June 13 – India may have crashed out of AFC World Cup qualifying for 2026, but the second largest country in the world has a growing appetite for football and the confederation is keen to harness its vast population in the regional game.
Streaming platform FanCode, which has more than 100 million users, has agreed a media partnership for the 2025-28 cycle for the AFC’s competitions.
Datuk Seri Windsor John, the AFC general secretary, said: “The passion for the beautiful game in India has grown exponentially in the past decade and the AFC is delighted to enter into this partnership with FanCode as we seek to grow the consumption of Asian football in the world’s most populated country.”
The agreement will see FanCode stream all upcoming AFC national team and club competitions, including the AFC Asian Qualifiers (FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers Final Round), the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026, the Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027, the U23 Asian Cup 2026 and 2028, amongst others.
Also covered is the newly announced club competitions: the AFC Champions League Elite, the AFC Champions League Two and the AFC Women’s Champions League.
FanCode, owned by Sporta Technologies Private Ltd, has previously streamed a limited number of AFC competitions through sublicensing deals.
FanCode will now sublicense certain matches to ensure live transmission on linear free TV channels to achieve the widest possible reach across the country.
Yannick Colaco, co-founder, FanCode said: “The five-year partnership with the AFC will allow FanCode to bring the best of men’s and women’s football action from Asia to fans in India. Asian football is on the rise and is now home to some of the biggest stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. This is in line with our commitment to bring fans access to top class sporting events from across the world and build FanCode as a premium sporting destination.”
“We thank FanCode for their faith in the AFC’s world-class competitions and we look forward to working closely with them to strengthen our engagement with our ever-expanding fanbase in India as we seek to ensure football remains the most popular sport in the Continent,” concluded John.
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