How to watch World Cup 2014 football matches live on iPhone or iPad

Football's World Cup 2014 starts tonight, and football fans will be desperate to watch every match - or at least every match featuring England or the team they drew in the office sweepstake. But if you can't reach a TV, you may want to know how to watch World Cup 2014 football matches on your iPad or iPhone. Here's how to do it.

There are 64 matches to watch - that's 5,760 minutes of sheer hell, not counting injury time, extra time and penalties - with the rights to show each game spread across various broadcasters in each country (the BBC and ITV are splitting the matches here in the UK). But there are also online and app alternatives. This makes things potentially complicated, but we're here to explain the options for watching live World Cup football on your iPad or iPhone.

First of all, find out which channel the match you want to watch is on. Here's the split for the group stages between ITV and BBC.

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Watch World Cup 2014 football on iPad or iPhone: Live matches on the ITV app

It's easy to watch ITV matches live on your iPad or iPhone. The ITV Player app allows live streaming of ITV1 and ITV2 programmes, and some ITV3 and ITV4 programmes, to iPads and iPhones via both WiFi and 3G. (The ITV Player app was launched just a week before the start of the Euro 2012 football tournament, incidentally, so the makers know how big a part of its demand is down to international football coverage.)

Download the ITV Player app - it's free - and go to the Live section (it's at the top of the interface if you're using the app in portrait mode). Scroll across to see what's showing on each of ITV's channels, and select the one showing the game.

(Bear your data limits in mind, though. The best option is to stream the coverage over Wi-Fi if possible.)

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Watch World Cup 2014 football on iPad or iPhone: Live matches on the BBC iPlayer app

Same routine for BBC matches, except they're on the iPlayer app, which offered live streaming for years before ITV Player came along.

Download the iPlayer app if you've not got it already, and select the Channels tab from the menu along the bottom of the screen. Again, pick the required channel and tap the screen where it says ON NOW.

Watch World Cup 2014 football on iPad or iPhone: Radio options

If a match is going on while you're supposed to be working, or you can't give the game your full attention, or you just don't like the ITV commentators, consider following the game on the radio. The BBC iPlayer Radio app is a good option here, although there are solid alternatives such as TuneIn Radio.