A new football league is set to bowl into the spotlight and someone with a Nottingham Forest connection is set to take part in the new Baller League concept.
On Saturday, whilst Forest were beating Manchester City, a number of YouTube big names and influencers sold out Wembley Stadium to raise a hefty sum for charity.
KSI is the big name behind the UK version of a concept that originated in Germany and is now heading to these shores and the United States in the future.
Legendary figures such as Gary Lineker, John Terry, Luis Figo will take charge of teams, whilst Micah Richards, Alan Shearer and Robert Pires will be coaching some of the outfits.
The most intriguing addition to the list of former players taking part from a Forest perspective is someone who helped the club win promotion from League One a number of years ago.
Photo by Hannah Fountain - CameraSport via Getty Images
Photo by Hannah Fountain – CameraSport via Getty Images
Luke Chambers joins Baller League as Invincibles coach
Chambers served Forest with distinction across a number of years. He operated anywhere across the back four and helped the club win promotion back to the Championship in 2008.
In total, he made 229 appearances for the club, scoring 21 goals and captaining the team for a number of years after arriving as a youngster from Northampton Town.
Chambers has now taken the first steps into management – kind of! He’s joined Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Jens Lehmann in coaching the team, aptly named the Invincibles in the newly formed Baller League UK.
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Chambers has been spotted with his new colleagues. The draft began last night and the teams are now busy assembling their squads ahead of the big kick off.
It’s not clear whether Chambers merely likes the concept or whether he actually views this as a chance to get himself hooked up in a coaching sense with a proper football club at some point in the future.
How Baller League UK will work
Baller League is a six-a-side concept and will take place every Monday on indoor football pitches with 12 teams competing in the UK version.
The top four will then qualify for the play-offs and in turn a champion will be decided with a semi-final and a final to determine the winner.
Every match will be streamed live on YouTube with Chunkz hosting a weekly show that will showcase all of the matches live.
Baller League UK rules
The rules are pretty straightforward and the concept does sound very watchable to say the least.
Right now, the rules are as follows:
Each half will last 15 minutes
Each team will have a squad of 12 players
Players to earn a fee of £400 per game
Games will be played in a six-a-side format on a smaller indoor pitch
Rule twists will be introduced during the final three minutes of each half, including three v three, long-range goals counting as double and goalkeepers not allowed to use their hands
MLS-style one v one penalties