When Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly suggested the idea of a Premier League all-star game during a recent media appearance, it was received with a wide range of reactions, many of them negative. Bar interest from a select few, including Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard, it didn’t take long for a consensus to form that an all-star game doesn’t fit in the Premier League. But, it got me thinking, could it instead work in the Women’s Super League (WSL)?
Women’s football is different from the men’s game and the two should not be compared — therefore, what is right in the Premier League does not have to also be right for the WSL. With a different format and structure, less fixtures to clog up the calendar and a platform that is growing at an increasing rate, an all-star game in the WSL could add yet another boost to women’s football in England.
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Boehly, who is also a co-owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, took ownership of Chelsea as head of a consortium alongside investment firm Clearlake Capital earlier this year, and argued that a north vs. south game could be used to generate funds to benefit all levels football in England.
“Ultimately I hope that the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports and really starts to figure out why wouldn’t we do a tournament with the bottom four teams, why isn’t there an all-star game?” Boehly said during an appearance at the SALT Conference, a global thought leadership and networking forum, in September in New York.
“People are talking about more money for the pyramid — MLB did their All-Star Game in L.A. this year, and we made $200 million from a Monday and a Tuesday. You could do a north vs. south all-star game for the Premier League to fund whatever the pyramid needed very easily.”
