World Cup 2006 is almost upon us and the worldwide audience is set to smash all records. But the days of cramming around the television in the front room or in the local pub are diminished if not yet gone. With increased technological developments, football fans will be able to utilise new technology to follow their national teams fortunes.

The increasing sophistication of the web means that live games will be shown on sites such as the BBC this summer. Streaming video content to your desktop or laptop is nothing new but the marketers recognise the value of the big occasion and with all games being available for live video download the 2006 World Cup will be the biggest litmus test that this technology has had to date. The availability of live streams offers great flexibility to users who are at work, university, home working and so on to watch and enjoy the games whether legitimately or not.

Similarly recent developments in mobile phones mean that we can now watch mobile content on mobile devices such as phones. Having the World Cup on your mobile phone means that you need not miss any of the action and can watch games on the move wherever you are. Just watch out for oncoming traffic. The sophistication of the latest mobile phones include internet connectivity and video content streaming allowing us to enjoy the footy on the bus or the train in a way that we have never been able to before.

Despite the popularity and frequent changes to our mobile phones, handsets with video streaming capability are still not in the majority. Sony Ericsson has led the way with video phones in recent years and Sony Ericsson models now have the capability as a standard handset feature. If you plan on watching the World Cup on the move the time is upon you to renew your phone so hurry up and call your network for an upgrade or visit one of the mobile phone stores to get your hands (and eyes) on the World Cup this year.