King's League fills Camp Nou and Gerard Piqué has big expansion plans... but what's it all about?
Barcelona's stadium was virtually sold out for the competition's Final Four on Sunday
More than 90,000 people were in attendance at Camp Nou on Sunday. Such numbers are usually reserved for big Champions League nights or for El Clásico, but those present were not at the famous old stadium to watch FC Barcelona’s men, nor the impressive FCB Femení. They were there for the Final Four of the King’s League.
King’s League president and former Barça defender Gerard Piqué arrived in a helicopter along with the trophy. In the stands, fans set a new Guinness world record for the amount of masks worn in a public space. And in between the action on the pitch, there was music in a Superbowl-style spectacle from artists Skone, Chuty, Gazir, Bnet Lali and Tiago PZK. Later, there were fireworks too.
Set up by Piqué following his retirement from professional football in November, the King’s League is a seven-a-side football competition featuring 12 teams. Team presidents, from the world of football, streaming and social media, pick squads of 12 players, with 10 selected in a draft in December. The 11th player is a former (or current) professional, while the 12th can change each week.
Iker Casillas and Sergio Agüero are two of the presidents and both have played, while a number of other high-profile former footballers have also featured, including Ronaldinho, Javier Saviola, ex-Espanyol and Spain striker Raúl Tamudo, World Cup winner Joan Capdevila and former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Mexico forward Javier Hernández.
The rules, which have been determined by online voting from fans, are unusual. There is a water polo-style kick-off, with the ball placed in the middle of the pitch and players sprinting from each end when the buzzer sounds. Games are 40 minutes, with each half lasting 20. Offside is allowed. There are unlimited substitutions. Yellow cards result in two-minute sin bins and reds in five-minute exclusions before a substitution. VAR is also there, although it is upon request and can only be used once per team in a match. And there are tie-breaker penalty shootouts from the centre of the field.
But the biggest difference to normal football is the use of “secret weapons”. These can also be activated only once in a game and include a penalty kick in a team’s favour, a shootout in their favour, the exclusion of an opposing player for two minutes, goals counting double for two minutes, a wildcard, and the ability to steal an opposition’s secret weapon card.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas has been critical, calling the King’s League a “circus”. “The only way in which the King’s League is similar to football is in that it is played with a ball and you have to score goals,” he said recently. And referring to how one footballer played wearing a lucha libre mask in the King’s League in order to hide his identity, he said: “I can’t imagine that in LaLiga. I think it’s a circus.”
It is not for everyone but with 92,522 at Camp Nou on Sunday and over 2 million watching live via streams on Twitch, TikTok and YouTube, clearly it is hugely popular already. Tickets were much cheaper than watching Barça’s men at Camp Nou, with prices for the Final Four at €15 until the last day, when they were reduced to €10. Regardless, it is still an impressive number of people.
Even Pique has been surprised by its reach. “When I went to watch the Clásico, my head exploded when I thought about the Camp Nou being full [for the King’s League],” he said on Saturday.
But it was virtually full and the interest did not stop there. Journalists travelled from as far away as Argentina and Russia to cover the event live. And among the crowd, there were numerous nationalities, all clearly enjoying themselves.
My good friend Jennifer Seefoo, who lives in Barcelona, was working at the Final Four for Mexican media and told me: “There were lots of young people and lots of families. The atmosphere was more like a Latin American match. There was a euphoria I have never experienced before in all the games I have covered at Camp Nou.”
Asked about the competition’s unique format and features ahead of the Final Four, Piqué said: “It’s a reflection of what I like to consume: a really fun competition where a lot of things happen on and off the pitch. I think we are achieving something that many people like and that is reflected in the audiences.”
So what next? In May, a women’s version will start. Its name, logically, will be The Queen’s League. Fixtures will take place on Saturdays, with the men’s matches continuing on Sundays. Meanwhile, the King’s League is branching out internationally.
“There is a plan for expansion in several countries from 2024,” Piqué said. “The idea is to have a competition at the end of the year with the best teams from each country. A bit like the Champions League.”
Ronaldinho will be president of a team in Brazil, Piqué already announced in February, while Neymar will also be involved with a side in his homeland. Ahead of the Final Four, an ad was shown in which the Paris Saint-Germain forward kidnaps Piqué and refuses to let him go until he is given a King’s League team. It’s all part of the show and the show is about to get even bigger.