Higgins, now the chairman of League of Ireland club Sligo Rovers, said the idea was exceptionally compelling.
With Jack Charlton’s Ireland at its peak after Italia ’90 and USA ’94, he felt Dublin could have hosted a side of near-international calibre every other week.
He believes it could have reshaped football across the island, but argues the FAI’s perspective was too narrow.
Since then, he says, rugby and the GAA have surged ahead, drawing the bulk of TV money and sponsorship.
In his view, soccer lacked the vision to attempt something truly transformative.
Ultimately, the effort was moot. After 18 months of discussions, communication with Hammam ceased; calls and letters went unanswered.
Higgins, who still keeps the unsigned contract, later spotted a television report in an airport announcing Hammam had sold 80% of the club to Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Kjell Inge Rokke for £26m—more than four times their offer.
A shopping centre now stands where the planned Premier League stadium was to be built.
Dublin never got the team, and Wimbledon ultimately lost theirs when the club relocated to Milton Keynes in 2004.
In response, the local community founded AFC Wimbledon that same year, starting out in the ninth tier, with Heller among the four co-founders.
Three decades after the first whispers of a Dublin move, the reborn club are now in League One and have returned to their spiritual home at Plough Lane.
Cunningham considers that accomplishment greater than any FA Cup run, league finish, or semi-final appearance in the club’s history.
For him, recovering from a heavy blow, tumbling down the divisions, and climbing back means every match is a victory in itself—he wishes them well.
As for the Dublin project, he now sees it as a nostalgic memory, tinged with regret over a missed opportunity.
He maintains it would have succeeded and that people would have backed it wholeheartedly, whatever the scepticism today.