- Close
ESPN- Jeff Kassouf covers women's soccer for ESPN, focusing on the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, he founded The Equalizer, a women's soccer news outlet, and he previously won a Sports Emmy at NBC Sports and Olympics.
Feeling more like a nightclub than Old Trafford, music bumped through speakers as former Manchester United midfielder Josh Harrop walked into a concert-like atmosphere in London's Copper Box Arena. The referee threw the ball into the air as an airhorn went off and social media influencers recorded the videos on their phones a few feet from the sideline.
Harrop, now a free agent, had only skimmed the rulebook for the Baller League before signing up, but he quickly realized that what he signed up for was nothing like the Premier League -- or anything he had played before.
"[Once the game began] I'm thinking, 'Jesus Christ, what's going on here?' This is chaos," Harrop, who scored on Matchday 1 for FC Rules the World, told ESPN. "But the more the weeks have gone by, the more I've learned the rules. It's easier to adapt."
The Baller League -- which features an eclectic cast of managers like Portugal icon Luis Figo, British rapper/actor Dave, England international Chloe Kelly and streamer Angryginge -- is one of a growing list of alternative soccer tournaments that have emerged in recent years.
The Baller League itself is a spinoff of the highly successful Kings and Queens Leagues started by Spain and Barcelona legend Gerard Pique, and it's part of a developing trend of new soccer events that look nothing like the traditional game. Then there is The Soccer Tournament, or TST, a $1 million winner-take-all event, and the debut of the newly formed World Sevens Football for women's teams this year.
• Stream TST live on ESPN+, starting June 4
Most are small-sided games that max out at 7-v-7, with rules that range from closely mimicking full-field soccer to featuring unusual twists designed to add drama and go viral online. Those policies range from "target scores" -- the leading team's score plus one, ensuring all games end with genuinely game-winning goals, in lieu of a clock -- to double-value goals, the awarding of random penalties and even the ability for teams to steal each other's players.
But like the prize money at TST, here's the $1 million question: Why create these start-ups and ditch the tried-and-true model of the globe's most powerful sport? And are these zany, star-studded tournaments the future of soccer?
Content is king for new soccer tournaments
All the organizations behind these tournaments shared two common goals in conversations with ESPN. First, they believe they're complementary to conventional soccer -- traditional soccer fans can love these new twists. Secondly, they view themselves as alternative programming for content-hungry fans -- particularly Gen Z and younger, a demographic that, in theory, consumes sports more through short clips on their phone.
Soccer follows the wider sports trend in an effort to stand out in an increasingly crowded, fragmented market. The three-on-three basketball competition Unrivaled -- which launched earlier this year as an offseason complement to the WNBA -- uses alternative rules like an untimed final period for teams to reach a winning score. The PGA Tour has a similar equivalent, The Golf League, which has ushered in a stadium era that implements virtual reality, the most radical innovation in a sport that is hundreds of years old.
Executives across the soccer landscape see a similar opportunity to capture a young audience they believe is less likely to engage with traditional soccer, where scoring is low and games often end in draws. Kings League CEO Djamel Agaoua -- a former tech director who recalls being asked, "So what's happening now?" by his son after watching a 0-0 tie for boyhood club Marseille -- told ESPN it's "a big moment of disruption."
"The young generation ... they are exposed to much more content. Technology allowed them to navigate this content very easily," Agaoua said. "They can just swipe up and go from content they like, to content they love, to content they dislike, and then they can make decisions like that in seconds."
Part of that process means specifically having smartphones in mind during the production of Kings League matches, as opposed to television. According to Ofcom in a 2024 survey, smartphone ownership for children in the U.K. reached 97% as early as the age of 12, and in the U.S., Pew Research Center reported that 95% of teens own a smartphone. According to data sent by Kings League, from January 2024 to January 2025, 80% of their audience was under the age of 34.
"Sports has been financed for decades by traditional media, by TV -- and TV has this challenge to look at the audience," Agaoua said.
Similar conversations are being discussed in the women's game. World Sevens Football debuted last week as a seven-a-side competition that features eight professional European women's clubs that will battle for an eye-catching $5 million in total prize money. Aly Wagner, World Sevens Football chief of strategy and a former U.S. international, told ESPN that the concept leans into sport as entertainment.
"What do we know about this younger demographic today? They consume sports differently -- they do," Wagner told ESPN. "The attention span is not quite the same and so these moments will be, you know, shareable moments across all sorts of social media outlets that, again, will hopefully accelerate the growth of women's soccer."
"This is the type of content that this younger demographic really consumes."
While other new competitions focus on ex-players and influencers, World Sevens Football is counting on current-day, top-tier professional players to drive engagement. With the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain in the running, the competition evokes scenes of a mini UEFA Women's Champions League tournament --- and in fact offers more prize money than the UWCL, which was decided a day later across town in Lisbon when Arsenal defeated Barcelona 1-0.
The net is wider elsewhere for alternative soccer, with participants ranging from seasoned Premier League retires to current stars from the non-soccer universe. At TST this summer, 40-year-old Anton Ferdinand, who made 163 appearances for West Ham, will be suiting up for the club as a player-coach, earning minutes with British actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
"I've got kids of my own, so I understand the new generation. They want to see these type of people -- they want to see influencers playing football," Ferdinand told ESPN. "For me, my kids seeing me play with influencers, my kids absolutely love it.
"When I was younger, the Premier League footballers were the influencers in terms of how you're received. Influencers now are the celebrities of the world."
In Kings League and Queens League, club presidents -- who range from former professionals to an influencer like Ibai Llanos with 13.1 million subscribers on YouTube -- are able to step into matches to take penalties. It's a blurred line between entertainment and sport, and for a number of players with more humble resumes that populate these tournaments, the experience can be a bizarre but remarkable one.
"I was able to just see these people that I used to watch on TV, up close. I saw Sergio 'Kun' Aguero," said Miraash Imthiyaz, a Kings League player for Aniquiladores FC, whose career has taken him through Spain's lower leagues. "I used to watch him because I watched the Premier League a lot because I'm an Arsenal fan, so seeing him score a goal five meters from me, and then celebrate, was something that will stay in my head."
An alternate path to soccer stardom
Just as much as young fans are seeking these alternative soccer tournaments, the same could be said for names like Imthiyaz that didn't reach the heights of an Aguero. Looking across TST, Baller League, Kings League and Queens League, the lifeblood of these tournaments are lesser-known names who are still chasing their sporting dreams.
"I've been playing football for all my life, like traditional football, and there's so many people who played and not everyone reaches the maximum category or the professional levels due to many, many different circumstances," said Imthiyaz.
There's an underdog story built in for these players who are then able to shine on an uncommon platform. TST founder and CEO Jon Mugar highlighted that they don't want to showcase only professional clubs or stars in the 64-team competition kicking off in early June, stating: "Higher profile players, up-and-coming players. We want a mix of all these different types."
"We know this wouldn't be the event we're looking for if it's all Premier League teams, or all MLS teams, or all recreational teams, we want a mix of all the above for it to represent a cross section of the sport," Mugar told ESPN.
In last year's edition of TST, the $1 million prize went to La Bombonera, a group of mostly experienced indoor players -- another variation of soccer that is played on turf inside a hockey rink -- that have a modest following of only 1,968 on Instagram. Amateur side Newtown Pride won the first edition in 2023, also with indoor players on its roster.
Back in the U.K., Harrop's coach Eva Kray Batousol has noticed that the younger generation who may not have thought twice about his non-league players are suddenly wearing Baller League jerseys.
"Obviously their favorite players are [Erling] Haaland and all these kinds of guys, and now you're seeing kids walk around in Baller League shirts. That's also an amazing thing," said Batousol. "As a kid, if I don't make it into the Premier League, to League Two, for example, I know I have a pathway in non-league, I could potentially go and play in Baller League alongside playing non-league."
US Women beat NC Courage 6-3 at The Soccer Tournament, claiming $1 million prize and sparking wild celebrations.
South of the border in Mexico, Kenne Kessler, a former collegiate and Villarreal player from Texas that joined Queens League Americas, also noted her unique opportunity. Last Saturday during a championship final, Kessler scored in an eventual 2-1 title-winning victory for the Galacticos del Caribe at a sold-out Estadio Luis 'Pirata' Fuente -- a remodeled venue which once housed the now defunct Liga MX side Club Deportivo Veracruz.
"I've played across many different countries, places and stages over the past few years, but this one was a bit different," said Kessler to ESPN. "There was streamers and cameras everywhere. At all times there were eyes on you."
Coupled with a Kings League Americas final that was also hosted at the stadium, the event has so far garnered more than 1.5 million views on the tournament's YouTube stream.
"I love that it's streamed on YouTube, so basically anyone around the world can watch our games," Veronica Perez, a Queens League player and former Liga MX Femenil and NWSL pro, told ESPN. "That branding, the marketing, it's more visible."
Welcome to the new future of soccer?
With a mixture of eye-popping prize money numbers, viral social media attention and a strong attraction for a younger fanbase, are these alternative tournaments the future of soccer? And could they one day surpass the traditional models?
"At Kings League, we don't believe for a second that we are going to replace traditional football, not a fraction of a thousandth of a second," Agaoua told ESPN. "We're not going to replace Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé and all those guys. I mean, not even in our dreams."
"At the very beginning, I would say traditional football saw us like a competitor, but now they understand that we're not competing directly. We're actually giving something alternative, and we are bringing new fans to the football ecosystem."
The sentiment was a similar one for Wagner with World Sevens Football.
"The opportunity really is to have a solution that is incrementally beneficial, that is additive to the current women's football landscape," said the former U.S. player about the tournament that could open new markets. "You think about the way that fans fall in love with teams and sports and players, it is really through those high entertainment moments."
Harrop, now recognized out in public because of viral Baller League videos, also doesn't believe that these alternatives will replace the likes of the Premier League or the league system, but he was blunt when discussing what major competitions can learn from these latest start-ups.
In line with the freedom that new tournaments have with their experimental rules and formats, there's also a freedom for players to showcase more of their character in a social media-led context -- which can feel refreshing in comparison to the more sterile environment of a traditional league.
La Bombonera players celebrate after beating Nani FC 4-0 and to win $1 million at The Soccer Tournament.
"I defo believe what lacks in normal football now is personality, in terms of players being able to be themselves," said Harrop. "You see an interview now after a game and it's very media-trained, it's all the game was, the game was good, thank you to the away fans. It's the same stuff...
"I am a big football fan, but I kind of lost interest in watching it as much, because games are just so, so boring and dry."
In these alternative leagues, the formula is not just about an entertaining on-field product, but in being authentic in ways that would be deemed too risky or brazen for most top flight competitions. Whether it's from the competitions themselves or rule-makers like the International Football Association Board, there's little incentive for radical change, so the status quo rarely changes.
Old-school leaders of the game have pushed back and looked down upon the new tournaments. LaLiga president Javier Tebas called the Kings League "a circus" in 2023, saying that it should not be compared to soccer.
It's very unlikely that momentum will suddenly shift away from traditional soccer at any point in the future, but if significant changes do occur, they could be spearheaded or influenced by the handful of new competitions that are beginning to gain ground.
"It's really beholden upon challengers like us to carry out any sort of bold, innovative ideas," said TST's Mugar. "Fans, I think, appreciate it."