Long before Premier League friendlies drew six-figure crowds to Irish stadiums, a serious attempt was made to relocate a top-flight English club to Dublin permanently. Three decades on, the story of the so-called 'Dublin Dons' remains one of English football's strangest what-ifs.
The idea traces back to the mid-1990s, when Wimbledon chairman Sam Hammam was locked in a bitter dispute with Merton Council over a permanent stadium. Since 1991 the club had been ground-sharing at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park, an uneasy arrangement that left Wimbledon feeling like unwelcome guests. Former defender Kenny Cunningham, who joined from Millwall in 1994, recalled being taunted as