Businessman Todd Boehly, who recently took over Chelsea Football Club, has suggested that the Premier League should take more inspiration from across the pond and consider a North vs South All-Star game.
Speaking at the annual SALT conference in New York earlier this week, the US entrepreneur said, “I hope the Premier League takes “a little bit of a lesson from American sports”, posing the questions: “Why wouldn’t we do a tournament with the bottom four teams? Why isn’t there an All-Star game?”
Aside from the immediate whiplash reaction to the comments, many football fans online have been left divided, and although some instantly rejected the idea for simply not aligning with the identity of UK football, others are now debating the pros and cons.
Whether they had specific reasons in mind or not, it’s clear that plenty have been allured by the Hollywood-esque appeal of the proposal.
Some already have suggestions as to how it could work.
How could a North vs South All-Star game benefit the football pyramid?
Boehly’s foremost argument was the revenue it would generate for the league and all the way down to grassroots football, insisting that “you could do a North vs South All-Star game in the Premier League and fund whatever the pyramid needed very easily”.
He cited Major League Baseball’s (MLB) recent All-Star game which generated $200 million in just two days. In addition to the increased parachute payments which would benefit lower league teams, it goes without saying that special events like these would no doubt bring more eyes to the Premier League – especially from the US, where the popularity of football is growing every year.
Moreover, not only could this present the possibility of more American investment and sponsorships, but some people believe the annual exhibition would be more interesting that the FA Community Shield – which many already see as a largely inconsequential pre-season friendly.
All that being said, it’s worth noting that US sporting culture is very much based around franchising – a model which has seen teams go so far as to uproot and move cities entirely and simply would not fly in the UK given how closely linked clubs are to our local communities.
Of course, this is not to say that more transatlantic investors would necessarily mean football would be Americanised in this way, but if the Super League has taught us anything, it’s that we need to proceed with caution.
Both Manchester United and Liverpool’s American owners were two of the biggest ringleaders behind the failed proposal which threatened not only the spirit of competition, but the footballing pyramid as a whole and could have led to entire clubs, north or south, ceasing to exist.
With that in mind, many on social media are much more hesitant, regardless of how tempting it might be to see how quickly a team full of the best United, City, Liverpool, Everton players and more would turn over a southern side.
Several have also noted that even beyond messy details like TV rights and the corporate scramble to see who gets the next blockbuster fixture, events like this could also create significant scheduling conflicts in a season already overly-congested compared to much of Europe and the US.
Following their Champions League victory on Wednesday night, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp laid out his feelings on the idea in no uncertain terms, quipping: “He hasn’t waited long!… Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well?”
As he went on to argue: “It’s completely different in America… they have four-month breaks’ and while it might be commonplace among their sports franchising model, he’s ‘not sure people want to see that.”
It will be interesting to see what the likes of Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag have to say on the matter as the two will undoubtedly face similar questions as the two Manchester clubs prepare for their European games in the next 48 hours.
Gary Neville, who has long called for an independent regulator to vet potential takeover bids, believes that rumblings like this only further pay further credence, adding that US investors ‘just don’t get it’ and won’t stop until they get what they want.
Would a North vs South match be a worthwhile watch, or would it signify football as we know it moving even further away from its roots than perhaps it already has?
Featured Image: Premier League
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Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
14th September 2022 
