Literally found out about this last week, but was sad to see so little information about it on Wikipedia. And now Alfie makes a 32-minute video about it. What a king, thank you sir.

League of Ireland attendances have increase significantly in the last few years and is getting better, more competitive in Europe including some group stages

There is actually some signs of hope for the League of Ireland actually because since the start of the season attendances are up 20% from the same time last year. The biggest problem for most clubs now is actually that the stadiums are too small to fit the demand which is nice to see

Let me tell you the true story. About 1995, I was a 12 year old Celtic fan. My father brought me to see my first Celtic game which was Celtic v Hibs in the Scottish Cup Semi. On the flight back I moaned to my dad how Ireland had no big football... and it would be a dream to have a Premier League team in Dublin. On the flight, myself, him and my uncle speculated about how to do it. We came to the conclusion that you would have to try move a team which had a small fan base. We came to the conclusion it was Wimbledon. When we got back to Dublin... my Dad threw himself into seeing how possible it was. The table in our house was cover in papers detailing all Wimbledons players etc. My Dad ended up meeting Sam Hammann... and people like Kevin Moran ... to try make it happen. My Dad gave up on the idea after a while... but it was amazing to see take n up by various parties thereafter. True story.

Hey Alfie, could you do a video on Glentoran and or their 1914 Vienna Cup? They were the first team from the British Isles to win a European trophy. Their stadium alone has seen plenty of history, especially off the field as it’s right next to the shipyards (the same yards where the Titanic was built) and was even bombed during the Belfast Blitz. The Oval was hit by bombers as it was mistaken for an oil storage facility. As a result, nearly everything was destroyed during the Blitz. The Vienna Cup being one of the only things surviving the attacks. The Historical Belfast podcast did a fine piece on this but I feel Glentoran deserve the HITC Seven’s treatment as well. Also, Glentoran turned away a young George Best. This was because he was “too small.”

I went to Selhurst Park in 2003 to see my team Portsmouth play Wimbledon. In protest of the move to Milton Keynes, there were only a couple of hundred home fans in attendance compared to about 10,000 Pompey fans. Wimbledon actually won 2-1 which was a bit of an upset as Portsmouth would win the league that season and get promoted to the Premier League. I felt awful for the fans who lost their club but at least AFC Wimbledon are now a league side.

Now you mention the re-election process, I think a video on that subject would be very useful for a large number of people to see, especially in light of the developments at the top of the National League this season!

Never thought I'd hear Neilstown being discussed in a HITC Sevens video, but here we are

I remember hearing about this year's ago that Wimbledon were considering relocating to Dublin and it was in fact the FAI that had blocked the move because they feasted it would have had too much of a negative impact on the Irish game looking back it was a very silly suggestion really without any logic behind it and if Wimbledon were playing their home matches in Dublin every 2nd week no one would have been watching local football at all where attendances are already bad but this move would have officially killed off the League of Ireland entirely so common sense at least prevailed in this instance

ALOHA ALFIE! Is there any way you could please do a video showing all the worst debuts in history. You could perhaps cover where they came from before their debut, and it would be interesting to see if anybody had such a bad debut thay it had a detrimental effect on their time at the club/rest of their career. Much love and keep up the great content.

Suggestion: the downfall of Romania and Bulgaria's National Teams (and good players by extension) after a very good period in the 90's. Neither has managed to qualify for a single World Cup since 98 and the few European Cup participations have been pretty poor.

And today shamrock rovers u14s just won The Hale cup against top academia such as city spurs and arsenal

To add some context to how ridiculous a 40,000 seater stadium in Neilstown would have been/is, Neilstown is practically a large residential estate between Lucan and Clondalkin, which at the time each would have housed roughly 10,000 residents.

Alfie have you ever thought about doing a video on the CIS national football team? The were created as a replacement for the USSR national team during euro 92. I think it would make an interesting vid. Love your channel Alfie.

I believe you may have already done a video on this, if not then a documentary on why Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham play in the English football league

One of my favourite videos from this page 👏🏾👏🏾

Thanks for covering this love the videos

Always with the Classics ⚽️. 🔥

Loving the Irish content Alfie. “32” minute video as well 😏

Great video again Alfie

I can see Ireland today as a very strong and passionate nation in football even just watching the euro qualifiers but am I the only one who thinks that "Dublin Dons" would have made terrible nicknames of " Dublin Ding Dongs" or "Dublin Knobs" by other supporter groups? No just me, ok ill leave this here. Great video Alfie

Amazing work as always

The shock I felt hearing the name of my local shopping centre leave Alfies mouth can't be described

Thank you Alfie brilliant video. I'm from Ireland and it brings me back to that time we nearly got a Premier league team.

Longford Town fan (who?) here in Ireland. Great video as always, Alfie.

Great video well done

I’m probably unique among most here that I live in South West London, am a Shamrock Rovers fan and don’t support an English club. I frequently go to Wimbledon with a true die hard Don. This was a stain on everything and everyone involved. A slap in the face to the LOI, the dons, their fan base. It was an example of the horrible corruption of the Celtic tiger and it’s telling that almost all involved (on the Irish side) are vilified or held in contempt “post boom” “The Bertie bowl” and all that goes with it. Bastards. C’mon the hoops - 4 in a row here we go.

I deleted my previous post because I was wrong there. But here's a thing to ponder: Milton Keynes is the home of both the MK Dons, and Red Bull Racing. Why hasn't RBR (or Red Bull proper) picked up the MK Dons and grommed them into championship contendors yet (like with e.g. RB Leipzig)? Plus the club could serve as the Red Bull Racing football works team as well, like the VfL Wolfsburg is to Volkswagen or Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Bayer AG.

Diego Simeone would have had a field day with that Wimbledon team

Fantastic content

The 7 most confusing/unorthodox league systems

Oh god, I couldn't imagine a Prem team in Neilstown, it's an absolute kip

Great video, Alfie. I knew the story but not in as much detail.

I remember Clydebank being linked to a Dublin group too. They were hoping to play in the Scottish leagues not long after this

Alfie, as you are a Hull City fan would you happen to remember a young player who played once for Hull by the name of Simon Russell. He went on to play hundreds of times in the national league and he’s now my PE teacher

Fascinating video. There have been other cases where owners have proposed moving clubs hundreds of miles to what they saw as a bigger fan base, e.g. in the early 1990s someone proposed moving Maidstone United who had no ground in Maidstone to the Newcastle area but that was ruled-out. I remember the Wimbledon to Dublin proposal and don't think it ever had much chance of being accepted. Thankfully in England and I think most other nations we don't have a franchise system as they have in other sports where owners can move clubs / teams hundreds of miles and rename and rebrand them. Instead we very much have the idea that clubs are rooted in their locality and while many things can change that cannot. I suppose the exception to that would seem to be Wimbledon's ultimate move to Milton Keynes but that was seen rather questionably as the only way to save the club. It was a highly controversial move and I can't see it being allowed again - if it were the floodgates could open.

Day 1 of asking for a video about the rise, fall, and rise again of Queens Park FC, oldest club in scotland, from being in the third division and on the brink of bankruptcy 10 years ago, to the brink of promotion to the top flight now

I remember this at the time, I also remember being shocked at how popular the idea was amongst my friends and work colleagues! It was all pie in the sky though!

Those heady days when Southport was in the 4th division. 🥺

I remember this being spoken about at the time for a new home for Franchise FC (MK Dons my hole) - but you know the development is bad when Bertie Ahern won't even back it. Although maybe he didn't see a kick back for himself in the deal, who knows.

Yet another quality video

Since I have just only heard about Wimbledon,one of my favourite respective clubs ever to be nearly changed the nationality from one of my ancestrial nations England to Ireland which was a travesty to identity of the club which was being rescued,good friends!!!Now,they are in the English Fourth Division but I fully hope that they would slowly be back to their past best and see them having their own identity,good friends!!!:-D

What editing do you use ?

Future is actually bright for League of Ireland & 🇮🇪⚽️ in general!!!

Hi Alfie,love the videos. Any chance you would ever do a video on the Austrian Wunderteam star Mattias Sindelar(aka The Papery Man)and his suspicious death in 1939 after his anti-Nazi stance?

Thank you, Very nice work 🎉 What is next planned in your documentary series?, how Borussia Dortmund almost went bankrupt in 2002 time?😮 Or how Club Atletic Oradea won the Hungary League as it is a Romanian team now 😊 What on earth is going on series - Inverness Caledonian thistle If you look at how they been in their current League for a six years now They look like they won’t ever get back to SPL 😢

Excellent video. I remember the whole Dublin Dons fiasco well. The whole League was against this at the time despite Dunphy, some dodgy developers and crooked politicians being on board. No matter what way this would have went eventually, it would have been a disaster. Being a diehard St Pat's supporter from Clondalkin, this would have destroyed the catchment area for a club who, at that time, were the biggest in the country. St Pat's main areas of support (outside of the immediate vicinity of Inchicore) are Clondalkin (in which Neilstown is situated), Lucan, Cherry Orchard, Ballyfermot and in to Kildare. All still huge catchment areas for the club today fwiw. Some form of Wimbledon planted there would have decimated all of that. Shamrock Rovers move to Tallaght, not far from Neilstown, might not have happened either. It's all 'what ifs' but thankfully, in terms of attendances and standards, the League of Ireland is in a good place, MK Dons are shit and AFC Wimbledon are a sustainable Football League club playing in the area they're originally from with a history to be proud of.

They also offered Wimbledon fans flights to Dublin at the time if the team moved there

a Dublin man remembering all of this, totally agrees with you Alfie

The Irish would have lost interest as soon as they realised the Dublin Dons would be playing in the lower divisions and would have been out of business within two years, Ireland has a decent a fairly well supported league now and we do not suffer from the same level of insecurity as we did then. Also having lived through this JUST ABOUT EVERYONE involved was a white collar criminal on the Irish end.

Very interesting ❤ Can we have a video about Maltese Football please? Thank you

Im womble til I die ! So happy you made this video on our ridiculous story. The history, the betrayal, the revival. Being in the south stand at plough lane singing at the top of my lungs fills me with so much pride and I wasn't even around for all of the chaos (Pre-AFC)! Two times out of non-league! were never gonna stop. From franchise to the FA, we beat the f@cking lot! From Batsford to Dave Bassette At Plough Lane we belong We are loyal supporters! And we come from Wimbledon! alle alle alle!

Perfect segway for an AFC Wimbledon video 👀

This could be a good idea for Create a Club

I remember this time. Great summary

Posting for the 9th time: I created an all-time XI with no overlap of international careers - no player was active for their national team at the same time as any other player. Here it is (with the years of each player's international career listed in parentheses): 🇩🇪 Oliver Kahn (1995 - 2006) 🇩🇪 Manfred Kaltz (1975 - 1983), 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bob Crompton (1902 - 1914), 🇧🇷 Thiago Silva (2008 - ), 🇩🇪 Andreas Brehme (1984 - 1994) 🇺🇾 José Leandro Andrade (1923 - 1930), 🇮🇹 Ugo Locatelli (1936 - 1940) 🇮🇹 Valentino Mazzola (1942 - March 1949) 🇧🇷 Pelé (1957 - 1971), 🇧🇷 Neco (1917 - 1922), 🇭🇺 Zoltán Czibor (May 1949 - 1956) Manager: 🇨🇿 Karel Petrů (1931 - 1935) If you choose to ignore the position of manager, Ugo Locatelli can be replaced in midfield by 🇦🇷 Antonio Sastre (1933 - 1941). How about making a video featuring an XI you created using this limitation (and without using uncapped players)?

If we had an Irish team in the Premier League that would be shocking.

Very much appreciate the dig at my club (Waterford FC) rivals Cork City with their damaged roof, nice. I really can't believe that this was a thing, an Irish club supporting an English club.. no chance of that ever happening.. oh wait.. never mind. Fancy becoming a Waterford FC supporter lad? g'waaaan ya will! our owner also owns Fleetwood Town, just in case that tickles your interest.

i remember reading in Darragh McAnthony (peterborough chairman) he was looking at getting involved in moving Wimbledon to Dublin as well. How true this is i cant comment

Please make a documentary about the following topics: -Corrine Diacre’s controversial/toxic tenure as the manager of France’s Women’s National team which lead her to get sacked last month -The alleged attack on Kheira Hamaroui by her own former PSG Teammate Aminata Diallo -The drama/scandal surrounding Gregg Berhalter and Gio Reyna’s parents during the 2022 FIGA World Cup -Ranking all of the goals that won the FIFA World Cup Goal of the Tournament Award

Well researched as always.

In the first 5 minutes of this video Wimbledon scored 2 goals, by the end of it, we lost 3-2

Interesting. I had been aware of some of that obviously (I'min my 50s so remember some ofvtge news coverageat the time), but there was quite a lot that was new to me.

Make a video about the best teams from every continent

Would Freddy Adu have played for them if they moved to Dublin?

Video Request: What On Earth Is Going On At Portadown?

Remember this well and the uproar that went with it. It really was a non starter.

What could've been a meteoric shift for Irish football

What a shame. I’ve been trying to pick a team to live and die by throughout this whole season and haven’t decided yet. This would have been an easy choice

Day 6: best XI Brazilians that played for other nations

How many minutes until Alfie actually starts the story? I'm gonna go with 3 and hope for the best.

AFC Wimbledon are *not* older than MK Dons. Wimbledon FC changed their name to MK Dons. Same club, change of name. Many club's have changed their names.

As someone who grew up in Neilstown in dublin I never heard about the idea of a premier league club being based in the area.

I am so thankful that this didn't happen. What's needed is more money at league of Ireland level.

League of Ireland ☘️⚽🇮🇪🏆. Is growing and talk of all. Ireland professional football league ⚽

20:58 Reminds me of England's Euro 2012 squad picture.

Speaking Of Ireland Could You Do What On Earth Is Going On At Finn Harps? They Were Relegated From The League Of Ireland Last Season

Can you do a video on the owners of Blackburn.

I am once again asking for a video about Algeria's unofficial FLN national team (1958-1962)

Alot of people in Ireland now support the league of Ireland, and it's only on its way up with a lot and nearly all games sold out every week. So please don't diss the league of Ireland.

Some of the FAI team’s websites advertise PL package games with hotels and the works.

Video Request: What On Earth Is Going On At Dundee United?

That same team would be in Conference South now. Dublin had a very lucky escape there.

Alfie totally missed the greatest story in football not once but twice Wimbledon have gone from non league to league one

Video request - the forever spoken about but never actioned plans to amalgamate 2 or more of the following leagues: Scotland, Ireland, N.Ireland and Wales.

I am old enough to remember it being on the news. It would have been cool to have had Dublin having a team in the Premier League. I think the problems were FIFA not liking teams from different countries playing in other leagues. I am sure it would have been good for Irish football and the national team.

This is actually sensible so I'll watch it when I'm sober.

Am I the only person who expects Alfie to turn into prime DR Dre ever time he intros a doc with “sit back relax” and strap on your seatbelt

A bit harsh on the League of Ireland imo, and the image shown with the collapsed stand at 29:30 was due to a storm.

Name of the background music?

I've been fantasising about a Gaelic league, similar to the rugby one, with Scottish, Irish, northern Irish and Welsh teams taking part. With top tier and second division and domestic leagues acting as third tiers. Cardiff, Swansea, Celtic, Linfield, Wrexham, Shamrock Rovers... It will be more competitive overall and rival the FA leagues.

fair play to this guy, he really does his homework!!

Still hoping for that Austrian Wunderteam video 😇✌.

Glad that never worked out. From my personal Irish perspective it would be rubbish to have a team in England of all places.

When I heard about Wimbledon to MK, I laughed it off knowing the Dublin move had been defeated. MK really killed off Wimbledon FC

As a irishman, most of us can barely name a few leauge of ireland teams, yet can name most premier league teams

Like most football fans I'm glad Wimbledon never got moved out to Dublin. However perhaps a little different in that I think a UK, or at least a British, Premier Division at the apex the League structure (obviously not including the Irish Republic) is something I would very much like to see. The whole UK isn't geographically a big country, far larger countries maintain national Football Leagues. I know it'll never happen, partly because the Home Nations don't come under a UK national team. That in itself is perfectly normal to us, but I wonder how it looks to outsiders. Countries made of numerous different nationalities like the USSR and Yugoslavia fielded united teams throughout their history, yet the UK doesn't for football (except notionally at the Olympics).

Wow I never knew all this about Wimbledon, I just thought it was the whole MK Dons ( *spits* ) thing.

That would had been great to have a PL Dublin team

Hiya Alfie, I think Wimbledon were a disgrace to the Premier League (YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS), I was so chuffed when they got relegated, Bradford beat Liverpool 1-0 and Wimbledon got beat 2-0 off Southampton, Wimbledon only got 1 point in the last 13 games, in the 1999-2000 season, it was good when you showed Workington Reds at the start, as they are the closest team to me, the 3 clubs I ever wanted to be seen Relegated out the premier league were Wimbledon , Southampton and Wigan, and thankfully all have been relegated sooner or later,this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England