The Irish Football Association has teamed up with FIFA’s streaming platform to bring Northern Ireland international matches to a global audience.
As part of its mission to give fans engaging and innovative ways of interacting with the beautiful game, FIFA+ offers free access to live football action from every corner of the world.
Its tie-up with the Irish FA will initially see it streaming three matches involving Northern Ireland’s Women’s Under-19s this month.
The WU19s are set to face Kosovo, Cyprus and Latvia in stage two of the qualifiers for the 2022-23 edition of UEFA Women’s U19 Euro. The games are being hosted in Northern Ireland.
The FIFA+ platform, which is available on the web, as a mobile app and on select connected devices, and is already accessible in 10 languages, represents a ground-breaking approach to showcasing live football from men’s, women’s and youth leagues and cups to a global audience.
The first stream featuring a Northern Ireland international team will be the WU19 Euro 2023 League B Group 3 qualifier between the WU19s and Latvia WU19s at Belfast’s Seaview Stadium tomorrow (4 April). That game is due to kick off at 7pm.
The WU19s are then back at Seaview on Friday (7 April) for a qualifier against Cyprus WU19s (12noon start) before their final game in the mini qualifying tournament against Kosovo at the same venue next Monday (10 April). It’s also a noon kick-off.
Match streaming links
NORTHERN IRELAND vs LATVIA U19
Charlotte Burr, Director of Strategy, Corporate Development and Digital at FIFA, said: “For the first time ever our member associations can seamlessly tap into a truly global football fan base and grow a direct relationship with it on a daily basis.
“We are proud to work side by side with the Irish Football Association and are excited about helping to really grow the game across Northern Ireland and beyond.”
Irish FA Chief Executive Patrick Nelson welcomed the partnership with FIFA+.
He said: “This is an exciting development which will help us to showcase our international teams at all levels to the world. FIFA+ provides unrivalled content around the men’s and women’s game globally.”
Since its launch the world football governing body’s streaming platform has steadily expanded its reach and added exciting new content streams in order to deliver a multi-faceted digital experience.
Completely free, the platform offers an extensive archive (including all men’s and women’s FIFA World Cup matches), thousands of live fixtures every year, interactive games and predictors and a raft of original documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts.
By the end of 2023 FIFA+ will be streaming the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from more than 100 national associations across all six confederations, including 11,000 women’s matches.
FIFA+ provides live coverage ranging from Europe’s top-flight leagues to previously unserved competitions from around the world in men’s, women’s and youth football. FIFA+ can be accessed worldwide at fifaplus.com and on major app stores.
