Israeli broadcaster to offer Arabic-language World Cup coverage

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, otherwise known as Kan, will broadcast the Fifa World Cup for the first time in Arabic on a free-to-air basis.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry made the announcement for coverage of this summer’s edition of the national team football tournament, which will be held in Russia from June 14 to July 15, via a post on its Arabic-language page on social media platform Facebook.

“The Israeli channel Makan (Arabic for Kan) will broadcast the World Cup in Arabic for free in a historic step that confirms the status of the Arabic language and Israel's respect for it,” the post said.

Kan will broadcast matches in Israel only, with Fifa releasing the following statement "FIFA would like to clarify that, contrary to certain media reports about the 2018 FIFA World Cup broadcast coverage in the Middle East and Northern Africa, the Israel Broadcasting Corporation (through its Arabic language channel ‘Makan’) is not authorised to broadcast any 2018 FIFA World Cup content (including any match coverage) outside of Israel".

The 2018 World Cup is set to feature a record four Arabic-speaking nations in the form of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.