Online kick-off for Irish World Cup campaign.

The Republic of Ireland football team's FIFA World Cup campaign kicks off this evening with its opening qualifier against Kazakhstan being streamed exclusively online on Goal.com, well, kind of...

A press release issued today from sports rights group Perform, the agency which owns Goal.com, claimed the matches will be offered through its LIVESPORT.TV platform on a pay-per-view subscription basis.

Viewers can view tonight's game for £2.99, or pay £5.99 to watch the tie with Kazakhstan tonight along with Tuesday's friendly with Oman and next month's qualifier with the Faroe Islands exclusively in the UK, and Australia.

Perform's press release also says that the above Ireland games will only be available on its website in Northern Ireland but the fact that the game is also being screened by Irish national broadcaster RTE, which can also be picked up north of the island's border, would pick hole in that claim.

However, given the renewed wave of Irish immigration to English-speaking foreign lands, notably Great Britain and Australia, this seems like an ideal opportunity for Goal.com to cash-in on the ex-pat Irish crowd.

Sure, this is hardly what media types would call premium inventory, Ireland have yet to recapture the glory of their days under Big Jack, but non-the-less it's a start and probably the start of an emerging trend we can expect to see from other footballing nations.

Perform’s MD of consumer brands and portals Ben Warn said: “This is just the first of a number of deals to come, and there are so many opportunities to take the rights for content broadcasters don’t want to exploit.”