Chelsea owner Boehly wants Premier League All-Star game

New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly expressed some eyebrow-raising ideas during the SALT conference on Tuesday, including a Premier League all-star game. It’s a concept that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp quickly laughed off as a ridiculous idea.

The American businessman rattled off a plethora of topics. In addition to the all-star game, Boehly suggested a playoff system to determine relegation from England’s top flight. Both represent ideas commonplace in American sports.

“Ultimately, I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” claimed Boehly.  “MLB did their all-star game in L.A. this year. We made $200 million from a Monday and a Tuesday.”

It remains to be seen how far these talks will go with other Premier League owners.

Boehly targets Premier League All-Star Game, more changes

Boehly bought Chelsea this summer for around $2.8 billion up front, while investing another $2 billion in further development. Purchasing the west London club was not the American’s first entry in sports ownership. The 48-year-old businessman previously bought a stake in Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

Along with Boehly’s plans to Americanize the Premier League, he also hinted at buying other soccer teams in Europe. “We have talked about having a multi-club model, I would love to continue to build out the footprint,” Boehly stated.

“I think our goal is to make sure that we can show pathways to young superstars to get on the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time. And, to me, the way to do that is through another club somewhere in a really competitive league in Europe.”

Manchester City and Red Bull both have similar setups with multiple clubs in one ownership. City Football Group currently has 12 teams across the world under their umbrella including Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Troyes AC, Girona FC, and the recently acquired Palermo FC. Red Bull, on the other hand, owns RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg, and New York Red Bulls.

Boehly did not make any particular suggestions on which other European clubs he may be interested in acquiring. Nevertheless, teams in Belgium and Portugal could be considered.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Action Plus