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?
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00:00A catapult that launches dice onto the field, a ball firing cannon to start the match, a
00:09tightrope walker to instigate the kick-off, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gerard Piquet's
00:15Kings League.
00:17The 7-a-side football tournament, which features legends of the game, social media stars and
00:22every daft idea you could possibly think of, has become a massive hit in the Spanish-speaking
00:28world since its launch on January 1st.
00:31Less than three months after that, though, it had grown so enormous that 92,522 spectators
00:39crammed into the Camp Nou to watch its first finals day, this despite virtually all the
00:45players on the pitch being total unknowns.
00:48And a few months later, the Metropoliano was close to capacity for an eight-hour, six-match
00:53epic, including performances from pop stars and a penalty shootout with Iker Casillas.
00:59It's all in probably the brainchild of Barcelona and Spain legend Gerard Piquet.
01:05Not content with a World Cup, a European Championship, four Champions Leagues, nine La Liga titles
01:11the lot, the 36-year-old has ploughed his focus into Cosmos Holding, the company he
01:16founded in 2017 with Barcelona's shirt sponsor at the time, Rakuten.
01:22After controversial moves to turn Tennis Davis Cup into an 18-team tournament and Spanish
01:27Football Super Cup into a four-team contest played in Saudi Arabia, as well as the launch
01:31of… the world's first balloon World Cup, the project gained some credibility when it
01:38bought FC Andorra and took them quickly from the Spanish 5th Division to fighting for promotion
01:44to La Liga.
01:45But it's the Kings League that has become the real story.
01:48Devised with help from Piquet's pal Ibrahim Llanos, Spain's most famous social media
01:53influencer with 15 million followers on Twitch, the seven-a-side tournament has been an overnight
01:58phenomenon in Europe.
02:01With fixtures streamed live on YouTube, the first matchday on January 1st saw a dozen
02:05games at a Power League-type indoor arena in Barcelona.
02:09There was only a tiny stand for spectators, but online, it attracted a peak audience of
02:15780,000.
02:17The second matchday peaked at 945,000 when one team fielded a masked player known only
02:26as Enigma.
02:28Described by Piquet as a La Liga player who didn't want to reveal his true identity,
02:32fevered speculation and guesswork had him identified as anyone from Isco to Denis Suarez.
02:38On matchday three, viewership reached 1.3 million.
02:43Part of the reason for this is the league's unusual rules, voted for on social media,
02:47which help to draw attention.
02:49Matches are two halves of 20 minutes on a small-sided pitch.
02:53Normal league fixtures start water polo-style, where each team lines up on their goal line
02:58before charging towards the ball on the centre spot.
03:01Teams can also play one secret weapon per match by picking a card at random.
03:06Options for those range from an immediate penalty kick to an opposition player being
03:10removed for a few minutes, or even just all the goals scored by your team in the next
03:15two minutes counting double, things like that.
03:18La Liga chief Javier Tabas described it as a circus and a freak show, but it was never
03:23aimed at him.
03:24The main audience is 15 to 24-year-olds, and the league already has partnerships with major
03:29brands like Adidas and McDonald's.
03:32As for the more traditional fan, they are being courted with the involvement of legends
03:36like Iker Casillas and Sergio Aguero being the de facto presidents of teams in the league.
03:41Aguero has even played in some matches, striding on for his debut in a clown outfit before
03:47revealing his identity.
03:49And while Enigma may have turned out to be ex-Kadizh forward Nano Mesa underwhelmingly,
03:53Javier Hernandez has made a one-off appearance on launch day, followed by cameos for Javier
03:58Saviola, Juan Capdevilla, Gibril Sise, Andrea Pirlo, Andrey Shevchenko and Ronaldinho, the
04:04latter of which attracting enough eyes from South America to draw an audience of 2.1 million.
04:10Pique, speaking exclusively to 442 in an outstanding feature written by our own Chris Flanagan,
04:16has even said that Neymar has been in touch about owning his own team.
04:20And that he can't rule out Messi himself getting involved at some point in the future,
04:24although he is, and this is a quote, very busy at the moment.
04:27Interestingly, Pique 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.
04:36He was hidden on the sidelines ready to go, but neither team drew his card in that match.
04:41And that's just how it goes in the Kings League.
04:44So how does it work?
04:46Well, the Kings League follows an Apueta and Klasura style format more popular in South
04:50America, in which each season is divided into two splits.
04:54The Winter Split and the Summer Split.
04:57Both splits have their own league stage followed by playoffs for the top ranked teams.
05:02During the league stage, the 12 teams play 11 matchdays and face every other team once.
05:07The top 8 teams based on their rankings at the end of the league stage advance to the
05:11playoffs.
05:12Each matchday features six 40-minute matches, which are divided into two 20-minute halves.
05:18All these games are then played consecutively on the same ground.
05:22For the inaugural season, players were given the opportunity to apply and were selected
05:26through a draft process that took place last year.
05:29The respective players underwent physical and skill testing before the top prospects
05:33were then drafted.
05:34Each team can have 12 players on their roster, and the draft involved selecting 10 players
05:40for those slots.
05:41The other two, and this is where it gets good, were reserved for guest players.
05:46Your Agueros, your Pielos, your Ronaldinos, your Shevchenkos, your Adam Clearies, that
05:51sort of thing.
05:52These players are known as the 11th and 12th player, and as well as famous footballers,
05:56famous streamers and YouTube stars have appeared as well.
06:00The 12th player can change on each matchday, while the 11th player is meant to stay with
06:04the team for the entire season.
06:06The most recent final held almost unbelievably in a near-sold-out Metropolitano, home of
06:13Atletico Madrid, saw the league whittle down to El Barrio and ex-Bayern's team.
06:18After a frankly stunning 4-4 game played out, it was to be decided on penalties.
06:24But of course, this is the Kings League, not your classic 12-yard penalties.
06:28Old-school MLS hockey-style penalties where the attacker starts on the halfway line and
06:34then has a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
06:37Deep into sudden death, ex-Bayern's team took the win and the inaugural summer trophy.
06:42For all the big names and celebrity streamers, it was a young defender called Micky Fernandez,
06:47a man who admitted later he'd never really played in front of a crowd before the Kings
06:52League, who scored the decisive goal.
06:54There were near 50,000 people watching him do it in the stadium, over 1 million have
07:01watched the highlights on YouTube, and you can then double that again for the audience
07:06on Twitch.
07:07That alone is a remarkable thing.
07:10The challenge for the Kings League now will be finding a way to stop the novelty from
07:14wearing off.
07:15Throughout 2023, new rules and new stars were regularly being introduced to keep everything
07:20fresh.
07:21It's difficult to see why expansion is on the agenda, specifically into South America.
07:27But in theory, there's no reason this can't thrive anywhere where the sport is popular
07:31and that has a switched-on, engaged, socially-media-savvy young audience.
07:36This is football, you see, just not as we know it, and that, to be completely honest,
07:41is the beauty of the thing.
07:42Sometimes, people just want to have fun, and if there's one thing that the Kings League
07:47is, it's fun.
07:49If you'd like to read more about the Kings League, you can find a huge interview with
07:53PK and other notable people involved in it in 442 Magazine.
07:57We were very lucky to be invited out to Spain to see how it all works, meet the man behind
08:01the league, and hear about their expansion plans for the future.
08:04The piece which has informed this video was written by Chris Flanagan, and the magazine
08:08and indeed all issues of 442 are available from all good news agents, all via subscription
08:14in the link below.
08:15Until next time, I've been Adam Cleary, this has been the incredible story of the Kings
08:19League, and I'll catch you next time.
08:21Goodbye!