FIFA to stream local matches online

Seabata Mahao

FIFA will stream local football matches for free under a new agreement signed with Lesotho Football Association (LeFA).

The agreement will be implemented in the coming weeks, with a full roll-out during the 2023/2024 season, according to a statement from LeFA in this week.

“The Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) is pleased to inform the football fraternity in the Mountain Kingdom that it has signed for a newly launched FIFA+, a world-class digital platform created to connect football fans across the globe,” LeFA said.

“The new FIFA streaming video service will provide free live matches for different competitions of the Lesotho Football Association elite leagues.”

FIFA+ is meant to provide coverage to underserved competitions to new audiences around the world.

“The streaming service was launched last year as part of FIFA’s plan to provide coverage of underserved competitions to new audiences around the world and capture more fan data. FIFA+ streamed the Qatar 2022 World Cup in Brazil for free.

“FIFA revealed after the tournament that, the three times more local fans used digital platforms to consume the World Cup compared to 2018, with streams gaining more than 40 million unique viewers throughout the tournament,” the statement read.

It also indicated that FIFA+ will provide access to live football matches from every corner of the world, interactive games, news, tournament information, groundbreaking, unrivalled video content delivering truly global storytelling around the men’s and women’s game, and much more.

“FIFA has targeted to stream equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 Member Associations across all six confederations, including 11 000 Women’s matches.”