The European Super League: 'Dublin Dons' and why there's still hope left

• Author: Alex Dunne
• Published date: 21 April 2021

What is there to be said about a European super league that hasn't already been said a million different ways in a million different songs.

Thoughts turned from extreme anger, to widespread condemnation, to begrudging acceptance, to a sense of collective fan power emerging, to political, supporter, and commercial pressure and finally to a hilarious denouement as a league that Real Madrid head honcho Florentino Perez said clubs had signed up for for the next 23 years, barely lasted the next 23 hours.

It was a money led campaign, with not a second thought given towards the fans left in the lurch, with emotional conflicts and scars that they'll still be bearing long after this business is consigned to an offbeat chapter of history.

And it is the fans that tore this vanity exercise down - on social media, at the grounds, everywhere.

The actions of Chelsea followers in particular were exactly what needed to happen to stop this charade, with the sight of an exasperated Petr Cech out pleading for time with supporters that idolise him - back page and top of site news for days on end in another time - barely even registering on the scale of events that had happened.

For what it's worth, a lot of those protesting looked like they were in that 16-24 age bracket disrespectfully mentioned by super league chiefs as not caring about modern football in its current guises.

But perhaps even funnier, at least to the history enthusiasts among Irish football fans, this is hardly the first time a franchise product was pushed to the moon despite the plans not being fully thought out.

In 1996, Dublin was the target for a club to jump into the super league of its time.

Not that super league you're thinking of, though a lot of similar players were involved.

The FA Premiership across the water launched in 1992 as a glitzy re-brand of England's top tier, a fresh cash injection and a new coat of paint to modernise club football and get away from the dark 1980s by chasing the middle class - the FA's words, not ours.

While the on-field product first resembled what came before, international stars quickly began to roll up in huge numbers, initially as one-off statement signings before eventually supplanting some of the run-of-the-mill as well.

Intentional or not, the Premiership's growth outpaced even the most ambitious projections - or darkest timelines, depending on your persuasion.

It took the mantle from Serie A as the globe's top football product at exactly the time that television money was beginning to dictate everything.

And as such, with committed followings for almost every club competing in the competition in Ireland, the idea was pitched - why support from afar when we can support our own?

They weren't talking about Rovers, Bohs, Pat's, or Shels though - they were talking about a Dublin Premier League team.

Wimbledon FC's meteoric rise through the Football League, a ten-year journey starting with a small London club in a ramshackle ground giving it a lash and ending with an FA Cup victory over Liverpool in 1988, is very much a story for another time.

But "The Crazy Gang" were forced out of their home soon after.

The Taylor Report - commissioned after the Hillsborough disaster and one of the driving forces behind the new Premiership forming, alongside political disputes between the FA and the Football League and pressure from a breakaway "Big Five" clubs - recommended sweeping renovations to England's football grounds.

Wimbledon's Plough Lane home, which they'd played at since 1912, simply wouldn't do.

They moved in down the road with Crystal Palace, but a more permanent solution was necessary.

Well, why not bring the global league global? Or, at least, global, but still close enough.

The sporting and geographical merit arguments came out. Welsh clubs already played in the English system, with Cardiff and Swansea in particular enjoying a lot of success.

Two of the major American sports leagues, the MLB and NHL, had established franchises in Canada, while the NBA were just beginning their own attempts to conquer the Great White North.

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