World's top players blocked from 'All-Star' match

The Daily Mail reports that the one-off match - modelled closely on the NBA basketball equivalent - had been all but confirmed until some of Europe's biggest clubs pulled the plug on the idea at the last minute.

"The plans were advanced enough for there to be confidence last Christmas that the top-secret project would go ahead," the paper's sports business reporter Charles Sale writes.

The clash was meant to involve a Europe v Rest of the World match-up, with Chinese sponsorship money apparently to ensure players the huge one-off payday for taking part in the game - which would have been held at the Amsterdam Arena.

The teams were to have been managed by national team bosses, and with all manner of power brokers on board with the project - including 'super-agent' Jorge Mendes, who represents Cristiano Ronaldo, Radamel Falcao and Sergio Aguero among others - the way seemed clear for the game to go ahead.

But the sticking point was apparently finding time in the footballing calendar - something which the clubs decided was just too difficult during the latest meeting of the European Clubs Association a few weeks ago.

It might not happen this year, but this All Star game will happen soon enough. In a world where even the World Cup can be sold off to the highest bidder - even if that bidder is a questionable regime based in a desert - then everything is up for grabs if the money is right.