Charles-Henry Contamine isn't getting much sleep at the moment. As head of Internet at FIFA, soccer's global governing body, he has spent the last six months nursing the launch of www.fifaworldcup.com, a media-rich site set to provide tens of millions of users with live editorial coverage of the 64 world cup matches, in no less than 7 languages. Holding exclusive Internet broadcast rights - the site is also offering Web casts of the event itself, and access to FIFA archives, classic games and goal of the century, all for a flat fee of US$19.95.

-The site was launched on November 28, 2001," explains Contamine, -Our main target is to serve all audiences with the same quality of service, all the time. Some rich media sections, require good Internet connectivity, but anyone with a 28.8 modem can enjoy the whole site and the vital information."

And while the most recent coverage comes at a cost, searching through the classic matches of the last century is free, and a useful way to revisit the great soccer controversies of the past.

However, FIFA aren't the only ones feeding the global polyglot behemoth of soccer fans in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup. Official partner status has enabled Yahoo to share a stake in World Cup coverage, with its specialised soccer news service feeding fans back to the FIFA site, and to other sports destinations on the Web.

Brian Boys, sports producer at Yahoo Australia New Zealand, says that the World Cup, like major swim meets and local league finals, sparks huge increases in traffic.

-Sports coverage really has to be tailored to the user. Our footy tipping site is very lean and functional and people want to place their tips quickly, be able to see results, get weekly reminders and see their ratings," Boys says. -Whereas when it comes to coverage, people want to be able to choose an experience which suits themselves and their Internet connection - if they just want to read text headlines they can."

Pundits will be closely watching the performance of media-rich, paid-for content given the rocky road traversed by most sports sites of this genre. Even relatively successful mediarich sites have found it hard to capitalise on their success - with many unable to make the switch from from a free service, supported by advertising, to pay-per-view or subscription models.

Making it pay

-The Olympics site was an amazing experience just because of the sheer volume of information that was poured into the site, and the hits it received in such a short period of time," Van Wyk says. -We didn't do any streaming because we weren't allowed to, but the traffic levels were so high it would have been difficult anyway because from a logistics point of view we would have killed the bandwidth."

However, Van Wyk believes video streaming is not necessarily the key to online sports coverage, pointing out that those most likely to search the Web for information are committed fans who are looking for data they cannot find elsewhere.

-Sports sites are expensive because they require a lot of high quality exclusive content, and it is still difficult to find corporate advertisers interested in funding it," Van Wyk says. -There are also people already making money out of sports coverage and they are interested in maintaining control of the market."

There are a series of approaches which appear to be breaking ground in the brave new world of online sports coverage. In the post dot-com Web site wash-out, the few surviving stragglers are a mixture of paid, and joint production Web sites which share content with other media ventures, or are direct spin-offs from clubs.

At one end of the scale is www.theworldgame.com.au an editorial-rich soccer Web site associated with sports coverage on the SBS television station. Given its opportunity to share revenue with television advertising and cross promotional opportunities, www.theworldgame.com.au is not under intense pressure to commercialise on its own.

During the World Cup, the site will run media-rich, off-field coverage, as well as regular written updates on the event's progress. However, Paul Vincent, business development manager for new media at SBS, says the site is far from simply an adjunct to the television coverage.

-I don't think the way forward is through broadband, because the Internet is not simply another path to traditional coverage," Vincent says. -We are learning how to use interactivity on the Web. It is a test bed for what we will need to be able to do when everybody gets their [digital] set top boxes."

According to Vincent, the greatest challenge of media convergence is the structural integration, the changes to work practices and information gathering practices in such an organisation.

-Once the convergence takes place in the back end, migrating into a new medium should not mean you have to duplicate costs," Vincent says. -People are looking for the same thing across all media - people writing well about soccer - the fact is that with interactive media like the Internet and digital television we will need to know how to engage the audience, and enable them to engage each other."

While the site is enjoying significant success at the moment thanks to the World Cup, it is designed to appeal more broadly to the Australian soccer fan, which means covering the European leagues as well as the local competition.

-An overwhelming majority of fans want to know about the English Premier League, after that the Italian League is the next most popular and certainly attracts the most vociferous supporters to the online forum," explains theworldgame's editor Stuart Matters. -Most of the traffic comes in at 9 am on a Monday morning when people are just getting into work."

Online sports coverage: a technology test bed

Webmaster and site editor Martin Charlesworth launched the first version of the site in 1994, as a green screen application which provided results of all the local competition. As the technology changed, Charlesworth updated the technology to Access and continued to collect information regarding local competitions.

As was often the case in the early days of the Internet, Charlesworth's site has gathered a significant following despite a lack of commercial support.

-It started off as an association thing, just reporting on the scores from different matches. Then I started covering the youth league, because they didn't have a Web site at that stage, and from there developed into the national league," Charlesworth says. -But I don't provide any commentary, just the results and the forum lets people say what they feel, you have to be careful with what they say - the adults behave like children, and the children are more like subterrestrials at times."

The soccer site was sufficiently successful to attract the attention of the now defunct iSport, which bought the technology, then folded, unable to secure access to broadcast rights or attract major sponsors.

Mbase director Steve Atkins, says the company saw an opportunity and essentially repurchased the software from the iSport liquidators.

-We took the view that a paid for service would be more sustainable in the end," Atkins says. -So while we are not making a juge profit from the sites, we are providing sporting clubs with the framework through which to publish their content, and charging them according to their usage."

While Mbase is able to boost its income through advertising revenue, the business model in no way depends on it.

-It is really an opportunity to showcase what we can do in our core business, we provide the technical background, and the individual clubs provide their own content," Atkins says. -Then we use the same frameworks and functionality for our business customers."

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