By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has launched a new streaming video service, FIFA+, that will see football fans enjoy live football games from domestic leagues across the globe, as well as archive clips and games, original content in the form of documentaries, and a match centre for results and statistics.
Launched earlier this week, FIFA+ is a free, ad-supported platform that will be released as an app (iOS and Android) and website. The free cost might be temporary, according to Variety, and there could be a subscription fee going forward.
According to FIFA President, Mr Gianni Infantino, it is the first sports federation to offer such an extensive streaming service,
“FIFA+ represents the next step in our vision to make football truly global and inclusive, and it underpins FIFA’s core mission of expanding and developing football globally.
“This project represents a cultural shift in the way different types of football fans want to connect with and explore the global game and has been a fundamental part of my Vision 2020-2023. It will accelerate the democratisation of football and we are delighted to share it with fans,” he noted.
The FIFA+ streaming service will initially launch with five languages — English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese — with plans to add Mandarin, Bahasa, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Arabic and Hindi within a few months.
The platform will include approximately 3,000 clips taken from the FIFA archive as well as original programming, which includes documentaries, behind-the-scenes and long-form and short-form feature films.
FIFA fans can explore a suite of original series based on stars such as former Brazil and Barcelona legend Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, former World Cup Golden Boot winners, six World Cup captains, Andrew and Stuart Douglas, and even footballer hairdresser Sheldon Edwards, among others.
According to the world football governing body, by the end of 2022, FIFA+ will be streaming the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 member associations across all six confederations, including 11,000 women’s matches.
It will offer live coverage from Europe’s topflight leagues to previously unserved competitions from around the world in men’s, women’s and youth football. From launch, 1,400 matches will be live-streamed monthly on FIFA+, rising rapidly.
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA+ will show every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup match ever recorded on camera, totalling more than 2,000 hours of archive content. The FIFA+ Archive will launch with more than 2,500 videos dating back to the 1950s, with many more to come throughout the year.
Other content will include – The Match Centre which will allow football fans to immerse themselves in rich football data across 400 men’s competitions and 65 women’s competitions;
FIFA+ Originals will deliver global storytelling content around the men’s and women’s games such as feature full-length documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts. This will be localised into 11 languages, telling stories from local grassroots to national teams and footballing heroes past and present from more than 40 countries.
Some expected titles are Ronaldinho: The Happiest Man in the World, Captains: Season 1, Croatia: Defining a Nation, Dani Crazy Dream, Golden Boot, Icons, Academies, and an 8-part docuseries about barbers to football stars.
From launch, FIFA+will be available across all web and mobile devices, and across a range of connected devices soon. It will be available in five language editions (English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish), with an additional six languages to follow in June of 2022.
