A gathering of former football stars (Pique, Kaka, Layun, Marchisio, Schweinsteiger), who participated in 13 World Cups (winning 3), wasn`t about their sporting achievements. They met online to discuss Kings League critics and other matters, battling unstable internet connections.
Miguel Layun expressed gratitude to the haters during a virtual press conference this week. “Thank you for the haters,” he said. “We love haters here. This is our `circus planet,` and haters are part of the entertainment.”
The Kings League is one of the most talked-about novelties in football. Founded by Gerard Pique in 2022 as his main project after retiring, this 7-a-side league first appeared in Spain and has now expanded to a level allowing the second World Cup to be held in Paris next month. It is famous for its unconventionality and constantly changing rules: there are no ties, unlimited substitutions are allowed, and matches can turn into 1-on-1 duels.
The league`s format is intentionally designed for Gen Z and Alpha, resembling video games with their constantly updating rules. Pique claims that traditional 90-minute football matches are “too long” and presents data on the younger audience`s unwillingness to spend so much time. This attracted investment from Saudi Arabia`s sovereign wealth fund (PIF) but provoked anger from La Liga president Javier Tebas.
However, Pique insists that the Kings League does not claim the place of traditional football but is a “complementary product.” He compares it to the relationship between films and TV series: people love both. The younger generation consumes content differently and is capable of simultaneously following traditional football on television and watching the Kings League on their phone or tablet, using multiple screens.
Pique also compares the Kings League experience to video games and states that this approach is working. According to him, the previous Kings World Cup, held in January in Italy, gathered over 100 million unique viewers on streams throughout the tournament, and the final between Brazil and Colombia peaked at over 3.5 million devices watching simultaneously.
The main appeal for the young audience, according to the organizers, lies in the focus on entertainment, the unconventional approach, and even staged “responses” to critics designed to attract attention.
“When we have haters or we have people that go against us, what we try to do is take it in a fun way,” Pique said. “I remember Javier Tebas. When we started, the president of La Liga, he was against us and he was saying that we were a circus. What we did was we brought [Sergio] Aguero, we dressed him up as a clown and he played a game.”
As befits a competition that causes so much debate, the entertainment value of the Kings League, described as the retired players` new hobby, is not limited to mocking the haters.
Layun added: “I just fell in love with this idea because football is, first and foremost, entertainment. As kids, we dreamed of becoming footballers because we enjoyed playing and watching football. During our careers, you sometimes forget this, focusing only on wins and titles, and forget that you are doing it for the people.”
