Football’s world governing body FIFA have not been noted for their digital excellence in the past but seem to be waking up to the possibilities as the first ‘social world cup’ approaches.  Four years is a long time in technology terms so the changes that have taken place since the last tournament in South Africa have been immense.

We’ll go into more detail about how teams and players will be using social media in the lead up to and during the event in articles next year.  But for now the concentration is on the draw in Rio this Friday.

Every new project needs a focal point to give it that initial boost and its the perfect event for FIFA to generate coverage of their new app.  One that includes a live draw feature that means you can follow the teams being pulled out as it happens, see what that means in terms of the overall match schedule.  There will also be team profiles and venue information available too.  In a nice move there is sponsor integration, most notably linking adidas to the live draw.

It’s a seemingly massive app, one that no doubt has been in the planning, building and testing phase for a long time.  As well as the World Cup, FIFA are looking to take a slice of the domestic league market.  By taking your current location they can feed you info on your home league through the ‘World Match Centre’, giving latest scores, fixtures and standings.

It covers over 200 leagues and competitions from around the world, an enormous undertaking by anyones standards.  To help sift through the mass of data you can add up to 3 favourite teams with a mix of national and club sides.  Thus getting only the match information that is relevant to you.

There is other sections for you to explore including

• FIFA Explore
• Videos
• News
• Photos
• FIFA/Coca Cola World Rankings
• Integration with Facebook, Twitter and FIFA.com Club

The app, available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, is free to download and available for iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter:

“Our mission is not only to develop the game, but to touch the world and build a better future. With the official FIFA app, we are using mobile technology – the most personal technology ever known – to unite and inspire fans, ensuring they never miss a moment of the beautiful game.”

The official FIFA app will evolve over the coming months to provide an even better digital platform to unite the hundreds of millions of fans for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.

It feels very slick and easy to use, bringing all the latest scores and World Cup news you can want in one place.  Time will tell how much I will use it but for Friday and being someone with no Sky Sports it could certainly be an asset.  With a website that attracts over 7bn page visits during tournament time, their prediction of 70m app downloads may not be that outlandish after all.

What do you think of it?