Why Gerard Pique's New Kings League Is The Craziest Football Competition On Earth

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Not content with his bonkers trophy haul, former Barcelona stalwart Gerard Pique has taken to the entertainment business to set up the King's League – but what's it all about and what do Sergio Aguero, giant dice and a tightrope walker have to do with this?

Transcript

00:00a catapult that launches dice onto the field a ball firing cannon to start the

00:08match a tightrope walker to instigate the kickoff ladies and gentlemen welcome

00:13to Gerard Piquet's Kings League the seven-a-side football tournament which

00:19features legends of the game social media stars and every daft idea you

00:24could possibly think of has become a massive hit in the Spanish-speaking

00:28world since its launch on January the first less than three months after that

00:33though it had grown so enormous that 92,522 spectators crammed into the Camp Nou

00:40to watch its first finals day this despite virtually all the players on the

00:45pitch being total unknowns and a few months later the Metropoliano was close to

00:51capacity for an eight-hour six-match epic including performances from pop stars and

00:56a penalty shootout with Iker Casillas it's all improbably the brainchild of

01:02Barcelona and Spain legend Gerard Piquet not content with a World Cup a European

01:07Championship for Champions League's nine La Liga titles the lot the 36 year old

01:12has plowed his focus into Cosmos holding the company founded in 2017 with

01:18Barcelona's shirt sponsor at the time Rakuten after controversial moves to turn

01:23tennis Davis Cup into an 18 team tournament and Spanish football Super

01:27Cup into a 14 contest played in Saudi Arabia as well as the launch of the

01:32world's first balloon World Cup the project gained some credibility when it

01:38bought FC Andorra and took them quickly from the Spanish fifth division to

01:43fighting for promotion to La Liga but it's the Kings League that has become the

01:47real story devised with help from PK's pal Ibrellanos Spain's most famous social

01:52media influencer with 15 million followers on Twitch the seven-a-side tournament

01:57has been an overnight phenomenon in Europe with fixtures streamed live on

02:02YouTube the first match day on January 1st saw a dozen games at a power league

02:07type indoor arena in Barcelona there was only a tiny stand for spectators but

02:12online it attracted a peak audience of seven hundred and eighty thousand the

02:18second match day peaked at nine hundred and forty five thousand when one team

02:23fielded a masked player known only as Enigma described by PK as a La Liga player

02:29who didn't want to reveal his true identity fevered speculation and guesswork

02:33had him identified as anyone from Isco to Denis Suarez on match day three

02:39viewership reached one point three million part of the reason for this is

02:44the league's unusual rules voted for on social media which helped to draw

02:48attention matches are two halves of 20 minutes on a small sided pitch normal

02:53league fixtures start water polo style where each team lines up on their goal

02:57line before charging towards the ball on the center spot teams can also play one

03:02secret weapon per match by picking a card at random options for those range from an

03:08immediate penalty kick to an opposition player being removed for a few minutes

03:11or even just all the goals scored by your team in the next two minutes counting

03:16double things like that La Liga chief Javier Tabas described it as a circus and a

03:22freak show but it was never aimed at him the main audience is 15 to 24 year olds and

03:27the league already has partnerships with major brands like Adidas and McDonald's as

03:31for the more traditional fan they are being courted with the involvement of

03:35legends like Ika Casillas and Sergio Aguero being the de facto president of

03:40teams in the league Aguero has even played in some matches striding on for his

03:45debut in a clown outfit before revealing his identity and while Enigma may have

03:50turned out to be ex-cadith forward Nano Mesa underwhelmingly Javier Hernandez has

03:54made a one-off appearance on launch day followed by cameos for Javier Saviola Juan

03:59Capdevilla Jibril Cisse Andrea Pirlo Andrei Shevchenko and Ronaldinho the latter of which

04:05attracting enough eyes from South America to draw an audience of 2.1

04:09million PK speaking exclusively to 442 in an outstanding feature written by our

04:15own Chris Flanagan has even said that Neymar has been in touch about owning his

04:19own team and that he can't rule out Messi himself getting involved at some

04:23point in the future although he is and this is a quote very busy at the moment

04:27interestingly PK himself hasn't made an appearance yet but has been loaded into

04:32one of the games as one of the secret weapon cards teams can use he was hidden

04:36on the sidelines ready to go but neither team drew his card in that match and

04:41that's just how it goes in the Kings League so how does it work well the

04:46Kings League follows an apueta and classura style format more popular in

04:50South America in which each season is divided into two splits the winter split

04:55and the summer split both splits have their own league stage followed by playoffs for

05:00the top ranked teams during the league stage the 12 teams play 11 match days and

05:04face every other team once the top eight teams based on their rankings at the end

05:09of the league stage advance to the playoffs each match day features six 40

05:14minute matches which are divided into two 20 minute halves all these games are

05:18then played consecutively on the same ground for the inaugural season players

05:23were given the opportunity to apply and was selected through a draft process

05:27that took place last year prospective players underwent physical and skill

05:31testing before the top prospects were then drafted each team can have 12 players on

05:36their roster and the draft involved selecting 10 players for those slots the

05:41other two and oh this is where it gets good were reserved for guest players your Agueros your

05:47Pilos your Ronaldinho's your Shevchenko's your Adam Cleary's that sort of thing these

05:52players are known as the 11th and 12th player and as well as famous footballers famous streamers and

05:57YouTube stars have appeared as well the 12th player can change on each match day

06:02while the 11th player is meant to stay with the team for the entire season the

06:06most recent final held almost unbelievably in a near sold-out

06:11Metropolitano home of Atletico Madrid so the league whittled down to El Barrio and

06:16ex-buyers team after a frankly stunning 4-4 game played out it was to be decided on

06:22penalties but of course this is the Kings League not your classic 12 yard penalties

06:27old-school MLS hockey style penalties where the attacker starts on the

06:32halfway line and then has a one-on-one with the goalkeeper deep into sudden

06:38death ex-buyers team took the win and the inaugural summer trophy for all the

06:42big names and celebrity streamers it was a young defender called Mickey Fernandez a

06:47man who admitted later he'd never really played in front of a crowd before the

06:51Kings League who scored the decisive goal there were near 50,000 people

06:57watching him do it in the stadium over 1 million have watched the highlights on

07:02YouTube and you can then double that again for the audience on Twitch that

07:07alone is a remarkable thing the challenge for the Kings League now will be finding

07:12a way to stop the novelty from wearing off throughout 2023 new rules and new stars

07:17were regularly being introduced to keep everything fresh it's not difficult

07:21to see why expansion is on the agenda specifically into South America but in

07:27theory there's no reason this can't thrive anywhere where the sport is

07:30popular and it has a switched on engaged socially media savvy young audience this

07:36is football you see just not as we know it and that to be completely honest is the

07:41beauty of the thing sometimes people just want to have fun and if there's one

07:45thing that the Kings League is it's fun if you'd like to read more about the

07:50Kings League you can find a huge interview with PK and other notable

07:54people involved in it in 442 magazine we were very lucky to be invited out to

07:58Spain to see how it all works meet the man behind the league and hear about

08:02their expansion plans for the future the piece which has informed this video

08:06was written by Chris Flanagan and the magazine and indeed all issues of 442 are

08:10available from all good news agents or via subscription in the link below until

08:15next time I've been Adam Cleary this has been the incredible story of the Kings

08:19League and I'll catch you next time goodbye

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