A football treat for fans

MASERU – Football fanatics in Lesotho are in for a treat after the Lesotho Football Association announced a partnership with FIFA through a world-class digital platform, FIFA+, which will provide free live games of the Lesotho elite league.

The streaming service 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 date.

FIFA+ streamed the Qatar World Cup in Brazil free and FIFA revealed after the tournament that 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.

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

FIFA is the first sports federation ever to offer such extensive streaming and content experience to its fans.

FIFA has targeted to stream the equivalent of 40 000 live games per year from 100 member associations across all six confederations, including 11 000 women’s football matches.

The FIFA+ is expected to kick-off in less than a month in Lesotho and with the roll-out that is fully operational scheduled for the start of the 2023/2024 season.

FIFA+ project has been welcomed by the LeFA Secretary General, Mokhosi Mohapi, stating that the project is massive for the transformation of football in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

“The FIFA+ project will help football in Lesotho to get the much-wanted publicity,” Mohapi said.

“For players, the platform will provide the whole world their footage such that we are likely to see more Basotho players moving onto foreign leagues.

“Secondly, the local fans can access matches that are played at the same time while watching their own favourite teams, and or later after their matches are played already.”

Mohapi said the streaming services will also give football technicians such as video analysts along with coaches a chance to study their opponents.

“The clubs will also benefit in terms of getting footage to be able to analyse their opponents and factor that same analysis in their training sessions,” the LeFA Secretary General stated.

“Over and above the technical benefits, if our streamed matches get enough visits or downloads, the local clubs might earn revenue which I’m sure it is well needed following the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen dwindling returns across the population,” he said.

“FIFA+ represents the next step in our vision to make football truly global and inclusive, and it underpins FIFA’s core mission to expand and develop football globally,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino in a statement.

“This project represents a cultural shift in the way different types of football fans want to connect with and explore global games 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 the fans.”

Mikia Kalati