The game between Barcelona and Getafe, at Camp Nou, for the 18th round of the Spanish Championship, had not even ended on Sunday afternoon (22) when the ball also started rolling at the Cupra Arena, about 10 km from the Catalan team’s stadium .
There, there were no crowded stands, like the audience of 79,814 people who saw Pedri score the winning goal for the blue and grená team by 1-0, a result that kept them at the top of the table.
Only guests and press professionals were at the arena near the port of Barcelona to follow the games of the fourth round of the Kings League, a kind of seven-a-side football tournament, with elements from other sports and rules similar to a television game show, played by athletes, former players and influencers.
“It’s a new format, very fresh, in continuous change and with special rules, from different sports”, he tells the Sheet striker Alberto Bueno, 34, who wears the shirt of 1K FC, named after the team’s president, former Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Bueno is also a professional player. He accumulates passages through clubs in Spain, England and Portugal, where he currently plays for Boavista. For him, also playing in the new tournament is a way of “merging football and entertainment”.
“When people are at home, they want to see something to be entertained and I believe we are achieving that,” he says.
The idea of former defender Gerard Piqué and streamer Ibai Llanos, the creators of the project, was precisely to create something that would be fun, especially for young audiences. Therefore, there are no limits to creativity in formulating the rules.
Without a kickoff, the ball is placed in the middle and teams must run towards it to gain possession. Substitutions are unlimited. A yellow card means that the player needs to leave the court for two minutes, and a red card means an expulsion, but with the possibility of a substitution.
Penalties are taken with the ball rolling. If a team requests the use of the VAR (video referee) and there is no change in the referee’s marking, the right to request a check ends.
There are also cards with special advantages to be used in the course of clashes, such as instant penalties, stealing a card, removing an opposing player for two minutes, any goal scored in the following minute will count double and a joker card, with which the trainers can choose to use any of the mentioned cards.
“It’s a circus,” defined La Liga president Javier Tebas, irritated by assumptions that the tournament could compete with the weekend matches of La Liga.
“The only thing the Kings League is similar to football in is that you play with a ball and you have to score goals. I can’t imagine doing the cards thing in La Liga,” added Tebas.
The Spanish press, however, treated the leader’s irony as a sign of concern. At least in relation to the young public, the most attracted by the new modality, always played on Sundays, the day in which the most important matches of Espanyol are traditionally held.
Since their debut on January 1, Kings League games have averaged 300,000 concurrent viewers and peaks of up to 800,000 on the Twitch streaming platform, according to data from TwitchTracker.
With 1.6 million subscribers, the channel accumulates 3.8 million hours watched during its live and VOD (video on demand) broadcasts.
With 12 registered teams, each round has six matches, all played in sequence throughout each Sunday, with the first starting at 2:30 pm and the last at 9:00 pm (Brasília time).
The first phase is disputed in consecutive points and, after 11 rounds, the eight best classified will dispute a knockout.
The rosters have 12 players, 10 chosen by a “draft”, similar to what is done in American sports, and two “jokers”. The 11th player is a star that makes up the team throughout the season and the 12th are names that can change every round.
Kunisports’ 12th announcement was one of the most awaited by fans. Piqué and Llanos took advantage of criticism from the president of La Liga and fielded an athlete dressed as a joker with a circus theme.
When he took off his mask, the face of former Argentine striker Sergio Agüero emerged. In addition to defending the team, he is the president of the team.
The Mexican Chicharito Hernández, the Argentine Javier Saviola and the Spaniards Ibai Gómez, Juan Capdevila, Victor Sánchez and Jonathan Soriano are other names that occupy vacancies of professionals and former players.
“The reception from the public not only in Spain but in other countries has been very good. Even I, who am a professional and have a long career in many clubs, have felt this”, says Alberto Bueno.
To bring fans even closer to his new project, Piqué recently agreed that the final of the first edition of the Kings League will be played in front of a large audience at the Camp Nou stadium, the stage where he built a good part of his professional career.
The deal to play at Barcelona’s stadium was announced by the former defender and club president Joan Laporta. The match will be on the 26th of March. The manager praised Piqué’s project.
“We know that football is losing its youth audience. I congratulate you because you have invented a new fun form of football. We do not understand it as a circus, but as a new form of entertainment,” he said.
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