Kings World Cup Nations introduction headlines 2024-25 roadmap for Ibai and Gerard Pique's hybrid footballing universe

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Recently, Gerard Pique and the other leaders of the Kings League and its various other properties, including Ibai, revealed the roadmap for the 2024-25 season. It included a couple of grand announcements that sent millions of fans of this hybrid football tournament into a tizzy.

Kings World Cup Nations

The biggest news coming out of the video was the introduction of the first Kings World Cup Nations will be held in early 2025. It will see 16 countries represented by their best players fight it out to crown themselves as the world champions.

More details are yet to be released by the organizers, but the promo has promised that there will be as many famous online personalities as there were for the Kings World Cup 2024.

So far, three teams have been confirmed — Spain, Mexico, and Morocco — with the European nation already choosing six of its preliminary squad. Víctor Vidal, Marc Pelaz, and Joan Verdú were the first three selected by the likes of Gerard Romero, Ibai, and DjMaRiio, followed by Cristian Ubón, Marc Granero, and Alex Gutiérrez over the last few days.

King World Cup Nations teams and owners

The league's social media also recently affirmed that Ilyas Elmaliki will be president of the Moroccan team. The team also has its first two players after Fuad El Amrani and Nadir Louah chose to play for the North African nation over Spain. Many agreed that this was a wise choice as getting into the latter's squad would prove hard considering the wealth of talent involved and the competition for places.

Ilyas Elmaliki is one of the oldest and foremost content creators from the Arab world and enjoys a massive following in the region, helping him become the most-watched YouTube Gaming streamer from Morocco last year. On Kick, he has 353.5K followers and has been among the world's most watched streamers lists for August and September, climbing as high as second last month.

There's also an interesting game mode that's been added to the Kings World Cup Nations. Each of the 16 participating countries will select a trio of players to play a parallel tournament called King of Kings where the aim is to make it a smaller, more intense 3v3 match-up involving two outfield players and one goalkeeper.

The format for this segment of the grand competition will be a round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. The winning team will take home a massive €30,000, with trials for the Spanish and Mexican teams to select this trident ongoing. It will culminate with a battle of the best two for each country during the Kings and Queens leagues finals on December 21 in Tenerife.

Lamine Yamal signing

  The Kings League signing Lamine Yamal is a huge boost (Image via Kings League)   

The season review video also had other massive reveals, with one of them stating that Barcelona starlet Lamine Yamal will soon have a team in the Kings League, whose 2024/25 season began not too long back. Details have not yet been revealed, but it is expected that any developments will be shared soon by the organizers.

Kings World Cup for clubs

The other announcement was that there will also be a Kings World Cup for Clubs, with Kings World Cup 2024 winner Porcinos FC (ibai's team) the only confirmed name. It will be joined by four sides each from Spain, America, and four other regions, with seven more wildcard slots handed out to sides from all over the world for a total of 32 participants. More details for this hybrid football tournament will also come out in the coming days, but the buzz among fans of the league is already palpable.

King World Cup Clubs teams and owners

Pique also disclosed that the ultimate aim for the league is to operate out of ten countries from around the globe. This will help facilitate hosting a Kings League world championship that will see the best teams from each of these tournaments face off for the tag of best in the world.

Premios Corona de Oro returns

The final piece of information was that the league's annual awards — Premios Corona de Oro — will return this year. It will be held in Dubai on December 27 as part of the Globe Soccer Awards, an 'international football meeting that delights the stars by selecting them for its awards.'

Kings League has so far attracted millions of viewers

The entire footballing ecosystem under the Kings League has grown leaps and bounds in less than two years. Overall, its various tournaments have generated 188M Hours Watched and hit a peak of 2.1M concurrent spectators.

The first event, Kings League 2023 Split 1, began on New Year's Day last year and remains its most successful tournament while also topping our database as the most-watched livestreamed sports competition of all time

  Viewership dynamics of all Kings League events since 2023   

Since then, there have been multiple splits, the addition of a female league, and an expansion to the Americas, with leagues in Brazil, France, and Italy planned. There was also the inter-gender Kingdom Cup and the more compact Kings Cup, making it an almost year-round circus of quick, intense football with hybrid rules.

The recent Kings World Cup 2024 was also a success, helping expand the league to a larger, more global audience. It sits second among the most-watched sports competitions in livestreaming, giving the series two representations in the top three and three in the top five.

  Most watched livestreamed sports events according to Esports Charts database   

With the success the league has witnessed, it is not a surprise that it has expanded this quickly and continues to enter new regions. It should only be a matter of time before Asian and African fans get to witness the action; for now, they can get ready for more global tournaments involving clubs and countries.