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

World governing body says service will eventually provide free access to 40,000 live matches this year

Fifa+ will stream the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year, including 11,000 women’s matches. EPA

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.

“Fifa+ Originals” forms another key component of the platform, comprising full-length documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts. Some of the content available focuses on Brazilian pair Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, Dutch great Johan Cruyff, French World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Roberto Baggio, and standout players from the women’s game, including Lucy Bronze, Carli Lloyd and Sam Kerr.

Diego Maradona features heavily already on the platform, including a short documentary entitled “Diego in Dubai”, which chronicles the 1986 World Cup winner’s time managing and living in the UAE.