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- Fifa+ to carry live domestic league games from member associations
- More than 40,000 matches to stream live during 2022
- Platform also offers full access to Fifa archive
Fifa, soccer’s global governing body, has announced the rollout of its own over-the-top (OTT) platform, which will house live matches, original content and ecommerce.
The free Fifa+ service is going live with an initial slate of 1,400 live matches per month on the platform. By the end of 2022, Fifa says it will offer the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year.
This is being done, in some cases, with central funding from Fifa to cover production costs for certain member associations. Of that overall live game total, 11,000 will be women’s matches, with coverage from some of Europe’s top-flight leagues being offered in select markets. Geoblocking can be used to limit matches broadcast on Fifa+ to specific territories.
In addition, the Fifa+ offering includes a host of previously unserved competitions from around the world in men’s, women’s and youth soccer.
Initially the platform will be offered for free, with the governing body’s president Gianni Infantino saying Fifa+ is about the “democratisation of football”. However, Fifa has left open the possibility of switching models in the future.
“There is no plan to charge a subscription fee for the service, that doesn’t mean to say that we may not evolve over time should there be a value proposition that allows us to charge subscription if we step into premium rights or adopt other kind of models,” Fifa director of strategy Charlotte Burr told reporters. “But there will always be a free experience on Fifa+.”
In addition to the live content, the platform will also feature a slate of Fifa+ ‘originals’, including feature-length documentaries and factual episodic series on some of soccer’s biggest stars.
“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,” said Infantino. “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.”
By the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Fifa+ will be home to every match ever recorded from both the men’s and women’s tournaments, totalling more than 2,000 hours of archive content in a variety of different formats.
Other features include match data feeds, news content, interactive games and ecommerce.
From launch, Fifa+ will be available across all browser and mobile devices, with that set to be expanded to connected devices. The platform will be offered in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish before six more languages are made available in June.
