanians transferred to the Mid-Sussex League in 2003, winning the Premier Division in their first season and again in 2006–07 and 2008–09. In 2004–05 they won both the Montgomery Cup and the Allan Washer League Trophy. In 2015 the club adopted their current name. They finished seventh in the Premier Division in 2014–15,Gray Hooper Holt LLP Mid Sussex Football League
FA Full Time and switched to Division Two of the Southern Combination League (a renamed Sussex County League) for the 2015–16 season. They won the division at the first attempt, earning promotion to Division One. In 2021 AFC Varndeanians were promoted to the Premier Division based on their results in the abandoned 2019–20 and

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

seasons.

Club records

*Best league performance: 17th in Southern Combination Premier Division, 2022–23 and 2023–24 *Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

performance: First qualifying round, 2019–20 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

performance: Second qualifying round, 2018–19, 2020–21

Honours

*Southern Combination League **Division Two champions 1959–60 (second tier), 2015–16 (third tier) **Division Two Invitation Cup winners 1956–57 *Mid-Sussex League **Premier Division champions 2003–04, 2006–07, 2008–09 **Montgomery Challenge Cup winners 2004–05 **Allan Washer League Trophy winners 2004–05 *Brighton, Hove & District League **Premier Division champions 1973–74, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03 *Hove and Worthing Cup **Winners 1948–49

References

External links

Official website
{{Southern Combination League Football clubs in England Football clubs in East Sussex 1929 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1929 Brighton, Hove & District Football League Southern Combination Football League Mid-Sussex Football League Sport in Brighton and Hove