FIFA to show archive World Cup matches online and on YouTube

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to prevent football matches from taking place, thereby starving fans of anything to watch live, FIFA is opening up its World Cup archive and making selected games available on YouTube and on its own website.

As part of a new initiative designed to “help bring football home”, and called #WorldCupAtHome, full match replays of more than 30 games from the FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup will be published on FIFA.com, the FIFA YouTube channel and in Weibo in China from Saturday 21 March 2020.

Fans will choose the matches to be shown, world football’s governing body said.

The opening votes saw Spain vs The Netherlands from the 2014 World Cup edge out Brazil vs Colombia and Germany vs Argentina from the same tournament, while the France 2019 semi-final between England and USA prevailed over France USA in the Women’s World Cup poll.

Additional engagement opportunities will also allow viewers to interact with live chat on YouTube and vote for their favourite moment of the match across various FIFA social media channels.

Documentaries and interviews with famous football players and coaches will also be made available.

At the same time, FIFA is also allowing broadcast partners to access its rights archive in order to fill their schedules during the Covid-19 outbreak.