“I’m surprised by the question so please don’t judge my answers too much.”
Chelsea’s new owner Todd Boehly isn’t just content changing the club’s manager following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel, but he wants to change the whole Premier League.
Never mind that the business owner is completely new to the sport, he still believes that he has ideas to revolutionise, and basically ‘Americanise’ the game.
In most sports stateside, there is usually an All-Star game, where they make at least two teams based on the star value of a player, and where their team is located from.
“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” Boehly explains at the SALT Conference.
“And really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game?
“People are talking about more money for the pyramid, in the MLB All-Star game this year we made 200 million dollars from a Monday and a Tuesday.
“So we’re thinking we could do a north versus south All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”
Fresh after beating Ajax in a thrilling Champions League tie at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp was answering questions during a press conference.
When a journalist threw Boehly’s suggestion at him, he was visibly perplexed and took a few seconds to get his head around it.
“He doesn’t hesitate, he doesn’t wait long!’ Klopp said at a press conference.
“Great. When he finds a date for that he can call me. He forgets that in the big sports in America, these sports have four-month breaks so they’re quite happy they can do a little bit of sport in these breaks. It’s completely different in football.
“Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well and let them play a football team?
“I’m surprised by the question so please don’t judge my answers too much, but maybe he can explain it to me at one point.
"When he finds a date for that he can call me"
Jurgen Klopp reacts to Chelsea owner Todd Boehly's suggestion of a North vs South Premier League All-Star game. pic.twitter.com/ApOmTiBJtp
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 14, 2022
“I’m not sure people want to see that,” added the German. ‘Imagine that, [Manchester] United, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle players all on one team that’s not the national team, just a north team. Interesting game.
“All the London guys together. Arsenal, Tottenham. Great. Did he really say it? Interesting.”
The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10
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