Headline: Irish Fans Reminisce on Failed Bid for Premier League Team in Dublin
Thousands of fans from across Ireland continue to travel to England for Premier League matches every weekend, with recent crowd figures showcasing their enduring passion. The sold-out 75,000 attendees at Croke Park for last week’s friendly between Manchester United and Leeds set a record for any football match in the Republic of Ireland. Similarly, Arsenal attracted a substantial audience at the Aviva Stadium for their friendly against Real Betis earlier this month.
Despite the growing global interest in the league, those making the journey from Ireland still represent the largest group of traveling supporters each season. This enduring enthusiasm brings to mind an ambitious proposal from three decades ago that envisioned a regular Premier League presence in Dublin.
The idea originated from a seemingly innocuous report in a Sunday newspaper about Wimbledon chairman Sam Hammam’s tense relationship with Merton Council. Following the club’s purchase by Hammam in 1981, the team had been facing difficulties in securing a permanent home and was ground-sharing with Crystal Palace since 1991, a situation deemed unsatisfactory by both parties.
Dublin-born full-back Kenny Cunningham recalled the friction with Crystal Palace fans, who often disparaged Wimbledon as “squatters.” They had enjoyed success on the pitch under Joe Kinnear, finishing sixth in the 1993-94 Premier League season, but the club’s ground issues lingered without a clear resolution.
Inspired by Hammam’s predicament, Tommy Higgins, then associated with Ticketmaster Ireland, discovered that a property developer, Owen O’Callaghan, held planning permission for a 40,000-seat stadium on Dublin’s outskirts, needing a football club to anchor the project. A chance meeting on the streets of Dublin, involving Higgins, businessman Maurice Cassidy, and public figures like Eamon Dunphy and Paul McGuinness, reignited the idea, raising hopes of bringing a team to Dublin.
In the mid-1990s, English football was experiencing a transformation, as it moved away from its previous reputation marked by disasters like Hillsborough and Heysel. The signing of foreign players, alongside local talents like David Beckham, made headlines, and Cunningham noted the excitement of competing against world-class players.
A notable match on August 17, 1996, marked Beckham’s sensational goal from the halfway line in a game against Wimbledon, captivating fans and symbolizing a shift in the Premier League landscape. Meanwhile, an Irish consortium prepared to bid £6 million for a significant portion of the club.
As media attention surrounded the consortium’s plans, the idea of a Dublin-based Premier League team met mixed reactions. Many believed the initiative sounded outlandish and impractical, worried that relocating to Dublin would erase their club’s identity. Concern also emerged from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which feared that a Premier League club in Dublin could undermine the domestic league.
Higgins shared that the concept was potent, particularly during a time when Irish football was enjoying success internationally, but the FAI’s narrow vision limited the discussion. Eventually, after 18 months of negotiations, communications stalled, leading to the consortium’s disappointment as Hammam sold a majority stake in the club for a higher price.
What was to be a Premier League stadium in Dublin has turned into a shopping center instead, while Wimbledon, stripped from its original locale, relocated to Milton Keynes in 2004. Meanwhile, AFC Wimbledon emerged from the community, beginning its journey in the ninth tier of English football, eventually returning to its roots at Plough Lane.
As Cunningham reflects on the past, he acknowledges the nostalgia and lost opportunities presented by the Dublin proposal. “People would be laughing now, but it’s something that would have worked, no doubt about it,” he remarked, highlighting the local support it would have garnered.
“People would be laughing now but it’s something that would have worked, no doubt about it.”
This weekend, and across each one to follow through the Premier League season, thousands will make the journey from all over the island of Ireland to take in a game from England’s top flight.
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Indeed, despite increased interest in the league from all four corners of the globe, those making the short trip from across the Irish Sea still account for the greatest number of travelling supporters each season.
Such is the fixation with all things Premier League that the 75,000 fans who packed a sold-out Croke Park for last week’s friendly between Manchester United and Leeds represented a record crowd for any football match in the Republic of Ireland.
Earlier in the month, Arsenal also drew a huge crowd to the Aviva Stadium for their own friendly with Real Betis.
But what if such occasions were a fortnightly norm rather than summer one-offs? Well, three decades ago an outlandish plan asked that very question.
A crowd of 75,000 watched Manchester United play Leeds in a pre-season friendly at Croke Park this month [Getty Images]
It started with an innocuous report in a Sunday broadsheet. The newspaper told of Wimbledon chairman Sam Hammam’s fractious relationship with Merton Council and the ongoing struggle to come to an arrangement over a permanent home for the club.
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Hammam had bought the club in 1981 but, with plans for an all-seater stadium in Merton having come to nothing, they had been ground-sharing with Crystal Palace since 1991, a situation that suited neither landlord nor tenant.
“We’d always get dog’s abuse off Palace fans calling us squatters,” recalled Kenny Cunningham, the Dublin-born full-back who joined the club from Millwall in 1994.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of respect there, I don’t think. A bit tongue in cheek maybe, but I think they meant it.”
By then, the FA Cup-winning ‘Crazy Gang’ era had come to a close but, under former Republic of Ireland international Joe Kinnear, Wimbledon were firmly established as a top-flight side.
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While there were still grumbles over their direct style, the side were undoubtedly effective, finishing sixth in the 1993-94 campaign.
“We were a small team in what was becoming the greatest league in the world. It was a great feeling to be stood in the tunnel, ready to go up against world class players and knowing we had a chance,” added Cunningham.
“But there was always the issue with the ground, always the talk about what would happen in the medium to long term. Would they go back to Plough Lane? Would they groundshare?”
Upon reading of Hammam’s impasse with the council in the paper, Tommy Higgins landed on a more radical solution.
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Through his role with Ticketmaster Ireland Higgins knew that property developer Owen O’Callaghan had planning permission to build a 40,000-seater stadium on the outskirts of Dublin. All the project needed was an anchor tenant. A stadium in need of a club, a club in need of a stadium.
While a first meeting, attended only by Hammam’s brother, went nowhere, a chance encounter on the streets of Dublin brought together a heavyweight Irish consortium.
When Higgins and businessman Maurice Cassidy ran into former Republic of Ireland player turned television pundit and journalist Eamon Dunphy along with Paul McGuinness, manager of Irish rock band U2, a decision was made to resurrect the plan.
All knew it was a long shot, but could they pull it off?
By the summer of 1996, the Premier League possessed a host of new stars [Getty Images]
The mid-1990s found English football caught between two generations. Edging slowly from the long shadow of the Bradford City stadium fire, Heysel and the Hillsborough disaster, Roman Abramovich’s acquisition of Chelsea heralding an era of foreign ownership was still years away.
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While the league was once largely a British and Irish concern, players such as Jurgen Klinsmann, Dennis Bergkamp and Juninho had sealed incoming transfers to England that would have been unthinkable just a few short years before.
Come 17 August 1996, the opening day of the new season, Gianfranco Zola and Fabrizio Ravanelli were the latest imported stars ready to make unlikely debuts, but it was a considerably more local talent who stole the headlines.
Few goals in Premier League history have been more replayed than David Beckham’s audacious lob from the halfway line against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park.
“If you roll it back very slowly to the point of contact where Beckham goes to shoot, you can me see in the far left of the picture,” said Cunningham.
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“You can blame me for a lot of the goals we conceded when I was at the club, but I don’t think I’ve to hold my hands up on that one.
“But that goal, the way he stepped up on to the scene, there was a lot of commotion about it. That was the Premier League on its way in a lot of ways. It was exciting times.”
Among the crowd at Selhurst Park were the Irish consortium, preparing a bid of £6m for 74% of the notional home side.
Wimbledon finished eighth in the 1996-97 Premier League season and reached the semi-finals of both domestic cups [Getty Images]
Following such a public appearance from the key figures involved, it was no surprise when news of the plans soon broke in the media.
“When the story broke at the time people thought it was crazy stuff, a team in Dublin. They couldn’t entertain it,” said Cunningham.
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“Sam Hammam was before his time in terms of thinking about how he could get his club on the back pages. The football took care of Saturday, but from Sunday to Friday, he’d be very astute in that way.
“I remember thinking then was it just another Sam way to generate that bit more publicity around the club and saying to the gaffer ‘is there any value in this?’ Joe was saying that they were serious.”
Cunningham was keenly aware of the interest back home, even if some team-mates were less sure.
“I don’t mean it as a criticism, but the English boys were a bit insular maybe,” he added. “The lads were talking as if Dublin was the other side of the world, then asking if it was a good night out?
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“A good night out in Dublin…are you serious? I was telling them they were going to love it.”
Hammam believed that his fellow owners and the league’s broadcasters would be no harder to convince than sceptical players. Fans on the other hand…
“I hated it. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous,” said Ivor Heller, who had been a Wimbledon supporter since their non-league days in the 1970s.
“From a business point of view, I could see the sense of it. Man United fans, Liverpool fans, Chelsea fans, Tottenham fans, of course they’d all love an away game in Dublin, but for me, it felt like a nightmare.
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“Nothing against Dublin, but if we moved there, it was the end of the football club. It could never be Wimbledon in Dublin.”
Through his printing business, Heller produced the placards displayed at Selhurst Park which bluntly summed up the mood of the fanbase – ‘Dublin = Death’.
The Football Association of Ireland [FAI] were no more enamoured with the project.
While the consortium felt the behemoth of a Premier League club in Dublin would be the rising tide to lift all boats, and Kinnear envisaged a slew of Irish internationals becoming viable transfer targets, the governing body feared it would essentially kill off their own domestic league.
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“The concept was really, really strong,” said Higgins, now chairman of League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers.
“Jack Charlton’s Irish team was in his heyday, and coming off Italia ’90 and USA ’94, you’d have had a mini-international side playing in Dublin every other week.
“I believe it would have transformed soccer on the island, but they [the FAI] were looking down too narrow a pipe.
“And look at what’s happened since – rugby and the GAA have eaten our lunch and they get the money for TV and sponsorship.
“Soccer just didn’t have the vision to do something transformative.”
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In the end, it was a moot point. After 18 months of talks, the line to Hammam went dead. Calls went unanswered, correspondence unreturned.
Higgins, who still has the unsigned contract among his files, was walking through an airport the next year when he looked up at a television screen to see news that Hammam had sold 80% of the club to Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Kjell Inge Rokke for £26m, more than four times their own bid.
A shopping centre now sits where the Premier League stadium was to be built.
Dublin would not get its team, but nor would Wimbledon keep theirs with the club ultimately moved to Milton Keynes in 2004.
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In the community left behind, AFC Wimbledon were born, starting life in the ninth tier of English football that same year with Heller among four co-founders.
Three decades on from those first murmurs of a move to Dublin, the reclaimed club are a League One side and since returned to their spiritual home of Plough Lane.
“You talk about the FA Cup, league finishes, cup semi-finals, but for me what they’ve done, that’s the biggest achievement in the history of the football club,” said Cunningham.
“To be knocked for six, to go careening down the leagues, and come back, it’s a success every time they take the pitch. Good luck to them.
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“The Dublin thing? It’s a bit of nostalgia now, maybe a bit of sadness at a missed opportunity.
“People would be laughing now but it’s something that would have worked, no doubt about it. Absolutely, people would have rowed in behind it.”
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