Jurgen Klopp mocks Todd Boehly’s idea for Premier League all-star north v south game

Jurgen Klopp mocks Todd Boehly’s idea for a Premier League all-star north v south game to supposedly benefit the English Football League.

The Chelsea co-owner wants to launch a Premier League North versus South All-Star match, but Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was rather stunned with the suggestion, questioning whether anyone wants to see it and how they’d even fit it in.

The new Chelsea chairman revealed plans to revolutionise elements of English football, to try to boost broadcasting revenue, including a play-off to determine who goes down and who plays in the Premier League, and an all-star game like the NBA and MLB have.

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly floats the idea of a PREMIER LEAGUE ALL-STAR GAME.

🎥 @SALTConference pic.twitter.com/qeV2wQsWrQ

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) September 13, 2022

The Blues’ new co-controlling owner, who also owns shares of LA teams the Dodgers in Major League Baseball and the Lakers in the NBA, told a New York conference he has already floated the idea with Premier League counterparts.

“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” said Boehly. “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 200m 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.”

The North vs South split…

North: Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Wolves, Everton, Aston Villa, Forest, Leicester.

South: Arsenal, Tottenham, Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford, Fulham, Saints, B’mouth, Palace, West Ham

Klopp was less-than-impressed with Boehly’s suggestion that the Premier League should introduce a US-style All-Star game between teams in the north and south of England.

“He doesn’t wait long. When he finds a date for that he can call me,” he added. “He forgets in American sports these players have four-month breaks so they are 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?

“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 and find a proper date. I’m not sure people want to see that. 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.”

🗣 “He forgets in the big sports in America, they have four month breaks. Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well?”

Jurgen Klopp’s response to Todd Boehly’s idea of a north vs south “All Star” game pic.twitter.com/hpb03mUMFU

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 13, 2022

How the North and South teams could line up… (via Sky Sports)

Boehly spoke at the SALT thought leaders conference in New York, talking more on Chelsea’s sacking of Thomas Tuchel and revealed bold plans for the Blues’ future.

When questioned on his views about relegation given US sports do not engage with the idea – often leading to claims of teams ‘tanking’ for an improved draft pick – Boehly replied: “The economics of going into the Championship are materially different.

“When you go into the Championship those numbers fall off a cliff. So there’s no one thinking about tanking, and those relegation games are some of the highest broadcast games.”

When asked what his fellow football club owners think about the All-Star game idea, Boehly added: “Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league.

“I think there’s a real cultural aspect, I think evolution will come.”

“When you take over any business, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the people who are operating the business,” said Boehly on axing Tuchel for Potter.

“Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and someone who had great success at Chelsea. Our vision for the club was finding a manager who really wanted to collaborate with us, a coach who really wanted to collaborate.

“There are a lot of walls to break down at Chelsea. Before, the first team and academy didn’t really share data, didn’t share information about where the top players were coming from.

“Our goal is to bring a team together, all of that needs to be a well-oiled machine. The reality of our decision was that we weren’t sure that Thomas saw it the same way we saw it. No one is right or wrong, we just didn’t have a shared vision for the future.

“It wasn’t about (defeat to Dinamo) Zagreb, it was about the shared vision for what we wanted Chelsea to look like. It wasn’t a decision that was made because of a single win or loss. It was a decision that we thought was the right vision for the club.”

Fans gave their thoughts as Jurgen Klopp mocks Todd Boehly’s idea for an Premier League all-star north v south game…

@rythrinx: People still underestimating him.. The guy is a business magnate.. He knows what he is doing.. If he is able to pull it off, he will do many things that haven’t been done before..

@CFC__Riley: A date for it: The weekend after the PL Season finishes. Any competition finals that are played or need to be played still, those players just wont play, or do it after the whole season but idk if thats too late or not.

@JDanial16: A better idea: Just don’t have it at all.

@_CFCJake: It’s literally to help the lower league clubs but alright. Don’t see anyone else trying to help fund the lower levels of football

@tdharris20: You think a guy that turned up 5 minutes ago and has already pissed a quarter of a billion up the wall honestly cares about that?

@Conorking06: Would be entertaining icl

@Gas_Eloise: My instinct was to deny this because football is different to American sports and doesn’t need to be Americanised more than it is. However, the idea of an Allstar game between the North and South does sound really entertaining as a fan. Idk if the players would like it.

@branalvere: Imagine if Harland or Jesus got injured in one of these Micky mouse fixtures. Also, are the fans of Liverpool,Leeds and Man United all going to support the same team and mix in the same stands? Sounds like a recipe for a punch up

@Jonno1711: Nice idea – except we all know it’s garbage! Premier league should already have money trickle down to lower leagues and grass roots. But for some reason (big club greed) it doesn’t work!

@AdamCarson1: Or you could always just share the wealth instead of paying lip service to grass roots by holding a kick about for cash

What’s Todd Boehly’s next big idea for English football going to be? No ties? Penalty shoot-balls at the end of every game? Singing ‘take me out to the ballgame’ after 70 minutes’. It’s not a particularly impressive start to his time at Chelsea

— Oliver Holt (@OllieHolt22) September 13, 2022