Chelsea owner Todd Boehly calls for Premier League All-Star ‘North vs South’ match

Owner: Todd Boehly
REUTERS
Nizaar Kinsella13 September 2022

Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly says he wants a Premier League All-Star ‘North versus South’ match in England to help raise funds for the football pyramid.

The Blues owner, chairman and sporting director spoke candidly at SALT Conference in New York about a variety of big-picture issues facing the club.

Addressing opportunities to raise money, Boehly suggested a Major League Baseball-style exhibition game, but has blamed English football culture who holding back the idea.

He said: “People are talking about why don’t we have more money for the pyramid? MLB did their all-star game this year.

“They made $200million from a Monday and a Tuesday, you could do a North versus South all-star game from the Premier League to fund the pyramid very easily.

“Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league but there’s a real cultural aspect. I think evolution will come.”

Adding his ideas about introducing a relegation in the league: “Those relegation games are some of the highest broadcast games.

“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 and his partners at Clearlake Capital have pledged previously not to join the Super League. However, in his latest comments over in the United States, the Chelsea co-owner wouldn’t fully rule out changing his mind.

New manager Graham Potter.
Chelsea FC via Getty Images

“I never say hard nos, I like to keep options alive but it is not something that we are talking about at all,” he added.

“I think the Champions League has a big component of that already. You have the best clubs playing each other every season. There’s already a lot of that. If you win the Champions League, you win over 100m euros.

“You win the Masters golf and make a couple of million bucks. I think you can do that in the summer [play Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich] more often and there’s other ways to do that.

“I think that the passion the fans have for the sport is so strong then I can’t envisage that changing.”

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