Todd Boehly is determined to make an impact on the English game. American presidents are often judged on their first 100 days and as we tick past that milestone since bililonaire Boehly bought the club, he’s already got into the swing of life as a Premier League owner.
Fresh from sacking his first Chelsea manager, a well-worn ritual for his predecessor, he has been speaking at a conference in New York about the changes he would like to see in football. The main headline that came out of his talk was his suggestion that an American style North vs South game might be good for the sport.
“I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports and really starts to figure out why wouldn’t we do a tournament with the bottom four teams? Why isn’t there an All-Star game?”
“You could do a North vs South All-Star game in the Premier League and fund whatever the pyramid needed very easily. Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league.”
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The Yanks have always been easy targets for the British public but Boehly has made a reasonable suggestion here. Unfortunately for him the language that preceded it was always going to rub people up the wrong way.
Suggesting that the Premier League could learn something from American sports, which are ‘inherently bad’, was never going to go down well. When the European Super League was kicking off, the lack of relegation and competition was compared to the closed circle that is the top division of American sports, such is the disdain for those events that take place across the Atlantic. It was the American owners of Liverpool and Manchester United that took them into the ESL in the first place and only a fan revolt stopped it going any further.
But Boehly’s point has some value to it. The relegation idea is utter nonsense but the idea of an all-star type game would garner huge revenue and interest worldwide. His train of thought to use the finances generated to help clubs lower down the pyramid also shows a sense of further knowledge that stretches beyond the four stands of Stamford Bridge.
Self-appointed chief schedule whinger Jurgen Klopp has already laughed off the idea in typical fashion. "Great, when he finds a date for that he can call me. He forgets that in the big sports in America these players have four month breaks, so they're quite happy that they can do a little bit of sport in these breaks. Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well and let them play against a football team?"
It could theoretically not add any more games to the schedule, if it replaced the Community Shield, so long as the charities and community projects were fully reimbursed with the money raised. Also, not every Liverpool player would play, which would mean one fewer game for the majority of the squad.
If it was a north vs south match-up, we could see a spread of players from across the country take part in this one off game. To garner maximum interest, we’d have to see a mixture of teams involved, not just a Liverpool and Man City combined XI take on Chelsea. We’ve put together an XI for either side to see what this could look like if it did materialise this season, and it looks like an interesting match up.
The north would boast Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier, Jack Harrison and a whole host of Liverpool and Man City stars while the south features the likes of Harry Kane, in-form Mitrovic and Wilfried Zaha. Sure it is fun to debate this on paper, but seeing these two sides actually meet in a glorified friendly would be engaging for fans worldwide.
You can decide for yourself which of these two XIs would actually come out on top, but Boehly for all his ideas, may have actually stumbled upon something here. It won’t happen, and he’ll be portrayed as another crazy American trying to change our game, but change isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
