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– Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is unimpressed by new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s idea of a US style ‘All-Star game’ in the Premier League.
– Boehly, part-owner of baseball team the LA Dodgers, and basketball sides the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Sparks, suggested a north v south game.
– He said he hopes the Premier League “takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports”.
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– Klopp said: “Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well?”
– The German was asked about Boehly’s idea after Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Ajax in the Champions League.
– Earlier in the day at a conference in New York, the American said: “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 (£173m) 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 NBA’s All-Star game takes place during the regular season, in February, and pits players from the Eastern Conference against the Western Conference. The starting line-ups for the exhibition match are selected via fan, player, and media voting, with head coaches selecting the reserves for each 12-strong team.
– Klopp, who has previously been critical of the crowded football schedule, responded: “When he finds a date for that he can call me. In American sports these players have four-month breaks.
– “Maybe he can explain that. I’m not sure people want to see that – [Manchester] United players, Liverpool players, Everton players all together. North-east too, so Newcastle. It is not the national team. All the London guys together, Arsenal, Tottenham, great. Did he really say it?”
– When asked what his fellow football club owners would think about an All-Star game Boehly said: “Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league.
– “I think there’s a real cultural aspect, I think evolution will come.”
– Boehly, who led a consortium to a £4.25bn takeover of Chelsea in May, also put forward the suggestion that relegation places for the top-flight could be decided by a four-team tournament, rather than the usual format of the three bottom sides going down automatically.
– There is no relegation in the major sports in the US, with the worst performing teams getting first picks of new talent in a draft which leads to accusations of teams “tanking” for an improved pick.
– “The economics of going into the Championship are materially different,” he added.
– “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.”
