How Ireland NEARLY Had A Premier League Team
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- Опубліковано 11 кві 2023
- When the Premier League was founded in 1992, the Republic of Ireland were ranked sixth in the FIFA World Rankings, had reached the quarter finals of the 1990 World Cup, and - unlike England - would qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
Despite their international success though, the League of Ireland continued to struggle, and it was in this context that a consortium from Ireland attempted to relocate Premier League team Wimbledon FC to the Irish capital of Dublin.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at Ireland's efforts to establish a Premier League team, how they were thwarted, and what happened instead - as well as pondering what might have been. - Спорт
Literally found out about this last week, but was sad to see so little information about it on Wikipedia. And now Alfie makes a 32-minute video about it. What a king, thank you sir.
Copa90's channel has a couple of very good videos on Wimbledon as well.
League of Ireland attendances have increase significantly in the last few years and is getting better, more competitive in Europe including some group stages
League of Ireland attendances are massively on the up 👆
New statistics show that over 34,500 more people attended Premier Division games in the first series of games in 2023 compared with the first series last year ⚽️
Some 161,502 have passed through the gates so far this season, with the average attendance up to 3,590 from 2,821 🇮🇪
It all accounts to a 27% rise in supporters attending Premier Division games 👍
Now is when the investment is needed.
Sligo, Derry, Bohs could easily get double their attendances through the door if facilities improve. Pats, Drogs and Dundalk as well.
Encouraging too that First Division clubs like Galway United and Waterford are regularly getting over 1,500 at their games too. All of Kerry’s home games selling out so far very encouraging
Yeah build your own league
@Stephen like I'm a irish Wimbledon fan. Who's no.1 team is cork city. The league is growing but had like 50 years of decline & stagnation. So many orish traveling to English grounds and investing in British teams while orish teams struggle to pay the bill is a large part of the problem but thongs are on the up right now
There is actually some signs of hope for the League of Ireland actually because since the start of the season attendances are up 20% from the same time last year. The biggest problem for most clubs now is actually that the stadiums are too small to fit the demand which is nice to see
Great video too Alfie btw
A lot of games are starting to sell out which is great
Mate the stadiums are never full dont be lying, I went to the fai cup final in the 50,000 Aviva and only 30,000 showed up
Most matches are lucky to have 2000-3000 spectators
I go Shelburne home matches and away matches vs Pats, Bohs and Rovers the teams can't fill their tiny stadiums these days compared to even the early 00s
Let me tell you the true story. About 1995, I was a 12 year old Celtic fan. My father brought me to see my first Celtic game which was Celtic v Hibs in the Scottish Cup Semi. On the flight back I moaned to my dad how Ireland had no big football... and it would be a dream to have a Premier League team in Dublin. On the flight, myself, him and my uncle speculated about how to do it. We came to the conclusion that you would have to try move a team which had a small fan base. We came to the conclusion it was Wimbledon. When we got back to Dublin... my Dad threw himself into seeing how possible it was. The table in our house was cover in papers detailing all Wimbledons players etc. My Dad ended up meeting Sam Hammann... and people like Kevin Moran ... to try make it happen. My Dad gave up on the idea after a while... but it was amazing to see take n up by various parties thereafter. True story.
you have a great dad he was gonna create a whole new premier league club just for you 😂
Hey Stephen, nice surname. 👍🏻
I'm sure it was
As a wimbledon fan definetly keep that to yourself if you ever find yourself around dons supporters, still a subject that brings out a bunch of anger for a bunch of us. Cool story though
I would prefer the best of both worlds where we keep our own leagues. But have extra cross border cups with Scottish, Welsh. ENGLISH, Irish. MLS, French and Belgian club sides on top of Eurooean and domestic football. Or a Celtic nations conference in the MLS.
Hey Alfie, could you do a video on Glentoran and or their 1914 Vienna Cup? They were the first team from the British Isles to win a European trophy. Their stadium alone has seen plenty of history, especially off the field as it’s right next to the shipyards (the same yards where the Titanic was built) and was even bombed during the Belfast Blitz. The Oval was hit by bombers as it was mistaken for an oil storage facility. As a result, nearly everything was destroyed during the Blitz. The Vienna Cup being one of the only things surviving the attacks. The Historical Belfast podcast did a fine piece on this but I feel Glentoran deserve the HITC Seven’s treatment as well. Also, Glentoran turned away a young George Best. This was because he was “too small.”
Good shout!
They were only the 3rd British club to achieve that feat, with Bishop Auckland winning the Coupe Jean Dupuich in 1909 and West Auckland Town having won back-to-back Lipton Trophies in 1910 and 1911.
@@decb Noted. Thanks! Unfortunately, UEFA does not recognize any of them to my knowledge nor do they acknowledge Glentoran’s 1914 Cup.
@willflint5014 because they aren't European cups mate, they are local cup competitions that took place in a country in europe but wasn't the best from europe at that time. Basically, it's like winning the milk cup in northen Ireland but just at senior level
Now you mention the re-election process, I think a video on that subject would be very useful for a large number of people to see, especially in light of the developments at the top of the National League this season!
Never thought I'd hear Neilstown being discussed in a HITC Sevens video, but here we are
I went to Selhurst Park in 2003 to see my team Portsmouth play Wimbledon. In protest of the move to Milton Keynes, there were only a couple of hundred home fans in attendance compared to about 10,000 Pompey fans. Wimbledon actually won 2-1 which was a bit of an upset as Portsmouth would win the league that season and get promoted to the Premier League.
I felt awful for the fans who lost their club but at least AFC Wimbledon are now a league side.
ALOHA ALFIE! Is there any way you could please do a video showing all the worst debuts in history. You could perhaps cover where they came from before their debut, and it would be interesting to see if anybody had such a bad debut thay it had a detrimental effect on their time at the club/rest of their career. Much love and keep up the great content.
Jonathan Woodgate's debut at RM was particularly bad, guy waited a year cause of injury, scored an OG and got sent off
Ali Dia
@@CeemPlay Ali Dia...Is a Liar, Is a Liar
Ali Dia is a great shout lmao. JOAO Félix this season and I'm sure ndidi had a shocker on his debut but might be wrong with that last one
Joe Cole at Liverpool got sent off v Arsenal and then only played 20ish games in 3 years for the club, if I remember right
I remember hearing about this year's ago that Wimbledon were considering relocating to Dublin and it was in fact the FAI that had blocked the move because they feasted it would have had too much of a negative impact on the Irish game looking back it was a very silly suggestion really without any logic behind it and if Wimbledon were playing their home matches in Dublin every 2nd week no one would have been watching local football at all where attendances are already bad but this move would have officially killed off the League of Ireland entirely so common sense at least prevailed in this instance
common sense prevailing in the FAI, especially back then must have been an accident!
Suggestion: the downfall of Romania and Bulgaria's National Teams (and good players by extension) after a very good period in the 90's. Neither has managed to qualify for a single World Cup since 98 and the few European Cup participations have been pretty poor.
He did Reading a few weeks back. George Puscas image came up quite a few times 😢😢😢😢😢😢
I remember that wonderful 94 Bulgarian team
To add some context to how ridiculous a 40,000 seater stadium in Neilstown would have been/is, Neilstown is practically a large residential estate between Lucan and Clondalkin, which at the time each would have housed roughly 10,000 residents.
Alfie have you ever thought about doing a video on the CIS national football team?
The were created as a replacement for the USSR national team during euro 92. I think it would make an interesting vid.
Love your channel Alfie.
One of my favourite videos from this page 👏🏾👏🏾
And today shamrock rovers u14s just won The Hale cup against top academia such as city spurs and arsenal
Irish clubs at youth always so well. The infrastructure to develop youth is shambolic unfortunately. I remember St Kevin's beating Man United, Athletico, Stoke and Barcelona
I believe you may have already done a video on this, if not then a documentary on why Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham play in the English football league
Because when Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff were formed there wasn't a Welsh league.
And Newport
And Merthyr Town :p
Don't forget my team Merthyr Town
Simply put, the league was expanded and Welsh clubs were offered places based on how strong they were
Always with the Classics ⚽️. 🔥
The shock I felt hearing the name of my local shopping centre leave Alfies mouth can't be described
Thanks for covering this love the videos
Amazing work as always
I can see Ireland today as a very strong and passionate nation in football even just watching the euro qualifiers but am I the only one who thinks that "Dublin Dons" would have made terrible nicknames of " Dublin Ding Dongs" or "Dublin Knobs" by other supporter groups? No just me, ok ill leave this here. Great video Alfie
Loving the Irish content Alfie. “32” minute video as well 😏
1 minute for every county
One more minute and he'd be a Freemason.
26 + 6 = 1
@@ChubbyChecker182 haha😄
@@Support-your-local-team 32 county's, 4 provenance's, 2 State's, 1 Country
Great video again Alfie
Oh god, I couldn't imagine a Prem team in Neilstown, it's an absolute kip
Lots of Prem stadiums are in neighbourhoods you could describe as ‘kips’
Thank you Alfie brilliant video. I'm from Ireland and it brings me back to that time we nearly got a Premier league team.
Why would you want won - The most west Brit idea Ive ever heard
@@mulhern1988 I believe it would of improved Irish football. How many irish people follow the Premier league we would have our own team. I believe it could of worked alongside our own domestic league
@@macdaraomiachain4121 MK dons where Wimbeldon moved to are 19th in League one. Shamrock rovers would be a better side than them. So why not just support ur own.
@@macdaraomiachain4121 only thing that will help the league is when Irish people start supporting it. Irish people are football developments biggest obstacle.
Diego Simeone would have had a field day with that Wimbledon team
I remember Clydebank being linked to a Dublin group too. They were hoping to play in the Scottish leagues not long after this
never heard that one
The 7 most confusing/unorthodox league systems
Longford Town fan (who?) here in Ireland. Great video as always, Alfie.
Great video well done
Alfie, as you are a Hull City fan would you happen to remember a young player who played once for Hull by the name of Simon Russell. He went on to play hundreds of times in the national league and he’s now my PE teacher
I deleted my previous post because I was wrong there. But here's a thing to ponder: Milton Keynes is the home of both the MK Dons, and Red Bull Racing. Why hasn't RBR (or Red Bull proper) picked up the MK Dons and grommed them into championship contendors yet (like with e.g. RB Leipzig)? Plus the club could serve as the Red Bull Racing football works team as well, like the VfL Wolfsburg is to Volkswagen or Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Bayer AG.
There were proposals by red bull but they got turned down
Fantastic content
I remember this being spoken about at the time for a new home for Franchise FC (MK Dons my hole) - but you know the development is bad when Bertie Ahern won't even back it. Although maybe he didn't see a kick back for himself in the deal, who knows.
Great video, Alfie. I knew the story but not in as much detail.
I remember this at the time, I also remember being shocked at how popular the idea was amongst my friends and work colleagues! It was all pie in the sky though!
Fascinating video. There have been other cases where owners have proposed moving clubs hundreds of miles to what they saw as a bigger fan base, e.g. in the early 1990s someone proposed moving Maidstone United who had no ground in Maidstone to the Newcastle area but that was ruled-out. I remember the Wimbledon to Dublin proposal and don't think it ever had much chance of being accepted. Thankfully in England and I think most other nations we don't have a franchise system as they have in other sports where owners can move clubs / teams hundreds of miles and rename and rebrand them. Instead we very much have the idea that clubs are rooted in their locality and while many things can change that cannot. I suppose the exception to that would seem to be Wimbledon's ultimate move to Milton Keynes but that was seen rather questionably as the only way to save the club. It was a highly controversial move and I can't see it being allowed again - if it were the floodgates could open.
Those heady days when Southport was in the 4th division. 🥺
They also offered Wimbledon fans flights to Dublin at the time if the team moved there
Yet another quality video
Since I have just only heard about Wimbledon,one of my favourite respective clubs ever to be nearly changed the nationality from one of my ancestrial nations England to Ireland which was a travesty to identity of the club which was being rescued,good friends!!!Now,they are in the English Fourth Division but I fully hope that they would slowly be back to their past best and see them having their own identity,good friends!!!:-D
I remember this time. Great summary
This could be a good idea for Create a Club
Thank you, Very nice work 🎉
What is next planned in your documentary series?, how Borussia Dortmund almost went bankrupt in 2002 time?😮
Or how Club Atletic Oradea won the Hungary League as it is a Romanian team now 😊
What on earth is going on series - Inverness Caledonian thistle
If you look at how they been in their current League for a six years now
They look like they won’t ever get back to SPL 😢
You have been requesting it for years lol
@@patricksharkey3097 yea, it is up to Alfie what he wants to do
We as viewers can suggest topics 😊
I’m probably unique among most here that I live in South West London, am a Shamrock Rovers fan and don’t support an English club.
I frequently go to Wimbledon with a true die hard Don.
This was a stain on everything and everyone involved. A slap in the face to the LOI, the dons, their fan base. It was an example of the horrible corruption of the Celtic tiger and it’s telling that almost all involved (on the Irish side) are vilified or held in contempt “post boom”
“The Bertie bowl” and all that goes with it. Bastards. C’mon the hoops - 4 in a row here we go.
Yep and you still hear this armchair expert talk about how great it would've been for Irish football, make cringe so bad.
Well said. Not a Rovers fan (Pats) but wholeheartedly agree. Would have been an absolute disgrace if this had been allowed to happen. I remember the period well.
It wouldn’t have worked anyway. Irsh fans would’ve poison the atmosphere with sectarianism. The premier league doesn’t need that. And besides the premier league is global. It’s shown in a 150 countries equalling over a 2 billion fan base and still growing..
@@Stand663what a narrow minded concept, “sectarianism” on the basis of being Irish? I hope you manage to broaden your ideas.
Hi Alfie,love the videos. Any chance you would ever do a video on the Austrian Wunderteam star Mattias Sindelar(aka The Papery Man)and his suspicious death in 1939 after his anti-Nazi stance?
Day 1 of asking for a video about the rise, fall, and rise again of Queens Park FC, oldest club in scotland, from being in the third division and on the brink of bankruptcy 10 years ago, to the brink of promotion to the top flight now
Future is actually bright for League of Ireland & 🇮🇪⚽️ in general!!!
Very interesting ❤ Can we have a video about Maltese Football please? Thank you
Im womble til I die ! So happy you made this video on our ridiculous story. The history, the betrayal, the revival. Being in the south stand at plough lane singing at the top of my lungs fills me with so much pride and I wasn't even around for all of the chaos (Pre-AFC)!
Two times out of non-league!
were never gonna stop.
From franchise to the FA, we beat the f@cking lot!
From Batsford to Dave Bassette
At Plough Lane we belong
We are loyal supporters!
And we come from Wimbledon!
alle alle alle!
a Dublin man remembering all of this, totally agrees with you Alfie
Would Freddy Adu have played for them if they moved to Dublin?
Freddy Abú!
Excellent video. I remember the whole Dublin Dons fiasco well. The whole League was against this at the time despite Dunphy, some dodgy developers and crooked politicians being on board. No matter what way this would have went eventually, it would have been a disaster.
Being a diehard St Pat's supporter from Clondalkin, this would have destroyed the catchment area for a club who, at that time, were the biggest in the country. St Pat's main areas of support (outside of the immediate vicinity of Inchicore) are Clondalkin (in which Neilstown is situated), Lucan, Cherry Orchard, Ballyfermot and in to Kildare. All still huge catchment areas for the club today fwiw. Some form of Wimbledon planted there would have decimated all of that. Shamrock Rovers move to Tallaght, not far from Neilstown, might not have happened either.
It's all 'what ifs' but thankfully, in terms of attendances and standards, the League of Ireland is in a good place, MK Dons are shit and AFC Wimbledon are a sustainable Football League club playing in the area they're originally from with a history to be proud of.
Well researched as always.
i remember reading in Darragh McAnthony (peterborough chairman) he was looking at getting involved in moving Wimbledon to Dublin as well. How true this is i cant comment
Interesting. I had been aware of some of that obviously (I'min my 50s so remember some ofvtge news coverageat the time), but there was quite a lot that was new to me.
Video Request: What On Earth Is Going On At Portadown?
Very much appreciate the dig at my club (Waterford FC) rivals Cork City with their damaged roof, nice.
I really can't believe that this was a thing, an Irish club supporting an English club.. no chance of that ever happening.. oh wait.. never mind.
Fancy becoming a Waterford FC supporter lad? g'waaaan ya will! our owner also owns Fleetwood Town, just in case that tickles your interest.
If we had an Irish team in the Premier League that would be shocking.
Why??
No idea.
Would have been atrocious for the Irish league to be fair.
@@Support-your-local-team I don't think it would have been the league of ireland already is competing with Premier league teams they already have rearranged the season to avoid competing with them, it would have drove interest in the sport as well as brought investment into the sport rather than being dependent on john delaney crooked fai
@@od9694 they didn't reschedule to compete for an audience, they play during the summer to help compete with cl/euro qualification.
Perfect segway for an AFC Wimbledon video 👀
That story we've never heard before? The one that doesn't actually go over facts and just acts like Wimbledon were moved for a laugh?
@@AJ-ct8om Where fans had their club ripped out of their community and started from the bottom, that one?
@@callumbrodie8672 Same community that didn't give a shit about its club and let it play 7 and a half miles up the road averaging 14k attendances in the Premier League and 7k attendances in the Championship? That community?
@@AJ-ct8om Yeah mate, that community. What's the point you're trying to make here?
@Callum Brodie that the story has been told time and time again, and everybody has already decided the narrative- which rarely concentrates on what WFC did wrong, including the fanbase
Posting for the 9th time:
I created an all-time XI with no overlap of international careers - no player was active for their national team at the same time as any other player.
Here it is (with the years of each player's international career listed in parentheses):
🇩🇪 Oliver Kahn (1995 - 2006)
🇩🇪 Manfred Kaltz (1975 - 1983), 🏴 Bob Crompton (1902 - 1914), 🇧🇷 Thiago Silva (2008 - ), 🇩🇪 Andreas Brehme (1984 - 1994)
🇺🇾 José Leandro Andrade (1923 - 1930), 🇮🇹 Ugo Locatelli (1936 - 1940)
🇮🇹 Valentino Mazzola (1942 - March 1949)
🇧🇷 Pelé (1957 - 1971), 🇧🇷 Neco (1917 - 1922), 🇭🇺 Zoltán Czibor (May 1949 - 1956)
Manager: 🇨🇿 Karel Petrů (1931 - 1935)
If you choose to ignore the position of manager, Ugo Locatelli can be replaced in midfield by 🇦🇷 Antonio Sastre (1933 - 1941).
How about making a video featuring an XI you created using this limitation (and without using uncapped players)?
I dunno if he'll ever make a video out of it, but props for the creativity
Bob crompton was shite i rinced him in training nearly every week. If it wasn’t for our stupid manager that had a grudge against me you’d be putting my name on that list
like Steve Bruce
What editing do you use ?
Remember this well and the uproar that went with it. It really was a non starter.
I mean, yeah, except they moved the team to some bullshit new-estate in England instead. Hardly seems better. Seems like some kind of American sports-owner bullshit that should never be allowed.
20:58 Reminds me of England's Euro 2012 squad picture.
No wonder they lost with only 10 players. 😮
Please make a documentary about the following topics:
-Corrine Diacre’s controversial/toxic tenure as the manager of France’s Women’s National team which lead her to get sacked last month
-The alleged attack on Kheira Hamaroui by her own former PSG Teammate Aminata Diallo
-The drama/scandal surrounding Gregg Berhalter and Gio Reyna’s parents during the 2022 FIGA World Cup
-Ranking all of the goals that won the FIFA World Cup Goal of the Tournament Award
Make a video about the best teams from every continent
In the first 5 minutes of this video Wimbledon scored 2 goals, by the end of it, we lost 3-2
Speaking Of Ireland
Could You Do What On Earth Is Going On At Finn Harps?
They Were Relegated From The League Of Ireland Last Season
The Irish would have lost interest as soon as they realised the Dublin Dons would be playing in the lower divisions and would have been out of business within two years,
Ireland has a decent a fairly well supported league now and we do not suffer from the same level of insecurity as we did then. Also having lived through this JUST ABOUT EVERYONE involved was a white collar criminal on the Irish end.
Absolutely. The main attraction for Irish football “supporters” would have been for Liverpool and Man U fans to get to see”their” teams play in Dublin. You would have had a bizarre situation where the home supporters would have been vastly outnumbered by opposition fans. And if relegation happened, interest would soon have dropped off. As someone who supports my local team I’m so glad this never happened.
What could've been a meteoric shift for Irish football
Wouldn't have been good in the long run. Wales is a good example, clubs are mostly foreign players to remain competitive and player development is mediocre because of a low amount of clubs (4) with any academy set up and these still get poached by bigger academies. This also subsequently killed the Cymru league and so many players just don't have a decent path forward if they aren't deemed good enough, young enough by the 4 Welsh clubs.
This would've only been more exasperated in Ireland
Some of the FAI team’s websites advertise PL package games with hotels and the works.
Video Request: What On Earth Is Going On At Dundee United?
AFC Wimbledon are *not* older than MK Dons. Wimbledon FC changed their name to MK Dons. Same club, change of name. Many club's have changed their names.
League of Ireland ☘️⚽🇮🇪🏆. Is growing and talk of all. Ireland professional football league ⚽
Can you do a video on the owners of Blackburn.
I am once again asking for a video about Algeria's unofficial FLN national team (1958-1962)
As someone who grew up in Neilstown in dublin I never heard about the idea of a premier league club being based in the area.
Neilstown lol pls sir can I have my car back haha jk being from ballymun I shouldn't talk robbed cars
What a shame. I’ve been trying to pick a team to live and die by throughout this whole season and haven’t decided yet. This would have been an easy choice
Day 6: best XI Brazilians that played for other nations
That same team would be in Conference South now. Dublin had a very lucky escape there.
There’s no way to know what would’ve happened if they had come to Dublin
@@Conorguill That is definitely true. All we can do is guess. My own thoughts are that the people of Dublin would have got bored of a side with no Irish players, interest would have tailed off, and once the team left the premier league, it would have been free fall. But you're right, we will never know.
Kenny Cunningham played for them . As did David Connolly . If they’d attracted better players , could have won support
@@conorsmith8551 Maybe. We'll never truly know. The key to success would have been always reaming in PL. If they went down, QPR and Bristol City would have been a lot less attractive.
A bit harsh on the League of Ireland imo, and the image shown with the collapsed stand at 29:30 was due to a storm.
How many minutes until Alfie actually starts the story? I'm gonna go with 3 and hope for the best.
I am so thankful that this didn't happen. What's needed is more money at league of Ireland level.
Name of the background music?
Still hoping for that Austrian Wunderteam video 😇✌.
This is actually sensible so I'll watch it when I'm sober.
What on earth is going on at Dinamo Bucharest( now in Romanian second division) video please
fair play to this guy, he really does his homework!!
Video request - the forever spoken about but never actioned plans to amalgamate 2 or more of the following leagues: Scotland, Ireland, N.Ireland and Wales.
Is that The Monk at 20.50?
Im confused! There has always been an Irish club in The Premier League and the old First Division - it's called LIverpool FC!
Wow I never knew all this about Wimbledon, I just thought it was the whole MK Dons ( *spits* ) thing.
Alfie totally missed the greatest story in football not once but twice Wimbledon have gone from non league to league one
Alot of people in Ireland now support the league of Ireland, and it's only on its way up with a lot and nearly all games sold out every week. So please don't diss the league of Ireland.
Glad that never worked out. From my personal Irish perspective it would be rubbish to have a team in England of all places.
The FA Barclays Premiership, Martin Tyler on the telly and an Oirish team would have been the dream.
Video Request: What On Earth Is Going On At Sampdoria?
That would had been great to have a PL Dublin team
Am I the only person who expects Alfie to turn into prime DR Dre ever time he intros a doc with “sit back relax” and strap on your seatbelt
When I heard about Wimbledon to MK, I laughed it off knowing the Dublin move had been defeated. MK really killed off Wimbledon FC