How to Watch the FIFA World Cup Online

It’s been four long years since Germany won the trophy in the previous World Cup, beating Argentina by a hair’s breadth. Now, the start of another football World Cup is here. If you’re not lucky enough to be in Russia, able to lounge in front of the TV all day or sit in an air-conditioned bar somewhere, there’s a good chance you’ll need to stream the matches. Below, we’ll show you how to watch the FIFA World Cup online.

Whether you’re a die-hard sports fan or an occasional watcher, there are streams to fit your need. Basketball fans would surely like to tune-in and watch the hottest matches from the U.S. You can do so by consulting our how to watch NBA online guide. Fans of the more bloody stuff can use a similar guide to watch UFC online. There’s also a way to watch the NFL online on Kodi.

However, the soccer is all the rage now, so let’s take a look at how you can stream it. You might need to bypass regional geoblocks, but more on that later.

Sportsala

Sportsala is a website dedicated to, well, sports. From cricket to wrestling the site offers all kinds, including the soccer World Cup.

Visit the site and click on the “FIFA World Cup 2018” button. You’ll see a list of scheduled matches. The match stream page shows a variety of information, most notably the date and time of the match.

Streams like this one are not completely reliable. They also tend to have pop-up advertising and are potentially malicious. On top of that, free streaming rarely works through the whole match. You’ll probably have to move through several different streams in order to finish watching.

FOX Sports

FOX Sports is streaming all 64 matches, along with additional streams. Besides the main stream, five bonus feeds are available to visitors of FOX Sports. These are: Team Channels, Match 360, Tactical View, Cable Cam and Highlights.

Once you land on the FOX Sports start page, navigate to the “FIFA World Cup” area, and you’ll see articles, groups and teams. All the information you need to know to fully appreciate the World Cup.

On the right side you’ll see featured matches. Click on one of the streams and you’ll land in the “watch” section. However, if you live outside the U.S., you’ll have to use a VPN. We feel the best one to be ExpressVPN, overall — though NordVPN comes a close second. They’re not free, but both come with a 30-day money back guarantee; just enough to watch the World Cup.

Hit the “choose location” button, select “Americas,” and then the U.S. You’ll see a list of servers that you can choose from. Express VPN is one of the fastest and you shouldn’t see a big impact on your connection, no matter your location.

BBC iPlayer

You’ll also need that VPN if you want to hop over to the BBC. BBC has extensive coverage of the Cup, but they will also be showing matches live on their online platform, BBC iPlayer. Although access to BBC online coverage is free, you need to have a UK IP address. For that, simply apply our VPN instructions from the previous section. We have a list of the best VPN for BBC iPlayer if you want to go this route.

Once you finish getting around the geoblock, you’ll have to create an account by clicking on the “sign in” link and following the instructions.

The games will be shown on BBC, BBC one, BBC Two and BBC Four. Make sure to tune in to those channels.

SBS

SBS is the official FIFA World Cup 2018 broadcaster for Australia and it will offer live coverage on its official site. Since it’s an official broadcaster, SBS holds all broadcasting rights and will provide the best streams of the matches in Australia.

Click the link in the header above and enjoy the games. If you’re not in Australia you’ll have to use a VPN, however, as SBS access is restricted to Australians. Still, it’s a small price to pay to watch your desired World Cup matches.

Kodi

You can also use Kodi, an open source media center. To install it, follow the instructions in our straightforward guide. You can also consult our best VPN for Kodi article. To install an add-on to watch FIFA World Cup, follow these instructions:

• Open Kodi and go to settings (gear icon at the top)
• Click on “file manager” and scroll down. Double-click on “add source”
• Select “none”, paste “http://mavericktv.net/mavrepo/” and click “ok”
• Name the new repository “Mavrepo,” hit ok and return to the main menu
• Click on “add-ons” and then on “box” icon (package installer)
• Chose install from zip file location
• If its disabled, click on “settings” and switch on “unknown sources”
• You need to select “Maverepo” in the pop-up and click on “repository.maverickrepo-3.4.zip”
• Click on “install from repository” and then click “MaverickTV Repo”
• Select Video Add-ons, then Joker Sports and press “install”
• Open Joker Sports, select BT Sports and then choose any of the BT Sports Channels
• Click on repository.Maverickrepo-3.4.zip and wait for the install to finish
• Select “install from repository” and then click on “maverickTV repo”
• Click on “video add-ons”, select “joker sports” and press “install”
• Open Joker Sports, select BT Sports and click on any of the BT sports channels (you might need to install an add-on) and watch the FIFA World Cup

The Final Score

The FIFA World Cup ends on July 15, 2018. Until then, there’s plenty of time to enjoy it using one of the ways that we discussed here. Some might be easier than others, but at least one will be suitable for you. Of course, these streams can’t compare to the paid services and you’ll have to do some VPN magic, but, hey, they’re free.

If you’re interested to know more about our recommended VPNs, check out our ExpressVPN review and NordVPN review. If you’d rather do your own research, we also have an overview of the best VPNs.

Do you think the services above will do the trick, or will you use another service to watch the matches? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you and see you in the finals.