Incidents, Events & Controversies | About Celtic
Details
Date: 1997
Ref: Reports that Celtic aiming to purchase Wimbledon in order to take their position in the English top tier league.
Summary
In 1997 – at a time when both Celtic and Rangers were reportedly plotting a move to England – the Glasgow Evening Times reported that Celtic were planning to buy up Wimbledon FC (then in the top tier) and take their place in the English Premiership. The idea was quickly shot-down by Fergus McCann, but not before the story was able to cause a stir on both sides of the border.
Sadly for Wimbledon fans, while the supposed threat from Celtic was non-existant, they were forced to watch their club eventually relocated to Milton Keynes and re-named the MK Dons.
Refusing to sit and watch the soul stripped out of their club, fans of the south London side immediately abandoned the new franchise and formed their own supporter-owned team AFC Wimbledon.
The new club would enjoy a rapid rise up the football pyramid and in 2011 AFC Wimbledon had reached the Football League.
In 2023, it was revealed that former prime minister Sir Tony Blair was keen on an idea to relocate the then Premier League 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 said to be something that would be a “significant breakthrough if Belfast had a football team playing in the English Premier League”. The note also said such a move “should be able to build up strong cross-community support and provide a positive unifying force in a divided city”. Another suggestion was that the move would come with a principally private sector-funded modern 40,000-seat 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 Wimbledon FC would change name to Belfast United.
Articles
Football: Celtic’s buy-out of Dons scotched
Independent, The (London), Jan 30, 1997
The Celtic chairman, Fergus McCann, was yesterday named in a report which claimed that the Glasgow club want to join the English Premiership by buying out Wimbledon. Officials north and south of the border were quick to play down the likelihood of that, but a midweek European league involving top British sides in harness with a revamped Scottish set-up is far more likely. McCann’s suggestion may merely have been designed to strengthen his hand in an expected forthcoming battle over TV rights by both Celtic and their Glasgow rivals Rangers.
Celtic moving into the Premiership is a non-starter according to the rules of both the authorities north and south of the border. The Scottish League rules state they need two full seasons’ notice for a club to terminate its membership and that when that happens, players’ registrations would be retained by the governing body.
But what is clear, with Rangers this week having met Ajax, Milan and Liverpool in an indoor six-a-side tournament in Amsterdam, is that both Glasgow clubs are constantly reassessing their roles. The trip to the Netherlands by Rangers followed last week’s pounds 40m investment in Ibrox by the Bahamas-based Joe Lewis. It is clear that both clubs want more regular European competition, although whoever wins the Scottish Premier League this season will probably face two preliminary rounds in the summer to enter the Champions’ League.
McCann and his Rangers counterpart, David Murray, are presumably jealous that English clubs like Wimbledon receive several million pounds each season from TV revenue, while Scottish deals are loose change by comparison. n Celtic reduced Rangers lead at the top of the Scottish Premier Division to six points after a 2-0 win at Dumfermline last night. Paul McStay’s first goal for 11 months and Jorge Cadete’s 25th of the season clinched victory at East End Park and ensured a seventh successive win, including one in the Scottish Cup.