He Camp Nou of FC Barcelona hung the poster of “sold out” this Sunday March 26 for the Final Four of the Kings Leaguethe seven-a-side football competition created by Gerard Piqué and broadcast for free to the whole world through Twitch, where it has around a million viewers.
Almost 100.000 personas They have filled the largest stadium in Europe to see who is crowned the first champion of this competition that has revolutionized the world of football in Spain.
The first semi-final has gathered more than 800,000 viewers through the official Kings League Twitch channel (and many more among the channels of other streamers), despite the fact that Ibai fans lamented the defeat of his team, Porcinos , on penalties.
Los Anniquiladores FC, Los Troncos FC, El Barrio and Saiyans FC the final is played in an event that began at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday with the two semifinals, culminating in a final starting at 9:00 p.m. (later, due to extensions) that has also been broadcast on TV3 of Catalonia.
Ibai Plains, TheGrefg Or DjMaRiiO were some of the most famous streamers who led one of the eleven teams that have participated… along with other legends of the sport such as Iker Casillas, Ronaldinho, Joan Capdevila or Serguo “Kun” Agüerowhich they did as representatives or coaches (and invited players).
what does this make sense pic.twitter.com/s3EP1aPbwL
— Cade (@CaadeOKC) March 26, 2023
Absolute success in the first edition of the Kings League, with international projection
The project of creating a seven-a-side soccer league between teams led by Internet streamers or by ex-soccer players was received first with skepticism and then with criticism from Javier Tebaspresident of LaLiga, who called it “circus“.
However, the project created by Piqué and directed by Oriol Querol has been a success among thousands of viewers, not only from Spain, but also from all over the Spanish speaking community.
Only time will tell if the Kings League establishes itself as one of the highest sports competitions in Spain, capable of surpassing many official competitions and facing the influence of the soccer second division.
At the moment, expansion plans are being finalized. In May the Queens League, women’s soccer. And today it has been announced that Ronaldinho (who played as a guest in Ibai’s team) and Neymar Jr. will be presidents of the Kings League Brazil (and Neymar will also be president of one of the teams).