Top 10 apps to follow FIFAWorld Cup 2014
In about six hours, the FIFA World Cup
2014 will kick off in Sao Paulo with a
massive opening ceremony that will see the
likes of Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull
performing. The ceremony will be followed
by the first game between host nation Brazil
and Croatia scheduled for 01:30AM IST. The
odd timings mean that there is a high chance
you will be missing out on watching the live
match on the TV. For such situations, here
are 10 apps that will help you keep a track
of the football tournament.
Liv Sports
Sony is the official broadcaster of the World
Cup in India and its Liv service is one of the
best ways of watching the matches on your
smartphone or tablet. For Rs 120 for the
entire tournament or Rs 60 for all matches
of any one team, you will be able to watch
live matches on your smartphone or tablet
via the Liv Sports app or on your PC via
Sony Liv website.
FIFA official app
FIFA’s official app and YouTube channel is
one place where you will find all kinds of
stuff related to World Cup 2014. While the
official YouTube channel won’t live stream
the matches, it will show match highlights,
player interviews and classic matches. The
app has multimedia content as well like
match highlights, in addition to content like
real-time scores, news and schedules. You
can head over to the App Store or Google
Play Store to download the app.
Tata Sky Mobile
This is another handy way of watching the
matches if you don’t have access to your
television. If you are a Tata Sky subscriber,
you can download the mobile app and for Rs
60, you will be able to watch Sony SIX on
your smartphone. You can download the app
for free from the Google Play Store.
TuneIn Radio
This is a service that will take you back to
the old days when a TV wasn’t a household
thing. You will be able to listen to live
commentary of the matches on TuneIn
Radio. The service has programs scheduled
for live matches as well as podcasts when
there is no live match.
ESPNFC
ESPN has completely revamped its website as
well as updated its iOS and Android app
ahead of the World Cup. When a match is
being played, the service will offer live blog,
scores, stats and commentary. In between
matches, there will be a host of feature and
news stories about the teams, players and
dedicated writers will give us a first-person
view of the atmosphere in Brazil.
Eurosport
This is quite easily one of the most
comprehensive sporting apps out there, with
dedicated sections to all sports. Football fans
are offered live scores and live blogging,
which also includes push notifications during
important moments in a match. There is a
new section on the app dedicated to the
football tournament that includes team
fixtures, profiles, rankings, statistics and all
the latest news. The app is available on
the App Store as well as the Google Play
Store.
UC Browser
UCWeb’s browser has been given a World
Cup special update which gives Android and
Windows Phone users easy access to
tournament related content. Now you will be
able to easily access live scores, text
blogging, stats, photos, videos and group
updates among others.
Facebook and Twitter World Cup Hubs
Facebook has launched a new hub called
‘Trending World Cup’, which will display live
scores, match schedules, real-time posts by
one’s friends and favorite football player and
teams. There is also a new sharing option
called ‘Now watching’ that will be updated
according to the ongoing match. So you can
share with your friends what match you are
watching. The Trending section on the right
of the News Feed too will be updated with
the latest news about the football
tournament. You can check out Facebook’s
trending page here .
Twitter too has done something on the same
lines by announcing a hub called #WorldCup .
As the name suggests, this is one place where
you will find all kinds of tweets from
journalists, experts, official team accounts,
players and more. You will also find live
scoreboard, match schedules, images and
videos. Twitter has also introduced Hashflags
— when you enter the three-letter country
code (example #ESP or #ENG), the respective
country’s flag will appear as an image right
beside it.
Google Now and Google Trends
As expected, Google Now will give you quick
access to live scores and match schedules on
your smartphones. Not to be left behind, like
Twitter and Facebook, Google too has
introduced a new page called Google Trends ,
which will display what people around the
world are searching in real-time and also
display information about the matches,
teams and players. Earlier this month, Google
also introduced a way for people to tour the
World Cup stadiums using Street View .
Sony SIX YouTube
Sony is the official broadcaster for the
World Cup 2014 in India and if for some
reason you are not in front of the telly
watching the live match, you can head over
to the Sony Six YouTube channel. The
channel will stream all the matches, albeit a
bit delayed. You will be able to watch the
matches on the YouTube website, or use the
YouTube apps on your smartphones or
tablets.
