Gerard Piqué said he doesn't watch 90-minute games: 'Football is afraid of change'

Beyond his controversies and his noisy separation from the Colombian singer Shakira, Gerard Piqué has demonstrated an enormous capacity for business and for finding alternatives that allow football to be modernized.

Together with the Spanish influencer Ibaí Llanos, Piqué created the Kings League, a soccer tournament with curious rules that even change on the fly as the games progress.

The tournament, which began being played only in Europe, already has a version in America and is now preparing a world cup in which the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be involved as director.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Times, Piqué assured that football, as it is known until now, has lost its appeal, and confessed that he does not watch 90-minute games.

“I saw Barça-Napoli, for example, an important match in the Champions League, but the 25th match in the league? I don't look at them. Some Barça, when I can, but not 90 minutes. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes. It's a trend, it's happening. It is unstoppable and you have to adapt,” declared the Catalan.

In fact, that was one of the motivations that led him to create the Kings League. “I saw my kids watching a soccer game and after ten minutes they were on their phones and tablets and watching other things at the same time. Football is entertainment, so it's not just about competing with other sports. Compete with Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok. Everyone has limited time. Football for 90 minutes is not that exciting,” he stressed.

Piqué believes that football must adapt to compete with platforms and all technological advances. “People choose what they want to see and they are the important games; You can’t stop technology,” he said.

“The other day I put on these virtual reality glasses. I put them on and I was in my pajamas at home, about to go to bed, and I watched a full NBA game, from inside the court. I am there. “Every year these products improve,” he added.

“There will come a time when you put on these glasses and it will be the same as being in the stadium, except you will be able to say: 'Now I want to sit next to Xavi, now I want to see him from behind.' There will come a time when clubs will pay fans to go to the stadium because the experience at home in your pajamas, with cookies on the couch, is even better than going to the stadium. “We are not that far from it,” he insisted.

For Piqué, football is afraid of change. “It has a huge history, it is very traditional, but change will happen, it has to happen. A 90-minute match that can end 0-0 is difficult for the new generation to understand,” he assured.

The former Barça player talked about changing some rules. “We have to find ways to score more goals or to prevent a game from ending in a draw. Maybe there won't be ties, why not? In baseball and basketball there are no ties. You go to a game and it ends in a tie and the feeling is: “Who won?” he explained.

However, Piqué does not see the possibility of reaching Fifa or UEFA to promote these changes. “You can't change much. With the processes,
the committees, it is a nightmare,” he noted.

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