it has attracted crowds of up to 92 000 and audiences of millions across twitch tiktok and YouTube it's also the creation of Barcelona Legend Gerard PK and can count Adidas McDonald's and Spotify among its sponsors but what actually is the King's League [Music] play in Jan in January 2023 the king's league is a seven aside tournament its 40 minute matches are split into 20-minute halves and instead of a traditional kickoff at the beginning of games the two teams Sprint from opposing ends of the pitch to gain possession before games teams are also able to pick
golden cards giving them for instance a free penalty the opportunity to remove an opposition player from the game or even a goal that counts double there are unlimited substitutions no draws and penalty shootouts using the ice hockey format with players running from the halfway line before shooting for goal Sergio Aguero has played in it so has Ronaldinho and Javier Hernandez and there's even been a mysterious player wearing a mask the king's League was born in July 22 when PK and Oriole Carroll now the League's managing director were walking from the offices of Cosmos pq's company
in Barcelona to have lunch with ibai Janos a Spanish internet celebrity we were discussing the problems of traditional football Carol told the athletic 90 minutes has become a long time and sometimes a match can and nil nil we new content creators we also wanted to make more things happen to take football and turn it into a real life video game the result was a league of 12 teams each controlled by a president Aguero himself is one Real Madrid Legend Ika Casillas is another and the rest are famous streamers and internet personalities like ibai who were
tasked with hiring coaches and putting together a squad of players building the 12 squads began with an application procedure on the king's League website 11 000 applicants submitted CVS and skills videos and 180 were selected to go into a draft almost all are Semi-Pro players from Catalan Regional leagues but a key part of bringing attention to the king's League product was to also involve big names so each president received a budget to attract two active Pros or recently retired players as additional Squad members one was signed to play with the team all through the season
these have included PK's 2010 World Cup winning teammate Yuan Captiva former athletic Bill bio Winger ibai Gomez an ex severe Defender Nico pareja the final player joined for just one game initially there was some disappointment when the much-hyped player in a mask rumored to beat Isco turned out to be former Las Palmas Reserve Nano Mesa but proper Superstars have since lent their skills and fame to King's League teams Ronaldinho Javier saviola Javier Chicharito Hernandez and Andrea pierlo have all played it's an unusual spectacle but then as PK believes it has to be competitions need to
adapt to what the audience wants he says when building the competition Cosmos found an abandoned Sports Complex close to Barcelona's port to refurbish all the generated content would be free to access for anyone online cameras were put on referees and in dressing rooms and everyone was miked up streamers were also given the rights to broadcast the games the first round of Kingsley games in January 2023 had almost 800 000 people watching across YouTube and twitch whether on the king's League's own channels or the channels of the streamer presidents the the product is high drama the
more controversies and bus stops the better with lots of arguments about VAR and refereeing decisions there is a sense of professional wrestling to it with PK as the Catalan Vince McMahon that element has brought to steam back in January 23 La Liga president Javier tebas called The King's League a circus and doubted whether it would last six months we use tobassador's criticism to promote ourselves we like to be a circus PK says Aguero dressed up as a clown we tried to be creative there are two seasons each year and the first ended with finals at
the camp now in March that was followed by a break and a transfer window full of rumors come and get me please and presidents publicly trying to steal stars from their competitors teams the second split ran from early May until mid-july former AC Milan Legend Andrew played a game for one of the teams donating the money raised to Ukrainian Refugee children ex Liverpool Striker Jupiter CC represented Los Broncos FC getting visibly angry and remonstrating at his coach when he was sub instituted without scoring an addition in the second half of the season was the Queen's
league with the same regulations and setup the Queen's league has an extra advantage in attracting players given how poorly resourced traditional women's football is in Spain we've had 300 000 people online watching a women's game Carol says this means a level of exposure and pay that Rivals professional football the men's tournament the king's League was not initially lucrative drafted Kings league players were initially paid just 74 Euros per game that quickly started to look very little as the competition's massive viewer numbers attracted Big Brand sponsors including info jobs oisho Cupra McDonald's Spotify Adidas mahu xiaomi
Gatorade visa and Nescafe encouragingly growth for the second year will include player salaries in kings and queens of 2500 Euros to 7500 Euros but players will also have to sign exclusive contracts further developments have been announced the Kings League Americas will start in January 2024 with a base in Mexico City and with teams all through Latin America leagues in France and Italy are planned for 2024 and England and Germany for 2025. and the second split final which was staged at Atletico Madrid's Wonder metropolitano in front of 60 000 fans showed just how Stark the contrast
is with traditional football there are lots of families and younger people in the stands and plenty wearing replica jerseys of their favorite kings and queens League team fans enjoyed pre-game entertainment and watched influencers take penalties against Ikea Casillas during games pyrotechnics and fireworks marked goals and spotlights danced around the pitch team presidents were also subbed on to take penalties while high in the air French tightrope Walker Nathan Paulin entertain those watching below no traditional football it certainly is not if you like this video please consider subscribing to the channel the athletic is home to some
of the world's best sports journalists including journalists dedicated to each Premier League team so every fan gets the coverage they deserve not just the big clubs and you can try it for free now for 30 days see the link in the description
