Decidedly, Gerard Pique is never short of ideas. The brand new retiree – who would consider returning to service in Spanish D2 with the Andorran club which he owns – launched his latest find in Barcelona on Sunday: the Kings League.
We would like to tell you that the principle is simple, but it is not really the case. As explained in a long paper from ESPN, this competition brings together 12 teams, each chaired by a celebrity from football or social networks. Iker Casillas, Sergio Aguero, Javier Hernandez or the streamer Ibai Llanos are for example in the game.
Matches are played seven-on-seven, with each team consisting of 12 players. The top 10 were selected via a draw conducted in December on Twitch, for which anyone could register. The 11th and 12th players are pros or former pros, the first remaining in the team all season, the second can change from one week to another.
The “golden cards” touch the sublime
The matches last twice twenty minutes, with rather specific rules: the kick-off is given in the manner of water polo, all the players in line at the level of their goal, waiting for the whistle to rush on the ball left in the middle of the field. There are offsides, unlimited substitutions and temporary suspensions for yellow (two minutes) or red (five minutes) cards. There is also possible recourse to video per match and per team, with the possibility of keeping this advantage if the decision is favorable (as in tennis with the Hawk-Eye). In the event of a draw, there is a penalty shootout, starting from the central circle and five seconds to score.
You follow ? Wait, because here we are getting into the hard part. Each captain draws a “golden card” at random before the match, a bit like in a board game where you have a joker in your hand to draw when you want to shake up a game. There are five different cards: instant penalty, stealing the opponent’s card, withdrawing an opposing player for two minutes, the goal counts double in the next minute and finally the “golden card”, which allows you to choose to use the option you want from the first four.
With this find, suspense and twists guaranteed, as they say. ESPN takes the example of a Sunday match between the team of Casillas and that of Aguero. Led 3-2, the first took out its “golden card” to afford a penalty, but the Kunisports had the card to steal that of the opponent, which they did to recover the penalty. And hop, victory 4-2.
“Some presidents were in favor of the cards and some were against it,” league general manager Oriol Querol told ESPN. So we left the decision to the fans. Because the competition is meant to be interactive, of course, especially with the younger generation. In fact, the games are broadcast on Twitch, with viewership peaking at 800,000 for the launch, according to the league.
Soon a room with 300 seats?
At the moment, this is the only way to see the matches, which are played in an industrial port next to Barcelona airport. Pique and his associates are planning a hall with around 300 seats in the future to come and watch the show live – and are already considering the launch of a women’s league for next May.
The first was in any case a success, according to Chicharito Hernandez, who came specially from Los Angeles, where he still plays (at LA Galaxy), to participate. “The level really surprised me, although what didn’t surprise me was the intensity and the desire with which everyone played,” he said after his defeat. It’s that there was beautiful linen, like Raul Tamudo, Jonathan Soriano or Joan Capdevila. And Javier Saviola is officially announced in the Kun Aguero team for the next day…