International footy screened live online

Football fans can watch international matches involving Scotland, Spain, Holland and Portugal via the net for free over the coming months.

Betting site Blue Square has secured the football rights to broadcast 18 free to access World Cup qualifiers.

Blue Square will also offer live ‘in-running’ betting, so you can place bets during the matches. Earlier this year, the site attracted nearly 6,000 unique online viewers to a live darts contest in Holland.

Ed Pownall, press officer at Blue Square, said: “We have already offered exclusive darts and tennis but football is huge in betting terms. This is a major coup for us and includes matches that are not only competitive but also of the highest quality.”

“Cynics used to terrible internet images should be aware that the broadcast is a live television stream and so the quality should be far superior to normal internet images for broadband users.”

The 12 matches are:

26 March Bulgaria v Sweden and Czech Rep v Finland
30 March Serbia v Spain and Slovakia v Portugal
4 June Bulgaria v Croatia and Serbia v Belgium
8 June Estonia v Portugal and Finland v Holland
3 September Armenia v Holland, Slovenia v Norway and Sweden v Bulgaria
7 September Hungary v Sweden and Russia v Portugal
8 October Croatia v Sweden, Czech Rep v Holland and Finland v Romania
12 October Finland v Czech Rep and Solvenia v Scotland