The ever-changing landscape of football could be set for another shift in its appearance in the coming years after reports in The Times suggest that another chapter in the tale that is a Premier League all-star game could unveil itself in the near future.
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: A Premier League XI could face the best from the Bundesliga, La Liga and other top leagues as plans for club football All-Star games are set to be revived
✍️ @DickinsonTimeshttps://t.co/2XX1WB2G0w
— Times Sport (@TimesSport) September 29, 2022
American billionaire and Chelsea’s new co-owner Todd Boehly has already championed the idea of instituting a Premier League all-star game that would see XI’s made up of players from northern clubs square off against their southern counterparts in a targeted new addition to the footballing calendar meant to bring even more revenue into the English football tier but was subsequently met with a torrent of backlash from all sections.
But that idea may not be shelved, and instead, expanded to include the continent’s top leagues with a potential revival of establishing all-star matches that would then see the best XI from the Premier League feature against their equivalents from La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1.
There is every reason to suggest that this further expansion of Boehly’s vision to be met with similar – or even worse – backlash from the continent where the sanctity of the game remains valued and not nearly as influenced by American ownership, TV rights, and revenue streams to the extent that it is in the Premier League.
While there are clubs in Spain, France, and Italy that have direct or indirect ties to foreign ownership and investment, the notion of an all-star game is commonplace on the American sports landscape, with all major sports leagues in the country – the MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLS – featuring all-star competitions at some stage of the season.
Unfortunately for fans that would prefer to remain a purist of the football calendar rather than succumb to the influence of the almighty pound/dollar/euro and the truly global reach that the sport has attained to unfathomable levels on a financial level, the latest pitch was thought to be received in a manner that was far more popular among club executives.
