Chelsea owner Todd Boehly ‘agrees to host NBA-style All-Star game’

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Todd Boehly has reportedly agreed a deal in principle for a one-of-a-kind All-Star match to be played at Chelsea’s ground in a fund-raising effort for Ukraine. According to the Evening Standard, plans are already in place for ‘Football for Ukraine’ to play an American-style All-Star match.

It’s not yet been confirmed what players will take part, but the report claims there is hope that stars from all over the world could feature. Premier League stars Mykhaylo Mudryk, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Illya Zabarnyi and Vitaliy Mykolenko will reportedly be involved in the match.

While no official date has been set, it’s hoped the match will be played ‘in the first two weeks of August’. That would see the game played just a few weeks before the new season kicks off.

But it would potentially also coincide with the Community Shield, scheduled for August 6. The All-Star match comes just a few months after Chelsea owner Boehly was knocked back for his suggestion of bringing the American-style event to the Premier League on a regular basis.

“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” Boehly said last year. “And really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game?

“People are talking about more money for the pyramid, in the MLB All-Star game this year we made 200m dollars from a Monday and a Tuesday. So we’re thinking we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”

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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was one of many to speak out against Boehly’s proposals, insisting there just isn’t any space on the calendar to fit an All-Star game in. “He forgets in American sports these players have four-month breaks so they are quite happy they can do a little bit of sport in these breaks. It’s completely different in football,” Klopp said.

“Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well? I’m surprised by the question so please don’t judge my answers too much, but maybe he can explain it to me at one point and find a proper date.

“I’m not sure people want to see that. Imagine that, (Manchester) United, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle players all on one team that’s not the national team, just a north team. Interesting game.”

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