6 Best Apps to Keep You on Top of Your World Cup 2014 Game
Stay in the loop, or pretend you know something about sport, with apps to watch, catch up on, and supplement each match
For the next four weeks, football fever will be upon us all in the extreme. Great swathes of the population will be firmly entrenched in schedules and drama, evening social engagements will be dictated by where you’ll find the nearest TV, and social media will feel a lot like being hit in the face by an avalanche of footballs. Whether you’re one of the True Believers who wants to keep an eye on every tiny stat, or just feel the need to have a vague idea of what’s going on to retain the ability to communicate with the general population, here are six free apps to help keep you in the loop.
Stay connected
1. FIFA – The Official FIFA app
The first and ultimate app to follow the World Cup is the official FIFA app. With its nice clean interface, it’s easy to keep track of all the latest goings on including news, match results and standings, live scores from current matches and the match calendar. Enter the Global Stadium to see the live news commentary, including shots on goal, saves, and referee decisions. It has punchy commentary like a live commentator, and fans can tweet into the stream directly with a linked Twitter account. There’s also a Did You Know section with relevant trivia about the players.
2. SportsYapper – Share Your Support
If you find yourself surrounded by people who don’t like football, like the opposing team too much, or you’ve been banned from talking aloud about The Sporting Event That Must Not Be Named, try SportsYapper. This app brings fans together to chat social-network style about the matches before, during and after they happen. You’ll need to create an account or log in with Facebook or Twitter, and it will display this login whenever you post. The app lets you pick your favourite teams, and when those teams are playing, or about to play, it will immediately offer the chat page for those matches. You can also ‘check in’ to the match, showing that you’re going to be watching the game. As a social app, SportsYapper also recommends other users to friend or chat with based on similar teams supported.
3. Layzapp – Supplement Your Watching
Bit of a Wikipedia fan? The kind of person who likes looking up actors while watching their movie? Then Layzapp is the companion app for you! It’s fresh off the press from Switzerland and aggregates internet content to your device to complement your TV watching. For the World Cup, Layzapp can act as your info-heavy companion to watching the game live, allowing you to access content about the team, the score, and what people are saying about it on Twitter and Facebook. If you’re with a group of friends, or not too old for selfies, you can take a Loudest Fans selfie to add to the app. Select the current line-up, pick your team and set the camera to record your cheers and take a selfie within five seconds.
Live streaming and catch-up
The FIFA app won’t let you watch the games themselves, but there are a few different apps that let you watch wherever you are. Remember, coverage is shared between BBC and ITV, and it’s illegal to watch live TV (even on a mobile device) without a TV licence.
4. BBC Sport
Found yourself somewhere with no TV? Game about to start? Can you feel the cold sweat of anticipation rising? Then you gotta love the Beebs for how much it can pack into a tiny app. It’s just the website trimmed down, but with the BBC Sport app you can read the news about matches, see the live scores and daily fixture results, and watch or listen to matches live using BBC TV or BBC Radio. There are also feature stories and commentaries. Unfortunately, if you do miss the game on BBC, the best you can hope for after the fact seems to be the highlights reel and the live text commentary.
5. TVCatchup Live TV
Still sweating about that upcoming match and have to attend that dinner party that’s been months in preparation? If you don’t want the helpful clutter of the BBC Sport app, then this much simpler TVCatchup app is for you. Despite the catch up name, the TVCatchup app offers all of the Freeview TV services live in one convenient location. It has adverts, but that’s a small price to pay for access to the entire Freeview channel list, including a TV guide. That means you can watch other TV shows too, you know, if there’s nothing else on… Just don’t get caught watching it under the tablecloth.
6. ITV Player
ITV is available on both platforms, but the variability of Android means you might not be able to use the app to watch live TV. If this is the case, using TVCatchup is your best bet, leading the field in live viewing. The ITV app stands out from the others with its catch up services, allowing you to watch entire ITV broadcasted matches within 30 days. If there’s an ITV broadcast match on at the time, you can watch it live. There are adverts, but you can register as a premium user to make them go away. So, if you couldn’t get out of that meeting and you want to watch the full game, you can always catch up in your own time.
Bonus: beyond the World Cup
Of course, there’s more to football than the World Cup (and more to sport than football), so if you find yourself in a stadium, take the time to check out ShortcutApp (only on iTunes). It was designed by a UK company to help sports fans keep in the action by ordering food from their devices straight to their seats. It’s a very simple app, with a currently limited list of venues, but expansion is on the horizon. When you’ve found your event, select the food that you want, fill in your details and pay using your credit card. Put in the details of your seat, or pick up from the special collection point. The app gives you the approximate time your order will be ready. Pretty handy eh?