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FORMER UK PRIME Minister Tony Blair was keen on an idea to relocate then-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”.
The idea of moving Wimbledon FC across the Irish Sea was first mooted in the mid 1990s when Eamon Dunphy helped to put together a consortium of Irish businessmen to buy the struggling London club and move them to Dublin.
The plans never happeed but the idea remained, with the Belfast proposals also suggesting that a principally private sector funded modern 40,000-seater sports stadium would be built, 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.
It was leaked to the Belfast Telegraph which then published a story reporting that Secretary of State Mo Mowlam was throwing her weight behind the idea, to bring new investment to Northern Ireland and boosting its image on the international stage.
However, the article also noted that local 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 then-chief press secretary Alistair Campbell urging that Wimbledon owner Sam Hamman “had explored the possibility of moving Wimbledon to Dublin, but this seems to have come to naught”.
He added that Hamman 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 July 16, 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”.
However another note, dated August 17, 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 have welcomed it, and that 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, as well as suggested that Hamman is 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, detailed discussions with then-UK Sports Minister Lord Dubs and Hamman, 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 is “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 2002.
It’s all because the pilots were trained using the metric system.
At least that’s what one idiot on fox news thinks.
Fox doesn’t do news it does fiction.
Their opinion poll graphics are the best, they always add up to more than 100%
Boganity.. Polls have a margin of error built in.. Usually up to + or – 5%.. So the total does not always equal 100.
Margin for error means the figures may be slightly understated for one outcome and over stated for another but the totals are never greater than 100%. However we’re talking about Fox News here, and these are their actual published outcomes presented in pie-charts of two recent polls where people where asked their opinions on an issue: agree 59% disagree 35% don’t know 26%, that’s a total of 120% and on voting intentions: 60% for Candidate A, 63% for Candidate B, 70% for Candidate C, that’s a total of 193%. I doubt whether the people who watch Fox would have been able to work out those totals in their heads.
It just shows again, that there are still major improvements to be made to equip planes with emergency technology, flying will never be 100% safe, and you’re statistically still more likely to be killed while travelling to and from the airport, unfortunately the statistics won’t help those poor people on board that plane.
I just hope they will quickly find out what happened and then take the appropriate steps to prevent it from happening again.
My deepest sympathies for the families and friends of those lost in the plane.
Dead right, but as AF447 showed there are major issues with pilot training – when the instruments don’t give them reliable data, the pilots had no idea what to do.
Time to make ACARS mandatory for all airlines if their planes are equipped with it
@Alan. When they say that Air Asia ‘didn’t subscribe’ to it, does it mean they wouldn’t pay for the service or that they didn’t believe it offered an advantage to the running of the airline?
Changing altitude or course without permission in Indonesian airspace is quite common as it can take repeated requests to ATC, and up to 30 minutes for them to respond. In that time frame a crew has no choice if it means over shooting their destination or worse, ending up inside a a super cell thunder storm.
Flyin tomorow do not want to hear this
Don’t mean the article obviously just thoughts of what can happen
You’ve got a better chance of winning the top prize in the lottery several weeks in a row
Don’t mean to be blasé, but that doesn’t console the families (or victims) of all-too-common air disasters.
The odds against anyone connected with this disaster reading the comments in Journal.ie are pretty solid too.
a point to consider Malaysia would not sign up to the ttp. now all these events are happening heaping great pressure on them economically and internationally.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/bush-cheney-face-torture-and-war-crimes-charges-mock-trial
they also pushed for bush and others to be charged by the united nations.
have your say