The former prime minister Sir Tony Blair was keen on an idea to relocate the Premier League football side Wimbledon FC to Belfast in the late 1990s.
Previously confidential state papers include a note from 1997 described as “following up earlier informal discussions about the possibility of an English Premier League football club relocating to Belfast”.
It was described as something that would be a “significant breakthrough if Belfast had a football team playing in the English Premier League”, and “should be able to build up strong cross-community support and provide a positive unifying force in a divided city”.
It was also mooted that it would come with a principally private sector-funded modern 40,000-seater sports stadium, and potentially an academy for sport, located on Queen’s Island in east Belfast or the North Foreshore site in the north of the city.
The note suggested that Wimbledon FC would undergo a name change to Belfast United.
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It was leaked to the Belfast Telegraph, which published a story reporting that the secretary of state, Mo Mowlam, was throwing her weight behind the idea, to bring new investment to Northern Ireland and boost its image on the international stage.
However, the article also noted that football bosses in Northern Ireland were concerned it could “kill off the game in Northern Ireland”.
As well as Mowlam, Downing Street also took an interest in the proposal, with a note by chief press secretary, Alastair Campbell, urging that the Wimbledon’s owner, Sam Hammam, “had explored the possibility of moving Wimbledon to Dublin, but this seems to have come to naught”.
He added that Hammam had seen media reports of Northern Ireland’s interest and “was keen to know whether this was serious, or speculation, leading nowhere”.
A memo dated 16 July 1998 – just months after the Belfast/Good Friday agreement was signed – indicated Blair was keen on the idea.
It recorded Blair’s view was that “it would be excellent if Wimbledon were to move to Belfast and we should encourage this as much as possible”.
But another note, dated 17 August 1998, described the matter as being at a “delicate stage”, recording that the Irish football authorities “continue to resist the idea strongly”.
It said that the three local newspapers had welcomed it, and that the TV presenter Eamonn Holmes “has been active in collecting public support”.
“If the Irish football authorities are to adjust their position, it will have to be achieved by local pressure, probably with government remaining in the background,” the note records. It suggested that Hammam was encouraged to visit Belfast “in order to assess the seriousness of his interest”.
A letter to Mowlam in April 1999 by a member of the Bring Premier League Soccer to Northern Ireland group detailed discussions with the UK sports minister at the time, Lord Dubs, and Hammam, but noted continuing opposition by the football authorities in Northern Ireland.
They wrote that “difficult, intense, open, honest debate, discussion and negotiation is required”, but said the prize was “indeed great and potentially magnificent. A situation similar to the peace process”.
The idea is not mentioned again in the file, after which attention shifted to proposals to build a new national stadium for Northern Ireland for the millennium.
Wimbledon FC remained in England and relocated to Milton Keynes in 2003 and now play in the fourth tier of English football as Milton Keynes Dons.