Is the Queens League a threat to traditional women’s football?

2023-06-24 18:47:05

The phenomenon of Kings i the Queens League by Gerard Pique he has established a new way of understanding football. Its changing week-to-week rules, secret weapons, or a dice roll at the end of each part keep the younger ones hooked on Twitch every weekend. It is an emerging market, like that of women’s football. While it is difficult to reach a real professionalization of the Spanish league, Queens recruits ex-level players and even first division footballers. Can the Queens League be a threat to the growth of women’s football?

“We’ve had the idea of ​​doing Queens since the beginning, since the Kings League was born,” he acknowledges Oriol Querol, CEO of the competition. “It’s true that we wanted to do it much later, but the boom, the success and repercussion of the Kings forced us to advance some of them and the Queens was the first”, he adds. The decision was unanimous from the presidents of the 12 Kings teams: they all wanted to have their women’s team.

All presidents replicated the working and economic conditions of male footballers to female ones. “The same company of physios is with the boys and the girls. We have a coach and second coach, Community Manager, it’s the same for both boys and girls. And I think that this is one of the keys”, admits to EL PERIÓDICO Adri Contreras, ‘influencer’ and president of El Barrio, champion of the first edition of the Kings League. The wages, set by the league, are the same for boys as for girls: €75 per game.

When it was decided to create the Queens, the same procedure carried out for the men’s league was emulated. A selection process would end up designating the best players because al draft the teams make their choice. In this process is when the first surprise came. “Attracting players was what worried us the most. We predict that there would be fewer footballers who would want to sign up, because the mass of traditional football and grassroots football players in Catalonia is lower than that of boys. Luckily, about 6,000 signed up, many more than we expected. This allowed us to do the same process as with the boys: choose and, therefore, raise the level”, admits Querol.

Most of the players who arrived at the draft they have a past in the top categories of women’s football. Ex-football players from Barça, Espanyol and smaller clubs saw Queens as a different opportunity.

“I had to retire from professional football due to very serious knee injuries”, recalls Sara Mérida, current Porcinas player. “When I was presented with the format and I saw the dimensions of the field, the times, which were flying changes, three months of competition, one or two training sessions a week… I threw myself because it perfectly suited what I needed : trying to play again despite my knee. This format has helped me get a feel for the field again. It’s been ten years since I had to stop because of injuries and it’s giving me a lot to wear shorts again”, she admits excitedly.

But Queens is not only made up of amateur players with the drive to demonstrate their talent on the green. Accomplished and historic stars of women’s football have seen in this competition a new opportunity. Melanie Serrano, emblem of Barça and the professionalization of the team that has already won two Champions Leagues, has also dressed in shorts for Queens. “It is a very important media focus that everyone is paying attention to. It is visibility and helps the player to be more present and that all have this opportunity. It’s a different football. The only thing that is equal to traditional football is the ball”, he says.

There are many substantial differences between the two competitions: Queens has VAR, while the F-League does not plan to implement it in the near term; the dimensions of the field, the length of the matches or the number of players per team also change (Queens is 7-a-side soccer).

Is it direct competition?

Women’s football is growing in Spain. Licenses are increasing every year, teams are becoming more professional and the League is trying to establish a new competition system to consolidate this exponential growth. So could Queens be a real threat to the growth of women’s soccer? Can it diminish your growth options? Can traditional football lose potential players who prefer Queens? Will there be technical bodies that prefer a project like Queens before going to the F League?

“From the professional league, they must look at how they have generated this format, the community they are creating, and they must take into account that women’s football is here, that women’s football is of interest. What happens is that you have to help a little and you have to bet”, he claims ruben married, ex-coach of Espanyol and now coach of Porcinas. “Queens has many integrated things that traditional football does not have. There are clearer cases in terms of visibility, impact and incorporation of new technologies”, he adds Luis Cortésex-coach of Barça and currently part of the structure of Jijantas.

“Queens is not a threat to traditional women’s football, it brings a lot of advantage and it is very difficult for it to overcome it. But yes it is a wake-up call for the traditional structure of federated football, which must rethink some things and try to innovate or adapt to the current times. The F League should take note of the many things Queens is doing right. They are models that can coexist and that must grow hand in hand”, reflects Cortés, the coach who lifted the Barça team’s first Champions League.

Since Queens began its journey, it has grown exponentially. There are many eyes on it and the brands know it. Over the seven days contested, the competition has an average of over 155,000 devices connected live, with peaks over 350,000 via Twitch and Cuatro. Some unusual figures for the F League, which gives its content through DAZN in a paid subscription.