EPL Football and the Need For An All-star Game
It’s the dream for most footballers to play in the English Premier League (EPL). It is also widely accepted that the EPL is the best and most entertaining League in the world because of its quality of games, intensity, drama, and decade-long rivalries. The League boasts teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur. Each possesses what it takes to appeal to the average football fan, unlike other European Leagues that feature only 1 or 2 teams with such appeal.
At the start of the season, Chelsea’s co-owner, Todd Boehly suggested the League should organize a new game that would consist of the best players selected across the teams in the league, that could be called the premier league All-star game apart from the usual FA Cup games and the Carabao Cup which are held every season, which raised a lot of eyebrows mainly from the English Media.
The idea of the Premier league All-Star game was gotten from American sports like the NBA, which has its All-Star Game which is usually held mid-season in February where the best 24 players are chosen to play against each other. If that idea is implemented in the best league in the world, it would be exciting and it would serve as a major source of entertainment for the fans. And everyone would love to see the best players go head-to-head in just one game.
How the Game Could Work
The game could consist of 20 teams, 10 from the north and 10 from the south facing each other mid-season at Wembley.
The teams in the North will include Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Leeds United, Newcastle united, Wolverhampton wanderers, Everton, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester city while the teams in the South will include: Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton and & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Brentford, Fulham, Southampton, AFC Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, and West Ham United.
The selection metric could be based on voting from the fans, the players, and the media, so as to make sure the best players across each club can be given an opportunity to make it to the game.
The fans can be responsible for 50% of the votes while the media and the players will be responsible for 25% of each of the votes. Once this has been accumulated for both the north and south, the result would be announced.
Also, Past managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger can manage the teams as EPL hall-of-Famers. Coincidentally, they both managed clubs on opposing sides of the divide.
Does the English Premier League Need an All-star Game? (pros & cons)
Pros
The major pro from a fan perspective in a game like this has to be the entertainment it would bring because everyone would love to see the best players in the league together on one pitch.
Imagine a XI that consists of Kevin De Bruyne playing behind Mo Salah, Marcus Rashford, and Erling Haaland against the other with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Heung min son, and Harry Kane… good heavens! The All-Star game will allow players from rival teams to play together, quelling existing tensions and long-term feuds.
It would also benefit club owners and the Football Association by generating a lot of revenue from this game through ticket sales, Tv rights, airing, sponsorship deals, etc. Todd Boehly also mentioned in his interview that about 200m dollars was made in the last MLB all-star game.
Cons
For a competition of this magnitude, players from both sides playing for mid-level to bottom teams will be at a gross disadvantage. As it is obvious that the best players in the League are from the big six, leaving little to no room for players from lesser-ranked teams to play.
Although the selection metric may seem fair via voting but bias from those voting can come into place, for instance in a season where Virgil Van Dijk has been dreadful for Liverpool, he might still make the cut over Sven Botman of Newcastle because of bias either from the fans or from the journalists, we have seen a lot of this happen often times even during the team of the season selections.
Another problem for the organizers will be when exactly to fix this game because the season is already packed with so many competitions apart from the regular league games every week like the carabao cup game, the fa cup, the European Games, and even the international games.
Bad officiating which has become a recurring problem in the EPL is another significant con of an all-star game. The star power, fully packed stadiums, and global fellowship that this game will attract might be overwhelming for the officiating crew.
My verdict: I think the all-star game is really unnecessary and pointless because apart from the entertainment purpose it is meant to serve, the season is already filled with a lot of other competitions and even international games, most sports especially the American sport can be comfortable to fill in an all-star game mid-season because they don’t really have a tight schedule like it is in football.
Do you think it’s a good idea? Would you adopt an EPL All_Star game?
