New Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly wants to launch a Premier League North versus South All-Star match, based on the American format, which he believes can help raise revenue to support the rest of the pyramid.
Chelsea’s co-controlling owner, who purchased the club from Roman Abramovich this summer also has shares in MLB team the Los Angeles Dodgers and NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. The tradition across American sports is for a brief break in the regular season whereby the best players from each opposing conference will compete against each other in what is essentially a glorified friendly.
However, Boehly believes it would be beneficial to introduce the concept to English football - selecting a team from the Premier League clubs in the north to play against a side from the south - due, in part, to the residual financial benefits beyond the elite, including Bristol City and Bristol Rovers.
“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” Boehly told the Salt through leaders conference in America. “And really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game?
“People are talking about more money for the pyramid; in the MLB All-Star game this year we made $200m from a Monday and a Tuesday. So we’re thinking we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”
Boehly’s idea has been widely dismissed but does have some degree of precedent, albeit 31 years ago. In January 1991, a Football League select XI featuring John Barnes, Lee Dixon and Neville Southall took on a Serie A dream team containing Marco van Basten, Diego Simeone and Lothar Matthaus at Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo.
Asked what his fellow football club owners think about the All-Star game idea, Boehly said: “Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league. I think there’s a real cultural aspect, I think evolution will come.”
On Tuesday night, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said. “When he finds a date for that he can call me. In American sports these players have four-month breaks. Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well?
“Maybe he can explain that. I’m not sure people want to see that – United players, Liverpool players, City players, Everton players all together. It is not the national team. Did he really say it?”
The financial relationship between the Premier League and the EFL has become more pronounced since the Covid-19 pandemic and, prior to that, the collapse of Bury. Teams outside the top-flight struggled to make financial obligations during the 2020/21 season which was played behind closed doors, whereas those in the Premier League suffered a far less significant impact.
The fan-led review of football governance, led by MP Tracey Crouch, concluded that the Premier League needs to do more to help clubs below them in the pyramid and to to “make additional, proportionate contributions to further support football”.
Discussions have been held over restructuring parachute payments to more merit-based distribution of money based on league position but there has been no confirmation on any proposals.
As per a report in the Athletic, the Premier League say it has paid £1.23bn to the EFL and wider football pyramid between 2019 and 2022, or £401m per season. That has equated to 16 per cent of the Premier League’s broadcast revenues, but the EFL has requested 25 per cent.
This summer, the Premier League as a collective spent a record £1.9bn in transfer fees, comfortably more than the rest of Europe’s top five leagues combined, whereas the Championship stood at £86m, a figure slightly skewed as six clubs in the division - Bristol City being one of them - didn’t spend any money over the window, relying on loans and frees.
