After 62 games in the space of three and a half weeks, the FIFA World Cup officially ends this weekend.
Surprise package Morocco will battle Croatia for third place on Saturday, but it’s Sunday’s final that’s more significant. France are aiming to become only the second team in history to retain the World Cup, while it’s likely to be Lionel Messi’s last chance to win the competition with Argentina.
Here’s how to watch both remaining matches live, wherever you are.
Which World Cup matches are on TV?
Sat 17 Dec
- Croatia vs Morocco – 7am PT/10am ET/3pm GMT – Fox Sports/BBC
Sun 18 Dec
- Argentina vs France – 7am PT/10am ET/3pm GMT – Fox Sports/BBC/ITV
How to watch the World Cup in the US
Fox Sports has exclusive rights to the World Cup in the US, with matches broadcast on both the main Fox Channel and Fox Sports 1.
It’s worth checking if these channels are already included in your cable subscription. If not, you can sign up via any of the following:
- DirecTV – from $69.99 per month
- Dish – from $69.99 per month
- FuboTV – from $69.99 per month
- Hulu – from $16.98 per month (with ads) or $23.98 per month (no ads)
- Sling – from $20 per month for first month, then $40 per month thereafter
- Vidgo – from $59.95 per month
Some of these services offer a free trial, so it’s worth checking before you subscribe. But even so, paying for just one month will cover the whole tournament.
All of the channels are available across all your devices, including iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and more.
How to watch the World Cup in the UK
In the UK, coverage of the World Cup is split between the BBC and ITV, with both showing the final.
They’re free-to-air channels so don’t charge a subscription fee, although you’ll need a TV Licence to watch live. This costs £159 per year, but there’s no way to pay monthly.
Both the BBC and ITV make live coverage widely available. Aside from on the TV, they’re also available online and on most mobile devices.
Outside of the live games, the BBC and ITV have lots of other coverage of the World Cup available to watch online. If that’s not enough, World Cup sponsors Hisense release 15-20 minute recap of the action and atmosphere every day of the tournament. Known as FIFA World Cup Daily, each episode is filmed from an official fan park in Qatar, and they’re available to watch free on the FIFA website.
Can you watch the World Cup in 4K?
In most cases, yes, although there are caveats. The BBC has confirmed that it’ll be showing all the live games broadcast on BBC One in 4K HDR – including via BBC iPlayer. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case for ITV, with no games shown in 4K.
Fox Sports will broadcast every game in 4K HDR on your TV, but that’s not what you’ll get when streaming. Instead, it’ll be an upscaled version of the 1080p feed – this will be better than regular 1080p, but still not proper 4K.
Of course, you’ll need a TV (or computer, or even phone) that’s capable of outputting at 4K to actually see the benefit.
How to watch the World Cup outside the US or UK
If you’re based outside the US or UK, it’s worth checking which broadcaster has the rights to the World cup in your country. For example, it’s SBS in Australia, TF1 and beIN Sports in France and Viacom18 across the Indian subcontinent.
However, if you’re just visiting another country, accessing your UK-based subscription makes sense.
Until the end of 2020, it was pretty easy for British viewers to watch TV while outside the UK when travelling to another EEA member state. The providers had to allow customers to view content by law but Brexit means that’s no longer the case.
Now you’ll need to use a VPN (virtual private network) to set your location to the UK to unlock the content. The same applies to US viewers wanting to watch the Premier League beyond what is shown on American networks.
Our pick is NordVPN, which also tops our overall best VPN round-up due to its ease-of-use, security features and excellent value for money.