How Premier League All-Star matches can help give football back to the fans

The Football Fans Final? It's not such a daft idea
Dan Istitene/Getty Images
John Dillon3 March 2018

The North versus The South. It’s one of those football ideas that can launch a million conversations and just as many arguments.

When it was suggested this week by Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku, he clearly had something more competitive in mind than the real-life approximation of the regional battle which was then played out for real – with Manchester City twice waltzing past an enfeebled Arsenal.

Some would also argue that the Premier League table as it stood the morning after City’s 3-0 win at the Emirates on Thursday already settled the issue – with City, Manchester United and Liverpool occupying the first three places and Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal below them.

But supporters love nothing better than a verbal scrap. And they certainly know how to keep one going.

The favourite parlour game across all of sport is to choose your own idea of who is the best and why. It has been played since the whole business began. And still, for example, there is no definitive answer to whether, say, Muhammad Ali would have beaten Joe Louis – or vice-versa. And nor will there ever be one.

The difference about this huge new debate over which players would make which representative team is that it came without the acid coating of controversy and bitterness which accompanies most discussions about the game these days.

It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about power. It wasn’t about cheating, diving, VAR and new technologies, corruption, the media, racism, homophobia or any of the other regular talking points which can sometimes make football seem like an endless circus of conflict and chaos.

This, instead, was just about players. About who’s best, and why. Sure, any pub conversation along these lines could become heated. Tribalism would be involved. But it would still be about football and footballers, plain and simple.

Premier League All-Star XI | South nominees | 27/02/2018

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Lukaku pointed out that similar All-Star games are played in American sport – in football’s MLS as well as in basketball and baseball’s NBA and MLB networks.

And such is the pace of elite football’s global corporate explosion these days, it’s not unfeasible that such events will become part of the game’s calendar in the not too distant future.

You could certainly imagine the TV companies loving it. And the sportswear manufacturers. And a host of other outside industries and sectors which see football as the best promotional vehicle on the planet.

The current discussion about plans for a winter break in England highlight the vast logistical difficulties there would be in finding a slot for such a fixture.

But purely at the talking point level, sports marketing expert Alan Seymour certainly sees the viability of the idea. And beyond its commercial potential and the opportunity it offers for fresh and greater worldwide exposure for the Premier League, he suggests it could be a way for football to give something back to the fans.

“I believe there is a void in the relationship between Premier League and the people who make football happen – the fans."

Alan Seymour

“It’s a fantastic proposition with a lot of merit even though it’s only a discussion point for now. And it could be done,” said Seymour.

“A lot of people would certainly have a lot of fun picking their XIs. And let’s remember football and sport is entertainment as well as big business.

“I believe there is a void in the relationship between Premier League and the people who make football happen – the fans.

“This would be something to give back to the fans. Why don’t they, for example, make it the Football Fans final and deliver it for their benefit of fans?

“Maybe there could even be a summer pre-season series of events. With this its final event.

“The practicalities are very tricky but if we set them aside and treat this as a pure discussion, maybe it could even be a two legged thing – one at Wembley and, say one, at Anfield.

“The supporters could vote for the teams via social media. Then get the fanzines, the supporters websites and podcasters involved, too. And the club’s own webs forums, which connect to the supporters.

“You’d get tribal allegiances so maybe you would need rules such as only being allowed to vote for two players from your own team. But people would love it. This would be really enjoyable fun for the supporters and I am sure such a game would be watched all over the world.

“It could help charity and grassroots football, too.”

Premier League All-Star XI | North nominees | 27/02/2018

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Such representative matches would actually be nothing new here. Indeed, it is timely as the nation wrestles with the complexities of Brexit to recall one such game which was staged to mark the UK’s entry to the old Common Market in 1973.

The Three versus The Six commemorated the entry of Britain, Ireland and Denmark to the EEC. The Three - including Booby Moore, Pat Jennings, Peter Storey and Johnny Giles - took on a team selected from the six existing nations.

Yes – six of the Six’s starting line-up of were West Germans - Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Gunter Netzer, Berti Vogts, Jurgen Grabowski and Horst Blankenburg… cue jokes about German domination of the organisation… but it was The Three who won 2-0 in front of 36,500 fans.

Similarly, the centenary of the FA was celebrated in 1963 with a match between England and the Rest of the World at the old Wembley Stadium, in London (below).

Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton and Moore were in that England team, while global icons Eusebio, Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento, Lev Yashin and Denis Law were among the opposition line-up.

England won 2-1 in front of 87,000 spectators, with Greaves scoring the 90th minute winner. Again, cue one-liners pointing out that such a result would never happen nowadays.

Central Press/Getty Images

Players are: (left to right) Alfred Di Stefano (Spain), Francisco Gento (Spain), Uwe Seeler (West Germany), K Schnellincer (West Germany), Ferenc Puskas (Spain), Gordon Banks (Leicester City), George Eastham (Arsenal), Richard Wilson (Huddersfield Town) and Jimmy Greaves (Tottenham Hotspur).

Photo: Central Press/Getty Images

When it comes to the battle of the North versus the South in England, the issue of supremacy was settled long ago in terms of league title wins.

The North West alone, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Manchester City, Blackburn, Burnley and Preston in numerical order, has triumphed 58 times, more than double London’s 21 wins (Arsenal 13, Chelsea six and Tottenham two).

Check back in 10 years’ time and there may be a new, annual battle for supremacy as suggested by Lukaku. He got the fans talking, so that means he will have got the money men talking.

The North versus The South every summer? It’s not a far-fetched idea at all.

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