Comment: A Premier League All-Star match? The devil may be in the details

By David Owen

Premier League All-Star Game? I can't imagine that would be my cup of tea: too much predictable outrage over who's in and who's out; too much showboating in a fairly restricted competitive context.

That said, even I can see that this is a foolproof 100% cast iron slot - especially if it was staged in the USA.

And other great offerings of traditional European team sports, if not precedent then examples of top players from a range of nations/clubs coming together very briefly and providing wonderful entertainment. I am thinking here of the Barbarians of rugby union, the much-loved BaaBaas and the International Cavaliers of cricket. I remember going to watch the latter with gusto as a child in deeply provincial Taunton.

So the idea of ​​Chelsea owner Todd Boehly (pictured) deserves a serious hearing - that is, it's worth thinking about what the flaws and drawbacks might be.< /p>

Here are two potential problems.

First, when would it be played? I saw it suggesting it could replace the Community Shield, played at the start of each season between the Premier League champions of the previous campaign and the FA Cup winners.

Maybe; but imagine how many notable artists from the previous year would have changed clubs, including overseas. Indeed, the transfer window is normally still open when the key occasion takes place. If the split between the teams is North versus South, as Boehly apparently has in mind, you could have participants switching sides on game day.

Keeping in mind that injuries would reduce the rosters actually selected, regardless of when an All-Star game was played, I think the odds of getting the 22 most outstanding players from the previous season, or n anywhere near that on the same ground in August would be minimal.

I would also strongly advise anyone trying to replace the Community Shield in this way, to make sure the new game generates a lot more for good causes than the clash between league champions and cup winners. But the likely rise in revenue should make this quite possible.

To get the creme de la creme - really - on the same ground for a big showy night, once a season, a date in early January might be best.

This would involve getting Premier League clubs and fans to accept the concept of the winter break. It's proven a tough sell so far - although the impending Qatar 2022 World Cup should at least demonstrate that a one-week mid-season break is possible

Organizers would still likely be criticized for inventing a new match, adding to match congestion and player burnout.

And, of course, if you accept a winter break, but you hold matches there, well, that's not really a break, is it?

But most All-Stars would play for at least the same clubs for which their exploits between August and the end of the year led to their nomination.

The second potential problem I wanted to highlight was the suggestion of a North versus South division of labour.

The North American All-Star games rely on distinctions built into the fabric of the regular season: baseball has its American League and its National League; basketball its Eastern and Western Conferences. The Premier League has no such black and white dividing line, and the English Premier League never has either.

Ironically, North versus South would be easier in the sixth-tier National League, which is divided into two divisions on a geographic basis. It would have been simple at the third tier between 1921 and 1958, when the English Third Division was similarly divided. For the elite tier though, that would be an entirely artificial distinction, once per season.

In addition, English football has what is called promotion and relegation.

Assuming you wanted to give All-Star match selectors 10 teams each, that would mean players from Midlands-based clubs such as Aston Villa or Wolverhampton Wanderers could find themselves swinging between the northern and southern alignments of from one season to another.

The notion of what is "south" and what is "north" could evolve surprisingly dramatically. Consider that in 2021-22 if relegated Watford – located around 15 miles northwest of central London – had survived at the expense of 17th-placed Leeds United, the Hornets would have been the 10th-most northerly club in the Premier League. this season. .

A century ago things looked very different: in 1922-23, Manchester City and Sheffield United players would have been eligible for South if the All-Star game had existed then.

Sheffield is about 240km north of Watford. That kind of distance might not be a big jolt in the vastness of the United States, but it's a long, long w...