Kings World Cup Nations schedule, rules, tournament format for Gerard Pique’s 7-a-side league

Gerard Pique’s seven-a-side Kings League continues to grow and the tournament has expanded into a World Cup even named Kings World Cup Nations featuring 16 nations in its inaugural event in Italy this January. The event features teams from the Kings League and Americas Kings League and builds towards the final at Allianz Stadium in Turin. Many high-profile soccer names are involved and former players feature regularly.

This is what you need to know about the nuts and bolts of Kings League-style soccer and how this works.

Origins

Gerard Pique and leading Twitch streamer Ibai Llanos created the Kings League as an alternative soccer league which is essentially a combination of seven-a-side soccer and gaming with revisited rules. For example, substitutions are unlimited, players get sin binned instead of sent off and there is also a bonus card system. Games are live streamed via Twitch and squads are essentially a mixture of current and ex-players as well as influencers. It was created as an alternative to traditional soccer for those interested in faster games for primarily younger audiences. Before launching Kings League, Pique and Llanos also created the Balloon World Cup back in 2021. The Kings World Cup is airing on CBS Sports Golazo Network and the Golazo YouTube channel.

Squads

Each squad consists of around 12 players and traditionally those joining the game are drafted although some are now regulars since the 2022 launch. Current or former players can feature and the 12th member of the group can often be a rotating cast of names as opposed to the other fixed 11.

Who will I recognize?

Famous faces include former Argentina international and Manchester city as well as Atletico Madrid legend Sergio Aguero — otherwise known as Kun — who has become a major part of Kings League. You will find Brazilian pair Kaka and Neymar getting involved, Colombia’s James Rodriguez, Germany’s Mario Gotze, South Koreans Kang-in Lee and Ji-sung Park as well as Mexican Javier Hernandez — or Chicharito — and Spain’s Iker Casillas.

Make sense of the rules for me

Alright, get ready for a bit of a shock as this differs massively from regular seven-a-side play.

• Matches are 40 minutes long and consist of two 20-minute halves with stoppage time added at the end of each half.
• Teams regularly get to randomly select one of five special cards — traditionally golden — pregame which can be used at any time during a game and those cards are kept secret so that neither side knows which the other is in possession of.
• Kickoff is a player from both sides running from their goal line to the middle of the field to get the ball from the center spot after it has been dropped into play instead of a traditional kick-off and other players enter the field after the first break in play.
• Teams can make unlimited substitutions and yellow and red cards do not result in dismissals but instead being sin binned which means that they leave the field for a short period but are allowed back later with yellows generally getting a two-minute sin bin and reds five.
• Kings League-style games cannot end level so there are no draws and in the event of no clear winner, the game goes to penalties which consist of running from the halfway line before shooting – similar to ice hockey.
• VAR does exist but teams decide when and how it is used and not the referee with both sides only allowed to call for VAR once during a game although they only keep their ability to use it when successful in their use of it.

Pique also told CBS Sports Golazo Network’s Morning Footy that there are some other new rules which have been implemented specially for this: “There are crazy rules,” he said. “For example, last two minutes of the game, it’s golden goal. If you manage to score, it counts [times] two. Last two minutes of the first half, we throw a dice from the stands and if it’s a two, it’s two vs. two. If it’s a three, it’s three vs. three, so it’s pretty crazy.”

Schedule