While there hasn't been a huge amount of appetite for Todd Boehly's all-star game idea in England, it appears to be a different story in Italy.
Chelsea owner Boehly has proposed a US-style game, with teams representing the north and south facing off in an exhibition match. The biggest issue, however, could be the difficulty of finding space in what is an already packed sporting calendar.
That's one of the reasons why the PFA has poured cold water on the idea, but there is support from other quarters. Serie A chief Lorenzo Casini appears keen, while even former England defender Rio Ferdinand has shown some encouragement.
“Ultimately, I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson out of the American sports teams and really start to think about why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four teams," Boehly told the SALT conference in the United States.
“People are talking about why don’t we have more money for the pyramid? MLB did their all star game this year. They made $200m 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.”
While logistical issues could block a UK version, Casini - who look over in his Serie A role earlier this year - appears to be keen. "The idea of an All-Star Game in Serie A deserves attention. We will study the project and the clubs in the assembly will evaluate all the pros and cons," he was quoted as saying by ANSA (via ESPN ).
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Ferdinand, meanwhile, discussed the potential all-star game on BT Sport with Owen Hargreaves and Jake Humphrey, having suggested the concept on Twitter back in 2011. The ex-defender even floated an alternative format where, rather than north v south, a Premier League select XI could take on challengers, as is the case with the MLS all-star game.
"It's a nice idea but it's not realistic," Hargreaves argued. "The thing is you have all-star games in the NBA, NFL, baseball because they're off for four or five months of the year - we don't have that luxury, we're struggling trying to squeeze all these games in as it is."
Ferdinand's stance, however, was a little different. "If you listen to [Boehly's address] in its entirety, one of the big things that was missed in the whole point of what he was saying was how to get money down the pyramid of football," the former Man Utd star said.
"The mere fact that he mentioned [the pyramid], it's obviously in his mindset. Whether his ideas are outlandish or whether we believe they're right or wrong, the fact that he mentioned that, it's obviously something he'd definitely consider.
"Speaking about that type of thing publicly, and knowing how the English people and media receive suggestions like this from people who are coming [in] new to the game... he probably would have been better off going to the powers that be and having a round table discussion. I like the idea of an all-star game but I think there's so many things to consider - it might not even be a north versus south game, you might even say it's the Premier League all-star team versus a Champions League all-star team."
Ferdinand added: "The idea is not a perfect idea so I understand the negativity that might surround it but I think it's a conversation definitely worth exploring if you can filter money back down the pyramid. If you can find a way of getting £50-100m back down the pyramid to the clubs that genuinely need it through having one game, I'd get rid of a game somewhere in the calendar if you can do that."
