From Liverpool to Histon, Real Madrid to Leeds United, keeping up with your team has never been so easy. We’ve put together the ultimate mobile phone football guide so that you can access match updates wherever you are — even if you don’t have a fancy phone. Before you try any of these services out though, make sure you check how much data or text services cost on your network.
Don’t have a fancy phone? Try these:
BBC Sport mobile site
On BBC mobile website you can get live text commentary on most of the major games of the day and live scores. Also when there is a cup draw you can have the random thrill of seeing team names being picked out of a bowl via text. In addition to all this you can also set up your homepage so your team’s news, scores and results appear first. Visit BBC Mobile here, you may incur data costs.
Snaptu
Snaptu is a free mobile service that offers a variety of applications, including Score 24. It’s incredibly comprehensive, giving you a full guide to what fixtures are being played that day in all the major European leagues. Score 24 also has a pretty decent news service, so you can even get the latest transfer gossip. Snaptu is free and compatible with most phones (Java), you may incur data costs. More info here.
Network services:
24-7 Football
If you have a 3G handset, are prepared to pay £5 a month and are on Orange, Vodafone or 3 you can keep up with the latest scores and news via mobile TV (02 users are excluded from seeing Soccer Saturday). The best part of the 24-7 Football is the Saturday afternoon goal highlights. You can also watch Soccer AM, Sky Sports News and even action from the UEFA Champions League. More info here.
O2
O2 lets you set up SMS alerts for goals and updates, at a cost, and it has official mobile sites for each of the big four (Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd). It also offers some fun and content from Football 365, one of the best football sites on the web. Finally O2 offer ‘Premierscores’ a downloadable application that features fixtures, stats and even live text commentary.
Vodafone
Vodafone lets you set up a homepage for your club, get all the latest football gossip and the usual team and goal alerts that you can get on other networks. There’s also a football widget that lets you to see the latest tables, fixtures and live scores, and an array of mobile TV packages to satisfy your football cravings — however at £5 per month it could get a bit expensive.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile offers several different mobile TV packages to cater for all tastes and similar to 24-7 football, it costs £5 per month to subscribe to the service. The cheaper option is to set up goal alerts which cost 20p per text. Or you can use T-Mobile’s own portal and get scores from there.
3
3 is also in on the football act. 3 offer a mix of services for the mobile football fan, including text updates. You can also access the 24-7 Football service, so you can see all the goals and get all the latest news on your mobile screen — this service costs £5 per month. In addition to this you will also need an internet add-on to your tariff.
Android apps:
BeebPlayer
BeebPlayer lets you view the BBC iPlayer on your Android mobile. It’s free from the Android Market and lets you catch up with football highlights from the comfort of your Android phone. We tested it out on the HTC Magic and it works like a charm. More info here.
Your team’s app
Footyfocus.com has a series of applications for all of Europe’s top club sides. The app collects all the major news stories for your team arranges them in a neat list so if anyone suggests your team has signed Titi Camara, you can quickly put them to rights. Trouble is if you follow Scunthorpe or Exeter City you may not find your team on the list. The app is free from the Android Market.
FotMob
Similar to Your team’s app, FotMob keeps track of the day’s results. So if you get roped into helping elderly relatives move or an interminable shopping trip with the girlfriend, FotMob will help keep those football blues in check. At least until your team concedes a last minute goal and you hurl your brand new app laden mobile across the room. The app is free from the Android Market. More info here.
iPhone apps:
Sky Sports football centre
In 1994 an event happened that shook sports broadcasting. A man who oozed gravitas strutted through the doors at Sky Television and slid onto our screens with all the coolness of a polar bear in an Armani suit. That man was Jeff Stelling and the show that has since become a national institution is Soccer Saturday, which now has its very own iPhone app. The app is free and requires iPhone OS 3.0.
iFooty
Thanks to a comment on this story we just discovered another iPhone app called iFooty that impressed us enough to get added to the list. iFooty is a free app that lets you track your team and keep up with the latest news and scores. If you want to get score updates even when you’re not running the app then you can pay for iFooty Plus, which offers push notifications.
Eurosport
Unlike the other apps the Eurosport app doesn’t just focus on football, it also gives sports heads the chance to check a variety of sports updates . We’re only interested in football here and anything else is a distraction. It offers full fixtures, results and tables for the full roster of major European leagues from Italy’s Serie A to the German Bundesliga. The app is free and requires iPhone OS 2.2.
ESPN Scorecentre
As with the Eurosport app, Scorecentre deals with a huge variety of sports including golf and tennis. There is a definite focus on the premiership, so if you’re a Doncaster fan, for example, we would suggest looking elsewhere. But, like the channel, this app will hopefully get bigger considering the huge amount of muscle ESPN have. The app is free and requires iPhone OS 2.2.1. More info here.
BBC iPlayer
Unlike the Android app, this doesn’t need to be downloaded and instead works using the iPhone’s Web browser and video player. Watch highlights from the comfort of your iPhone. Simply visit the iPlayer site using the Safari browser and you’ll be presented with a mobile-friendly interface.
BlackBerry apps:
Viigo
Similar to Snaptu, but far more jazzed up, Viigo offers one click access to a variety of different services including football scores. You can simply tell Viigo what you are interested in and it will bring up content appropriate to your request. So there is no need to waste precious time typing in URL’s when you are desperately trying to find out the latest score. The app is free from Blackberry’s App World. More info here.
Not satisfied with mere apps?
Sky Remote Record
If you have a Sky+ box and a 3G mobile you can record any programme that takes your fancy. Setting up home record to work on your mobile is relatively easy. Before you know it you’ll be setting your Sky box to record ‘Football First’. There are two ways to remote record, depending on the type of phone you have. If you have an iPhone then you can download the sky plus app from the app store. If you don’t have an iPhone don’t worry, you can still record Wolves v Birmingham if you want. Just install Sky Mobile on your 3G phone and you won’t miss a thing. It works in a similar way to the iPhone app. More info here.
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