FIFA Start 'Netflix' For Football And Could Eventually Include The World Cup

FIFA have made a step towards creating a 'Netflix for football,' as documentaries and live matches are moved to their own official platform.

FIFA have been putting plenty of content on their YouTube channel over the past few years, with even some football matches being shown on there.

Amongst them have included the recent African World Cup qualifying play-offs, including the game between Egypt and Senegal, that saw the African Cup of Nations side go through.

Around 200,000 people watched on YouTube, as Sadio Mane's side knocked out teammate Mohamed Salah, and his fellow countrymen, thanks in part to lasers being shone in the former Chelsea player's eyes during the penalty shoot out.

That kind of game, and others like it, now look set to move to FIFA's own platform, FIFA Plus, after world football governing body announced its release on Tuesday.

Unlike streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime, fans don't have to pay for the service, and it will act like the YouTube channel has.

The difference between the two platforms is likely to be that there will be no geo blocking on the content on FIFA's own platform, with rights dictating who can watch what on YouTube.

Whilst it will remain free for now, FIFA could eventually move to showing games from their tournaments on the service and eventually charge fans for it.

"There is no plan to charge a subscription fee for the service," FIFA director of strategy Charlotte Burr said.

"That doesn't mean to say that we may not evolve over time should there be a value proposition that allows us to charge subscription if we step into premium rights or adopt other kind of models. But there will always be a free experience on FIFA+."

It is not the first time that it's been suggested that football should 'sell' its television rights via a Netflix style subscription service, especially in England.

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has suggested that the Premier League would make far more money if people subscribed to their platform, rather than allow Sky Sports, BT Sports and Amazon Prime to buy the rights.

It had been suggested as well that DAZN, which sells months subscription to live sports, could become the 'Netflix of football' and they looked into buying BT's rights from them, but Discovery eventually bought the channel.