How is Baller League doing in bid to 'bring back football'?

AngryGinge's Yanited lost in the semi-finals

Baller League CEO Felix Starck set out clear and bold plans to "bring back football" when he started his UK version of the six-a-side competition in early 2025.

A quick glance across social media offers up polarising opinions on whether he delivered on that promise.

As the German entrepreneur sat pitchside at a sold-out O2 Arena for the season-concluding Final Four event, any online negativity was drowned out by thousands of screaming children and regular interjections from an air horn.

"Most people liked it that are in our audience group, maybe the 55-year-olds didn't like it so much, but the kids like it so what do we care about the 55-year-olds?" Starck told BBC Sport.

"What is there to hate? You don't need to watch it, you don't need to pay for it - it's free-to-air. I don't understand why people hate on something that they didn't lose a single minute or pound on."

The first season, which ran between March and June, was broadcast via Sky Sports as well as free-to-air platforms YouTube and Twitch.

There was an average of one million YouTube streams for each night of action, with 12 matchdays in all.

Baller League did not respond to BBC Sport's request for their viewing figures on Sky Sports.

Season two begins in the UK on 27 October with Sky set to continue their live coverage of the event.

Prior to the inaugural season, Starck spoke about wanting to "create an ecosystem" and there is evidence to suggest Baller League is on the right path.

After 11 matchdays at London's Copper Box Arena, those "kids" made their way into the O2 with loyalties already forged.

Swathes of the arena were filled with the green and yellow shirts of Yanited - a team managed by streamer AngryGinge - and homemade banners were draped over the railings to show support for Sharky's SDS FC.

At a time when Premier League ticket prices are rising, making it difficult for working class fans to regularly attend, Baller League can offer five-hour long matchdays for £14.75.

"We're trying to democratise football and make it accessible," Starck said.

"I talked to 100 fans at the final and 70 or 80% of them were at their first live football game - that just shows where we are in modern-day 11-a-side football. It's not accessible to the normal fans."

Starck has undeniably tapped into a gap in the market - blending the nation's favourite sport with entertainment.

"The biggest thing we try to measure is the quality on the pitch, if it keeps getting better then eyeballs [on the game] are going to grow, revenue is going to grow - everything is going to grow," Starck said.

"We are trying to bring football back to where it was, which was three kids on the street playing two against one - or five against five. Let's just play football and be connected to the base again. This is culture and sport, not a product."

Starck is so confident in the quality of the league he has assembled that he is prepared to donate "a million" to the youth team of any League One club if they can beat the likes of SDS FC or Yanited in a six-a-side game, claiming they would "get sent home".

'Room for improvement in every department'

Troy Deeney (back centre) made a guest appearance for Ian Wright and Chloe Kelly's Wembley Rangers AFC

Baller League may be doing many things right. After starting out in Germany in 2023, it expanded to the UK and is preparing to launch in the USA.

But Starck conceded there is "room for improvement in every department".

Several incidents of violence marred the opening UK season, with manager AngryGinge left with scratch marks on his neck following a fight between players from SDS and Yanited during matchday seven.

The Yanited manager later said he had been "gripped up and kicked" while in the middle of a melee on the pitch.

That incident came a week after former Premier League defender Joleon Lescott, who appeared as a guest player, was almost wrestled over the advertising hoardings during an altercation with Wembley Rangers' Domingos Pires.

On matchday five, Troy Deeney was sent off for charging into a player from FC Rules the World with his forearm raised.

"We're a very soft society these days but this is sport, this is emotion," Starck said.

"If two roosters get in a room they are going to fight and we have 250 roosters, so they are going to fight.

"We had whole talks [after incidents], we don't discuss publicly what we did but we took measures to make sure things like this don't happen again."

Unlike the Premier League, Baller League is not regulated by a governing body and therefore sanctions are processed by its internal disciplinary commission.

Baller League took action after tensions boiled over again on the penultimate matchday of the regular season, when Trebol FC's Amine Sassi appeared to kick an opponent in the head as they lay on the floor - handing out a one-match suspension.

"Baller League upholds a strict zero-tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour and will continue to enforce it consistently," the organisation posted at the time.

Changes in dugout - but 'not just hype'

The Copper Box Arena in London will host 11 matchdays again for the second season of Baller League UK

There has been a reshuffle in the dugout for the second season, with some big-name managers dropping out.

Luis Figo was the manager of Trebol FC last season but did not turn up to any events, and the Ballon d'Or winner is not involved for the new campaign.

Former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, who co-managed Deportrio with pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, has also left after only making a couple of appearances on the touchline as their team reached the semi-finals.

Actor Idris Elba has been confirmed as the manager of new team Rukkas FC, while former England striker Daniel Sturridge has joined Richards at Deportrio and Shearer has switched allegiance to join Ian Wright at Wembley Rangers.

Baller League has also introduced a three-tiered pay structure for players, with contracts ranging from £300 to £800 per game.

"We are culturally relevant after our first season in the UK. I heard people in the stadium when I went to an Arsenal game talking about Baller League," Starck said.

"It's a straw fire right now and the challenge is to collect enough firewood to turn this into a real fire that is sustainable, and not just hype.

"Anyone can do short-term hype, it's about being sustainable."