Chelsea co-owner Toddy Boehly speaking at the SALT conference in New York on Tuesday suggested that the Premier League should learn American Sports like the NBA, NFL, and MLB where there is an All-Stars game between the East and West as a way of raising funds to help the smaller teams.
“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,” Todd Boehly said at the SALT conference in New York.
“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.”
The statement by the American has received mixed feelings from different quarters. The major problem that may hinder the implementation of the all-time game is how to fix the exhibition match in the already tight calendar.
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However, Manchester United Legend Rio Ferdinand believes it was a nice idea but proposed a different version, where the Premier League All-star faces Champions League All-Stars or the World X1.
What did Rio Ferdinand say?
Discuss the idea of a potential Premier League All-Star game with Jake Humphrey and Owen Hargreaves, former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves said: It’s a nice idea, but it’s not realistic.
“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 to try to squeeze all these games in as it is.”
Rio Ferdinand backed Todd Boehly, saying: “If you listen to [Boehly’s address] in its entirety, one of the big things that were missed in the whole point of what he was saying was how to get money down the pyramid of football.
“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 are so many things to consider – it might not even be north versus south game, you might even say it’s the Premier League all-star team versus a Champions League all-star team.
“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.”
