World Football

What is Gerard Pique’s Kings league?

By Rajarshi Shukla

March 28 2023 |

The final match of the league was played in Camp Nou and recorded a very high attendance

In 2022, Gerard Piqué, together with other well-known football figures and online broadcasters, founded the Kings League, a seven-a-side football competition in Barcelona currently officially named the Kings League Infojobs owing to sponsorship issues. In order to make the games more exciting and dynamic, the league uses rules that are different from those used in traditional football. Examples include a twist penalty shootout, the use of handballs for throw-ins, unrestricted substitutes, and the use of unique “hidden weapons.”

Format

The concept of the King’s League is similar to that of Apertura and Clausura, with each season being broken into two separations: the Winter Split and the Summer Split. The league stage in each split consists of a league stage, playoffs, and eleven matchdays in which each of the twelve teams plays every other team once. At the conclusion of the league stage, the top eight clubs progress to the playoffs. Six matches totalling forty minutes each are played continuously on the same pitch during each matchday. Each match is broken into two twenty-minute halves.

Rules

The regulations for the Kings League were chosen by fans in a voting procedure that was carried out on social media channels, giving them the chance to participate and influence the rules.

These regulations cover things like a tie-breaker penalty kick from the middle of the field, the usage of offsides, allowing handballs for throw-ins, unrestricted substitutions, yellow and red cards that result in a 2-minute exclusion and a 5-minute isolation before a substitute may enter. There are various “hidden weapons” that may be used during the game, which begin with the ball in the middle of the pitch and players beginning from the back line. Player numbers range from 0 to 99.

These main weapons also include the possibility of winning a shootout, a penalty kick, a double goal for two minutes, an opponent’s player being suspended, a wild card, and the capacity to acquire the secret weapon card of the other side.

Each matchday, Kings League clubs have the option of inviting one guest player (the “12th Player”).

Venue

At the Cupra Arena near Barcelona’s harbour, the King’s League is now being played. The Logistics Activities Area (ZAL in Spanish) of the Port of Barcelona includes the Cupra Arena. The semifinals and final of the winter division playoffs will be hosted at Camp Nou, the home field of FC Barcelona, as a “Final Four” event on March 26, 2023, it was confirmed by Gerard Piqué and Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona, on January 20, 2023.

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