With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar coming up at the end of the year, FIFA — soccer’s international governing body — announced on Tuesday that they had launched their own free streaming service called FIFA+. The platform will provide thousands of live and archived games as well as news, analysis, and information for tournaments around the world.
FIFA+ will also be the home for original series and documentaries from and about the biggest names in the beautiful game. The organization’s president Gianni Infantino said that this service represents “a cultural shift in the way different types of football fans want to connect with and explore the global game.”
The platform is available now in five languages around the world: English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, with six other languages launching in June. The soccer streamer is available now on web and mobile devices with an app on connected TVs to debut later in the year.
FIFA is the latest sports organization to embrace streaming; in addition to their industry-leading MLB.TV, Major League Baseball has begun airing streaming-exclusive games on multiple platforms this season and the NFL is reportedly in the beginning stages on launching their own streaming service.
FIFA says that by the end of the year they will stream “the equivalent” of 40,000 games per year, but gave no indication as to what that specifically meant. The games will come from their 100 member associations across the globe and will roughly be comprised of 29,000 men’s games and 11,000 women’s matches.
At first, the streamer will focus on European leagues that have not yet received the international attention that the Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, and others have enjoyed, as well as other men’s, women’s, and youth football leagues from around the world. Danish Superliga, Polish Ekstraklasa, and Slovak Fortuna Liga were mentioned as being in the initial round of leagues to be featured.
At launch, the streamer has plans to stream 1,400 matches but claims that the number will be “rising rapidly” as the year progresses. According to Deadline, “FIFA+ will also offer every FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cup match recorded on camera, totalling more than 2,000 hours. The archive will launch with more than 2,500 videos dating back to the 1950s.”
Because FIFA claims to own the underlying rights for every game that it sanctions, they maintain that they have the authority to stream any game that they would like, either live or on-demand.
In addition to the on-field action, the service will also feature documentaries, docuseries, talk shows, and shorts, and they are in the process of acquiring other exclusive shows to round out their slate of FIFA+ Originals. The streamer will also host a channel called “Match Centre,” which will include a football informational database, daily news, interactive videos, quizzes, games, and match predictors.
According to Deadline, the original programs available now on the service include:
- Captains: Season 1: An eight-part series from Sunderland ’Til I Die producer Fulwell 73 that follows eight international captains (Croatia’s Luka Modrić, Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Vanuatu’s Brian Kaltak, Jamaica’s Andre Blake, Lebanon’s Hassan Maatouk and Brazil’s Thiago Silva) leading their teams through qualification for December’s Qatar World Cup 2022.
- Ronaldinho: The Happiest Man in the World, a 90-minute film from directors Stuart and Andrew Douglas, producer Bernie Goldmann and Simon Horsman and Jeffrey Soros of the Los Angeles Media Fund about the dramatic rise and then unexpectedly fast decline of the Brazilian attacking midfield legend, who is considered one of entertaining and talented players of all time. Current soccer superstar Lionel Messi is among the contributors.
- Croatia: Defining a Nation: A feature-length doc from Louis Myles (Liverpool FC: The 30-Year Wait) about how soccer has united the nation, which was losing finalist in the 2018 World Cup, and how a group of friends from the nation became global stars in the face of extreme adversity.
- HD Cutz: An eight-part series from MOTIF Pictures and Fever Media and sees barber to the stars Sheldon Edwards talking to the likes of Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba and Chelsea defender Antonio Rüdiger over a trim./ - Dani Crazy Dream The series follows Brazilian defender Dani Alves – soccer’s most decorated player ever – as he tries to make the World Cup 2022 squad. Alves’ Maracanã Media produces the six-part show.
- Golden Boot: A 4×48-minutes show from Goalhanger Films (Wayne Rooney: The Man Behind the Goals) and sees company owner Lineker interviewing the likes of Brazilian great Ronaldo
- Icons: A five-part docuseries about five gam-changing women players (Wendie Renard, Lucy Bronze, Asisat Oshoala, Carli Lloyd and Sam Kerr) and is from Finding Jack Charlton producer Noah Media Group.
- Academies: A three-part show from Shoot the Company about RSC Anderlecht’s youth development operation. Further series will focus on different teams.