Chelsea's Boehly outlines multi-club vision and plan to bring EPL closer to America

By Samindra Kunti

September 14 - Chelsea chairman and co-owner Todd Boehly has said he wants to build a multi-club network to complete the acquisition of the London club. The American also proposed an MLB-style All-Star Game in England to raise funds to be distributed through the English football pyramid.

Speaking at the Salt Conference in New York on Tuesday, Boehly, upbeat and shrugging, spoke about his vision for the club and the game. Asked about the skepticism surrounding him, Boehly said: "We We will continually add resources and we have been told about having a multi-club level. I would like to continue to grow the footprint and there are different countries where there are advantages to having a club."

"Red Bull are doing a very good job. They have Leipzig and Salzburg, who both play in the Champions League. So they have figured out how to make this work. You have Man City who have a very large network of clubs .

"The challenge that Chelsea have now is that when you have 18, 19 and 20 year old superstars, you can loan them out to other clubs, but you are putting their development in someone else's hands. ", he continued.< /p>

"Our goal is to make sure we can show our young superstars pathways to the Chelsea pitch while giving them real playing time. For me, the way to do that is through another club in another really competitive league in Europe."

Boehly's words suggest he wants to explore multiple club ownership in the future with a view to developing players within his own constellation of clubs.

Boehly, who succeeds Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge, has also offered an American-inspired model to raise funds for the game's lower tier, which has long complained the distribution model doesn't reflect not the prime minister's wealth. League.

Co-owner of the LA Dodgers, he pitched a North vs. South All-Star Game, borrowing from baseball.

"At the end of the day, I hope the Premier League learns a little lesson from American sport and really starts to understand why we wouldn't do a tournament with the bottom four teams, why isn't there not an all-star game?" asked Boehly. "People talk about more money for the pyramid - MLB [Major League Baseball] made their All-Star Game in L.A. this year, we made $200 million between Monday and Tuesday. You could do a North vs South All Star Match for the Premier League to very easily fund whatever the pyramid needed. »

He also explained his first major decision at the club - dismissing German coach Thomas Tuchel - as part of his holistic vision for the club which needs to be "well oiled".

"I think Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and someone who has had a lot of success at Chelsea. Our vision for the club was to find a manager who really wanted to collaborate - a coach who really wanted to collaborate," said Boehly.

"We know the people, we know the human capital, and we understand the game plans and strategies, and, yeah, we're not supposed to be the experts at finding the best talent - we're going to put those people in place. .

"It's no different running a human capital business where it's about getting the right resources, getting them to collaborate, organizing them, thinking about how you have a global business at the local level."

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