The Facebook Blog

As the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa on Friday, football fans will be able to connect to and share the experience no matter where they are in the world. Whether commenting live while watching matches or playing virtual games among their friends, you can be part of the action through Facebook and our partners. Here are some of the ways:

Show your passion on the Goal! Leaderboard. Get in the competitive spirit and join more than 2.5 million Facebook users who have liked and supported their favorite teams.

Watch the matches live, over the internet, with your friends. Many official broadcast partners are enabling you to share status updates and comments with your friends while you watch the events live by using Facebook's Live Stream social plugin. Partners, by country, include:

• France: TF1
• Germany: ARD
• Mexico: Televisa
• Poland: TVP
• Portugal: RTP
• Spain: Cuatro, Telecinco
• U.K.: ITV
• U.S.: Univision, ESPN

Get closer to the action by connecting with hundreds of authentic news, sports and entertainment voices on Facebook, including media outlets such as The New York Times from the U.S., Bild.de in Germany and the CBC in Canada, as well as opening ceremony performers K'naan and Shakira. You can also connect with players past and present, from Pele and Landon Donovan to Philipp Lahm, Lukas Podolski and Cristiano Ronaldo. Like their Pages on Facebook to get updates from them and share your thoughts.

"Like", "Share" and "Recommend" your favorite stories to your friends through Facebook-enabled websites that are covering the World Cup, such as L'Equipe in France, Veja and Yahoo in Brazil, and RTVE and RNE in Spain.

Support the World Cup charity – 1GOAL. 1GOAL's mission is simple, important and clear: education for all. From 1GOAL's Facebook Page, you can sign up for the campaign and stay updated on its efforts.

Build your own dream team with EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars. Sign the world's best football players to your club in this game on Facebook. Challenge your friends. Train and customize your formation to work your way to the to top.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working directly with many of the partners above to get your thoughts and feedback on the tournament, the players and the passion surrounding the 2010 World Cup.

With so much of the action ready to be shared, liked, commented upon and amplified billions and billions of times over, this will be the first World Cup truly experienced and celebrated through the eyes of friends. So, clear your schedule. The beautiful game is about to begin.

Go world.


Christian, Facebook's head of international business development, is looking forward to watching El Tri win the opening game of the 2010 World Cup.