La Liga stars are coming together to stream a FIFA tournament for charity
With La Liga matches on hold, players from 19 of the league’s 20 clubs are taking part in a live-streamed FIFA tournament to raise money to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
With no real La Liga matches taking place on the field, players from 19 of the 20 clubs in the Spanish top flight are taking the action online with a live-streamed FIFA tournament.
The three-day tournament – including stars like Barcelona’s Sergi Roberto and Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio – is raising funds for UNICEF to help fight the coronavirus pandemic which has shut down the world of sports and has hit Spain particularly hard.
The idea began last weekend when Ibai Llanos, a Spanish esports player and presentor, helped facilitate a FIFA match between two players from rival clubs during the first weekend without matches.
El Gran Derbi between Sevilla and Real Betis is arguably Spain’s greatest rivalry match. When last weekend’s Gran Derbi was called off, Ibai streamed Sevilla’s Sergio Reguilon and Real Betis’ Borja Iglesias playing out the match in FIFA. Betis won, fittingly with the help of a goal by the virtual Borja Iglesias.
https://twitter.com/RealBetis_en/status/1239309630406303745?s=20
Borja Iglesias (on Onda Cero radio) on playing FIFA with Reguilón in their 'Seville Derby': "I was nervous, when they told me 62,000 people were watching... My hands were sweating! I've been playing with Courtois too, I didn't know him well, but he's a really good guy."
— The Spanish Football Podcast (@tsf_podcast) March 17, 2020
With more than 60,000 people tuning in to watch the one-off Gran Derbi stream it was clear that there was an audience for even virtual soccer played by La Liga stars right now.
Ibai then put out the idea for a tournament with players from all 20 La Liga teams. It came together quickly with La Liga itself promoting the event as the #LaLigaSantanderChallenge and players from all 20 teams on board within days.
https://twitter.com/LaLigaEN/status/1240750857613869058?s=20
The full list of players (sorted by their team’s position in the real La Liga table): Barcelona – Sergi Roberto, Real Madrid – Marco Asensio, Sevilla – Sergio Reguilon, Real Sociedad – Adnan Januzaj, Getafe – Jason Remeseiro, Atletico Madrid – Marcos Llorente, Valencia – Carlos Soler, Villarreal – Manu Morlanes, Granada – Jose Antonio Martinez, Athletic Club – Gorka Guruzeta, Osasuna – Ruben Garcia, Real Betis – Borja Iglesias, Levante – Carlos Clerc, Alaves – Lucas Perez, Real Valladolid – Pedro Porro, Eibar – Edu Exposito, Celta Vigo – Kevin Vazquez, Mallorca – Alejandro Pozo, Leganes – Aitor Rubial, Espanyol – Adrian Embarba.
(Pozo didn’t end up participating, with social media reports saying that his withdrawal had to do with Mallorca’s partnership with Konami and their rival game, Pro Evolution Soccer.)
On Thursday, Ibai streamed the live draw as team names were drawn from a kitchen pot. Upwards of 70,000 people watched the “draw” stream.
Three play-in matches are taking place on Friday between the bottom-six sides, before the Round of 16 on Saturday and then the quarterfinals, semifinals and final on Sunday.
The matches are all being streamed on Ibai’s Twitch channel as well as by the U.S. broadcaster of La Liga, beIN SPORTS.
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