It's fair to say there has been widespread condemnation of Todd Boehly's North vs South all-star Premier League idea. The new Chelsea owner suggested more money could be raised for the football pyramid by introducing a one-off match that pitted players from the north of England against players from the south of England.
It was merely a suggestion, but caused mass outrage with pundits and managers weighing in on the debate. Boehly was immediately criticised for not knowing Enlgish football and for trying to bring American ideas to English shores.
It is a concept that works in baseball, as Boehly explained. He said: "People are talking about why don't we have more money for the pyramid. MLB [Major League Baseball] did their all-star game this year." They made $200million from a Monday and a Tuesday. You could do a North vs South all-star game from the Premier League to fund the pyramid very easily."
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That was it. Just an idea. A suggestion. Not a statement of 'I want to do this and I want to do this now'. Simply an idea.
Thierry Henry, vehemently so, and Rio Ferdinand condemned the very thought of it, while Jurgen Klopp dismissed it initially given the fixtures schedule in this country, before thinking about it and stating that it would be "interesting".
Interesting is certainly the case. But for Jamie Carragher, Boehly must do a few things before anyone can even contemplate what he is suggesting.
The Liverpool legend said: "No [I wouldn’t have liked an All-Star game], I don’t particularly like those ideas but I think to come and speak like that when he hasn’t even proved he can run a Premier League club well yet, I mean he has sacked a manager after three games having spent £250million.
"It would be incredibly arrogant to speak like that, and maybe if he is coming up with ideas to improve the league there’s nothing wrong with ideas, but I don’t think many people agree with him, some people might but to speak like that after being in the country for such a short amount of time, and he hasn’t even proved himself as a good owner of Chelsea yet."
So, all Boehly needs to do to be taken seriously is prove he can run Chelsea Football Club. No pressure then.
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