How Gerard Pique aims to make Kings League a different ‘parallel’ soccer ecosystem, but still be ‘mainstream’

Gerard Pique has a unique view. He is not only driven by his passion for football, but also led by his business mentality, always looking for what the next step is, instead of sitting on what he has already achieved. Pique has clear ideas for the future of the Kings League, the Seven-a-Side format that is known for its unconventional rules established by the FC Barcelona legend in 2022. Since October 2024, the Kings League has a new CEO, Djamel Agaoua, which achieves the following goals, starting with the creation of the United States in the United States, both Pique and Agaou. The Kings League, as their thinking goes, is not against the current football model, but it just tries to present a parallel, as both Pique and Agaoua underlined during an interview with CBS Sports. “We don’t compete [with] Football, but we want to make a complementary product. There will always be a traditional audience that will not understand what we want to achieve, we strive to have a different audience, “said Agaoua.

The Kings League strives for a product that can be attractive to many, starting with a younger audience, but also for investors and potential team owners around the world. According to their data, 40% of potential football fans no longer look at traditional games and 85% of their audience younger than 35, mainly from eSports and streamers. That is why they started building clubs that are owned by the same streamers, who can also bring their own audience and stream the competitions. It is interesting to see how their model does not seem to give much to piracy, one of the biggest problems of traditional broadcasters.

“For us, it doesn’t matter if there are different platforms from streamers who show the same content, it’s actually better for us. If there is one team owned by a streamer or a former player, our ideal viewer switches the channel to another streamer if something happens. They consume the same product but with a different experience”.

The Kings League is coming to the United States: within Gerard Pique’s plans for the future of the competition

Francesco Porzio

The Kings League has also agreed to trade with traditional broadcasters around the world (including with CBS Sports), but not specifically for income. “We want to reach the regular media, but our deals are not exclusive, they are a way to go on the market. We are more interested in a media who is willing to take the time to explain the rules and the system, instead of the money they offer,” says Agaoua.

In the model of the Kings League, the audience is always central to their decisions, such as when they let them decide the color of the field, as Pique underlined. “The 70% voted for a black grass, and now you think when you see a black pitch, you immediately think of the Kings League.” Their model also wants to create competitiveness to possess a team. “We do not increase the number of clubs, makers can sell teams. This is why players should find a way to invest. We do not increase the number of teams.

The Kings League is now active in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Midden -America and Brazil, but will be launched in the fall in the Mena region (Midden -Oost and Noord -Africa) and in the United States before the World Cup 2026. “We are an international ecosystem for their own competion to understand our own Competeker Clubs. We create international hype, and Brazil was the perfect fit for us as a country.

And then the business partners are of course crucial as Agaoua mentioned. “In the new markets, children don’t even watch TV, but use their phones. Moreover, we also have many sponsors who come to us because there are not many opportunities like ours to focus on young generations, knowing that this is a really specific audience, they know what they get.