Football is ever growing all around the world, but it’s particularly growing right now in the UK, all thanks to the new competition, the Ballers League.
What is the Ballers League?
The Ballers League was founded in 2023 by an entrepreneur called Felix Starck who started the competition in Germany, taking inspiration from the Kings League in Spain. Starck managed to get backing straight away for the new competition by two German footballers in Lukas Podolski and Mats Hummels.
This event is not your standard football competition. It consists of indoor six-a-side that combines professional football elements with entertainment. Ballers League creates entertainment by in-incorporating celebrities, influencers and ex-professional footballers to come play, manage, and own teams in the competition.
Ballers League was brought over to the UK in 2025, with the president of the UK competition being prominent influencer ‘KSI’. The inaugural match of the Ballers League took place March 24th at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, London.
The Format
As stated, the league follows a six-a-side format with 12 teams, each consisting of a 12-player squad that was formed through a draft system before the competition started. Matches in the Ballers League last 30 minutes in total which is divided into two 15-minutes halves.
Unlike your standard football match, there is a lot of rule changes in this competition. The first new rule is the ‘Game-changers’ rule. This rule gives each team the opportunity to play this card before a match that allows a special in-game modification, which is different each week.
Another creative rule is ‘Rule Twists’. This allows teams to introduce a new style of game-play in the final three minutes. These include: three vs three, long-range goals that count as double and goalkeepers not allowed to use their hands.
Wildcards are also a new thing brought into the Ballers League. The Wildcard allows a team to draft anyone they like to play for their team for that week. These wildcards are mainly used on ex-professional players. Recenet player picks include former Arsenal stars Freddie Ljunberg, Jens Lehmann, and Roberts Pires. Former Cheltenham Town defender, Curtis Davies, was also a selection alongside ex-Manchester United and Robins midfielder Josh Harrop.
Corners are non-existent in the format with penalties being awarded instead if the ball goes behind off an opposition player more than three times. However, penalties aren’t your standard spot kicks in this competition, instead, they’ve adopted the old MLS style which is a one-on-one with the keeper and having to score within six seconds.
The last new rule in this competition is the ‘White Flag’ rule which has been taken from the NFL. This white flag rule allows managers to throw a white flag onto the pitch to challenge a referee’s decision only once during the game, in a way, it’s like asking for VAR.
Why has it gained popularity?
The Ballers League has gained popularity for many reasons, but the main reason is down to the influencers involved. Influencers are notorious for bringing in viewership whenever they appear on certain shows and now in the Ballers League, match days are selling out due to a younger audience wanting to catch a glimpse of their favourite content creators.
A notable example of popularity was when youtuber ‘IshowSpeed’ visited the Ballers League on the 28th of April, with the venue selling out weeks before for the day, something that had not been achieved yet.
A few of the teams may be owned by former professional footballers, but the most popular teams are owned by creators. These notable teams include; Yanited FC owned by ‘Angry Ginge’, M7 FC owned by ‘Miniminter’, SDS FC owned by Sharky, and VZN FC owned by ‘TBJZL’.
Tickets start as cheap as Ā£15, so if you want to get down and watch a new style of football and potentially see some rising talent, it’s worth the price, you get six football matches for the price of one!
Featured Image Credit: @calllumturner on instagram
