New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly aired some surprising ideas at the SALT conference on Tuesday, including a Premier League All-Star Game.
The American businessman spoke on a plethora of topics. In addition to the All-Star Game, Boehly suggested a playoff system to determine relegation from the English top flight. Both represent common ideas in American sports.
“At the end of the day, I hope the Premier League will learn a little lesson from American sport,” Boehly said. “MLB had their all-star game in Los Angeles this year. We made $200 million between 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. The purchase of the west London club was not the American’s first entry into 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 Americanise the Premier League, he also hinted at buying other football teams in Europe. “We’ve talked about having a multi-club model, I’d like to continue to grow the footprint,” Boehly said.
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“I think our goal is to make sure we can show young superstars avenues to step onto the pitch at Chelsea while giving them real game time. And, for me, the way to do that is to go through another club somewhere in a really competitive league in Europe.
Manchester City and Red Bull both have similar setups with multiple clubs under one ownership. City Football Group currently has 12 teams around the world under its umbrella, including Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Troyes AC, Girona FC and recently acquired Palermo FC. Red Bull, on the other hand, owns RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg and New York Red Bulls.
Boehly hasn’t made any particular suggestions about other European clubs he might be interested in acquiring. Nevertheless, teams in Belgium and Portugal could be considered.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Action Plus
