Fifa enters streaming market with new football platform 'Fifa+'

Fifa has launched its own football streaming platform, featuring in-house documentaries and with plans to offer an initial 1,400 live matches each month.

Football’s world governing body introduced “Fifa+” on Tuesday, announcing that the platform would provide free access to live matches from “every corner of the world” together with news, tournament information and “ground-breaking, unrivalled video content” focused on both the men’s and women’s game.

“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,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.

“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.”

Fifa said that, by the end of this year, it would stream the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 member associations across its six confederations, including 11,000 women’s matches, as well as live coverage from Europe’s top-flight leagues.

With the World Cup to take place in Qatar later this year, Fifa said the platform would offer coverage of every Fifa World Cup and Fifa Women’s World Cup “ever recorded on camera”, citing more than 2,000 hours of archive content. It launched on Tuesday with more than 2,500 videos dating back to the 1950s.