Files reveal ex-PM Blair wanted Premier League team in Belfast،
Previously classified documents revealed that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was enthusiastic about moving a Premier League team to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the late 1990s.
Wimbledon FC needed a new stadium after the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster recommended that football teams across the UK should have stadiums for all seats.
The south London club's stadium, Plow Lane, has been deemed unsuitable for redevelopment, forcing the club to look for a new home.
The BBC reported that newly released documents include a 1997 memo described as “following earlier informal discussions about the possibility of moving a Premier League football club to Belfast.
This idea has been described as a possible “significant breakthrough if Belfast had a football team playing in the English Premier League”.
The memo says the idea of moving Wimbledon FC to Belfast “is expected to generate strong cross-community support and provide a positive unifying force in a divided city”.
The British government at the time was keen to find ways to secure peace in Northern Ireland, which had experienced violent ethno-nationalist and sectarian conflict from the late 1960s until the signing of the Peace Agreement. Good Friday in 1998, which created a peace between the parties that stands to this day.
Around 3,500 people are estimated to have died during the conflict, known as the Troubles.
The note suggested that Wimbledon FC would be known as Belfast United if the club had moved.
Sam Hammam, then owner of Wimbledon, had previously explored the idea of moving the team to Dublin, Republic of Ireland, but failed to get the idea accepted by League of Ireland clubs in 1998.
Downing Street's interest in the proposal to move the team to Belfast was evident in a memo from the then chief press secretary, Alastair Campbell, who said that Hammam “had explored the possibility of moving Wimbledon to Dublin, but it seems to have failed.”
He added that the owner was aware of the reports linking the team to Belfast and “wanted to know if it was serious or if it was speculation that was going nowhere”.
A memo dated July 16, 1998 – three months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement – indicated that Blair was enthusiastic about the idea.
The former Prime Minister's opinion was recorded as saying: “It would be excellent if Wimbledon moved to Belfast and we should encourage that as much as possible.”
The Irish football authorities “are said to strongly oppose this idea”.
Wimbledon FC, relegated from the Premier League in 2000, eventually moved to Milton Keynes in 2004 after an FA arbitration hearing in 2002 and were renamed MK Dons.
Many of the supporters of the old Wimbledon FC formed a new club known as AFC Wimbledon, which has since moved from the ninth division of English football to where they now play in League Two at a stadium near the original site of ancient Plow. Way.
