Former Spanish defender Gerard Piqué said he plans to take the Kings League to the United States during the FIFA World Cup and expand it in the Gulf, Italy, and Brazil. He said the project took shape near the end of his playing career, when he noticed younger audiences drifting away from traditional formats. He added that his own children prompted the first idea.
This came during a session titled “Innovating Sports Competitions that Spread Globally,” moderated by media presenter Nimi Mehta at the inaugural edition of BRIDGE Summit 2025 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Speaking to a packed forum, he outlined how the Kings League began and how it grew into a widely followed sports and entertainment format.
Global expansion of the Kings League
Piqué said: “America is our next stop, especially with the momentum football will see this summer and Messi’s move to Miami.” He noted that interest in the Kings League has reached the Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, and South Korea, and that his team is building a licensing model to launch local versions in those markets. He said the staff has grown to more than 260 people in under three years and that he expects the expansion to continue.
He said the project first struggled to keep its teams connected as it grew. It began in Barcelona, then moved into Mexico, and now plans offices in Italy, Brazil, and the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia. Piqué said consistent communication and a shared internal culture are essential. He added that a local partner in each country speeds operations and helps secure venues, supervisors, and other requirements.
Children as the spark of the Kings League
The Spanish footballer pointed to the championship’s widespread popularity, with about 800 thousand viewers and 11 thousand million viewing hours. As for the spark behind it, he said: “During my retirement period in 2022, I saw how my children - between the ages of 7 and 9 - follow football through their phones and on social media instead of traditional matches, so the idea came to me of creating a game that brings together real players with fun and non-traditional rules, special cards, secret weapons, and penalty kicks from the middle of the field. The audience loved this format, then we invited content creators to develop it, so its appeal increased, and it spread to about 37 countries.”
He noted that professional players rarely have time to think beyond the pitch, but retirement gave him room to explore ideas, and he listened to athletes who wanted certain rules changed, which helped shape the format. He added that he follows the NBA on social media to track public reactions, because audiences now choose what they watch.
Piqué linked the strong female turnout to the steady pace of scoring. He said goals keep the format from drifting into the boredom of scoreless matches. He said the league aims for a fast, high-energy game and adjusts it based on audience feedback. He noted that the shift to a black pitch came directly from those suggestions.
The BRIDGE Summit opened on 8 December at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), with the participation of 430 speakers from 45 countries from leading creators, policymakers, investors, technology experts, media institutions, and cultural leaders, who presented more than 300 sessions, distributed across the Summit’s seven tracks: media, content economy, art and music, electronic gaming, technology, marketing, and film-making.
