- The plan was to maneuver struggling south London membership Wimbledon over to Belfast
- They can be re-named Belfast United and a 40,000-seater stadium constructed
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Tony Blair wished to relocate struggling Premier League membership Wimbledon to Belfast within the late Nineties.
Previously categorised authorities papers reveal the previous Labour Prime Minister thought it an ‘glorious’ concept to encourage the south London membership to maneuver to Northern Ireland.
A memo from 1997, not lengthy after Blair swept to energy, is described as ‘following up earlier casual discussions about the potential of an English Premier League soccer membership relocating to Belfast.’
The metropolis having an English Premier League membership can be a ‘important breakthrough’, the doc stated, and ‘ought to be capable of construct up robust cross-community assist and supply a constructive unifying power in a divided metropolis.’
The notice urged renaming Wimbledon as Belfast United and constructing them a 40,000-seater sports activities stadium, funded principally by the personal sector, both on Queen’s Island in east Belfast or the North Foreshore within the north of town.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, pictured on the Football Association HQ in London in 1997, wished to relocate Premier League membership Wimbledon to Belfast throughout the late Nineties
Wimbledon had received the FA Cup in 1988 however had fallen upon laborious occasions by the late Nineties
Blair’s response recorded he thought it ‘can be glorious if Wimbledon have been to maneuver to Belfast and we must always encourage this as a lot as doable.’
The story was leaked to the Belfast Telegraph, who reported that Secretary of State Mo Mowlam was backing the thought, which the federal government believed would carry contemporary funding into Northern Ireland.
However, the memo additionally recorded robust native opposition within the soccer neighborhood amid concern it might ‘kill off the sport in Northern Ireland.’
Downing Street chief press secretary Alistair Campbell famous that Wimbledon’s proprietor Sam Hammam had ‘explored the potential of transferring Wimbledon to Dublin.’
It was famous Hammam wished to gauge how critical the Belfast relocation concept was.
An extra bulletin dated July 16, 1998 – a number of months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed – offered Blair’s private assist for the proposal.
It was adopted up on August 17, with the matter at a ‘delicate stage’ because the Irish soccer authorities ‘continued to withstand the thought strongly.’
Television presenter Eamonn Holmes, from Belfast, and three native newspapers had been ‘lively in accumulating public assist.’
Blair stands alongside the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern throughout the Northern Ireland peace course of
Wimbledon chief Sam Hammam had appeared into relocating the membership to Dublin within the Nineties
The scenario hadn’t progressed a lot by the point of the subsequent change in April 1999.
A member of the Bring Premier League Soccer to Northern Ireland wrote that ‘troublesome, intense open, trustworthy debate, dialogue and negotiation is required’ however the reward may very well be ‘certainly nice and doubtlessly magnificent. A scenario just like the peace course of.’
The concept was ultimately shelved and 1988 FA Cup winners Wimbledon ultimately relocated to Milton Keynes and renamed as MK Dons in 2004.
A successor membership, AFC Wimbledon, was based by followers and has climbed the soccer pyramid. They at the moment play in League Two.
Another cache of newly-declassified paperwork launched in 2022 revealed that Campbell wrote to Blair in 1998 suggesting an Old Firm match between Rangers and Celtic be staged in Belfast.
The file urged the 2 sides might swap kits and put on their rival group’s colors for the match, not lengthy earlier than the vote on the Good Friday Agreement.
Alistair Campbell (proper), former advisor to PM Tony Blair, wrote a letter in 1998 suggesting a match in Belfast between Celtic and Rangers (left) to publicise the Good Friday Agreement
Campbell stated: ‘An concept. What about organising a match between Rangers and Celtic, in Belfast, within the remaining days of the referendum marketing campaign?
‘It can be a novel occasion in its personal proper, however we might add to it by getting Celtic to put on Rangers strips, and Rangers to put on Celtic strips (although one or two of the Rangers gamers to my sure data, could have problem with this).
‘However, each by way of elevating publicity for the marketing campaign, and in sending out a message, it could be very highly effective.
‘I’ve a direct into Celtic, whereas I can get Alex Ferguson to method the Rangers finish.
‘Before I proceed, do you and (Secretary of State) Mo (Mowlam) suppose it’s value pursuing even when, given finish of season commitments, it might not be doable to get all the massive names there?’
There isn’t any document of anybody getting again to Campbell in regards to the concept.