The best services for football (soccer) streams in Australia

It may be called the world game, but in Australia “football” is an ambiguous term. It may refer to NRL, rugby union or AFL before purists will (rightly) correct it to referring to what we interchangeably call soccer.

If you’re on this page looking for how to stream football (soccer), then you’re in the right place, which is a good thing because, these days, there are multiple leagues split across some of the best sports streaming services.

Now that Foxtel has parted ways with BeIN Sports content, you won’t find any of the former’s content on Foxtel Now or Kayo Sports. Despite the split, you can still access the football content via a BeIN Sports subscription. There’s a free seven-day trial to kick off with, then prices are either $14.99 a month or $179.99 per year (basically, the cost of a nine-month subscription).

Here’s every soccer league available on BeIN Sports:

• Serie A (Italy)
• Bundesliga (Germany)
• English Football League
• Ligue 1 (France)
• Scottish Professional Football League
• English Football
• Major League Soccer (United States and Canada)
• Carabao Cup (England)
• International Men
• International Women

Finding free soccer streams in Australia is a tough ask. If you do want to stream live soccer for free, keep an eye on 10Play. Because Paramount Plus is a rebranding of 10 All Access, meaning they have the same owners, 10Play is the place to find free-to-air Aussie soccer matches. If you fancy older Socceroo match replays, you can also check out SBS On Demand.

For AFC Champions League matches, expect to catch the ones with Aussie teams on 10 Play. For all other matches, Paramount Plus is your best bet.

The English Premier League (EPL) is a big deal for football fans the world over, and if you want to watch live matches, you’re going to need an Optus Sport subscription. Thankfully, Optus Sport is a bit more diversified with its soccer content these days, meaning you can also stay up to date with the other following global soccer leagues:

• LaLiga (Spain)
• Women’s Super League (England)
• FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023
• J.League (Japan)
• Internationals
• DFB-Pokal (Germany)

Prices start at $24.99 per month for an Optus Sport subscription, but the better value comes from a $229 annual subscription (roughly the cost of an eight-month subscription). That is unless you’re saving money by only subscribing during the times you want to watch content. Alternatively, Optus SubHub is available to Optus customers for $9.99 a month.

While there’s a smattering of free Socceroo matches on SBS On Demand and 10Play, the best place to watch lots of big-ticket Australian football (soccer) matches is on Paramount Plus. Here’s where you’ll find every regular match for men and women’s A-League, Socceroos, Matildas, the FA Cup (England) and AFC matches. Prices start at $9.99 per month or you can pay a $89.99 annual fee for Standard plan (roughly $7.49 a month).

As you have probably gauged from the lists above, there are many popular soccer leagues around the world. Without getting too niche, the last big one that’s absent from above is the annual UEFA competition, which includes the UEFA Champions League (including the EUFA Champions League Final), UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League and the UEFA Super Cup. There are also select matches available for the UEFA Youth League. That’s a whole lot of UEFA content!

Stan prices start at $12 for the basic subscription with a $15 monthly add-on for Stan Sport. To watch 4K UEFA matches, you’ll need the $22-per-month Stan Premium base subscription with the $15 monthly Stan Sport add-on fee.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is being played in Australia, which means very convenient timing for live matches. If you want to catch live matches, you’ve got two options: one free and one premium. The free one is via 7plus, where you’ll be able to stream “15 key matches”, which includes the opening bout, quarterfinals, semifinals, the final and all of the Matildas matches.

If you want to watch all 64 games in the tournament, you’ll need an Optus Sport subscription. It’s cheaper for Optus customers ($9.99 a month for Optus SubHub). Otherwise, Optus Sport costs $24.99 per month or $229 for a year.