How To Watch Champions League Football Free Online

My guide to watching free Champions League Football online has been one of my most popular posts. I’ve updated the guide today in time for the 2009 Champions League Quarter Final Games.

This fool-proof Guide To Watching Champions League, Premiership And UEFA Cup Football Online also allows you to watch all major European leagues including the English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Primera Division.

Step 1: Download Sopcast

Although there are several applications that let you watch football streams online, SopCast is by far the easiest to install and use. The main reason is because all the instructions are in English and not Chinese like many other services.

To download go to the SopCast website and get the latest version currently SopCast 3.0.3. The site slows down on game nights so I’ve uploaded the current Sopcast version here for readers.

Step 2: Install SopCast

Once you have the zip file on your PC unzip it somewhere you can find the files easily, and then run the setup program. Once you’ve finished there should be a SopCast icon on your desktop or in your start menu. Double-click this file to start SopCast.

Step 3: Using SopCast

The first time you run SopCast it will ask you to login. Just select ‘Login as anoymous’ and ‘Auto login on this computer’ as pictured above and then click ‘‘Login’

Step 4: Finding Channels Showing Games

Once you’ve logged into SopCast ignore the ‘Home’ tab and click on the ‘Channels’ tab. The channels are grouped by category and sensibly ‘Sports Channels’ is listed at the top. As you will see if you get this far, there are dozens of Sports Channels listed. The numbers in brackets next to the name of each channel is the number of peers streaming the channel. Channels with more peers usually have a better stream.

To watch a channel is easy – just double-click it. However, it can sometimes take a minute or two for a stream to start, so if you pick the wrong channel 9 times you could miss 15 mins of a game.

What I do is use this the fantastic Football4less site. This sites lists up-to-date details of which channels are covering which football games. Nearly all channels are covered so using this site can save you a lot of time. All you have to do is either click on the football league or tournament you want to watch online, or the date of the football match that you want to watch:

• Links for Tues 07 Apr Champions League Quarter Final games featuring Man Utd Vs FC Porto and Villarreal Vs Arsenal – http://www.football4less.com/schedules/schedules_07042009.html
• Links for Weds 08 Apr Champions League Quarter Final games featuring Barcelona V Bayern Munich and Liverpool Vs Chelsea – http://www.football4less.com/schedules/schedules_08042009.html

Once you’ve found the game you want to watch look for a SopCast icon next to a channel as this will tell you that the channel is available on SopCast. Find this channel in SopCast, double-click it and once it’s buffered the game (usually takes 30-45 seconds) the match will start. The video may be a bit jerky at first, but will improve within a minute as you connect to more peers.

Step 5: In-Game Options

The game can be watched in the small SopCast window. If you click on the small icon in the bottom-right hand corner this will let you watch the game in Windows Media Player, where you can resize the window. Or you can click the ‘FS’ which will open the video Full Screen.

You can also right click on the video window to access other options, including volume controls.

I hope you found this guide useful and in time to watch the game you were looking for! If you have any issues or want to add any other points, then please leave a comment below.