Guide: How to legally watch all EFL Championship matches in the UK with a VPN

Learn how to change your location and watch EFL live streams on iFollow from inside the UK

It can be tough being an English football fan. Viewers around the world are able to watch the top four divisions of the English game with ease, while local fans are left out in the cold with no way of following their beloved teams.

This is in large part due to the infamous 3pm blackout, which makes it illegal for broadcasters to air live football between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays - the time when the vast majority of games are played.

The situation is particularly grave for fans of EFL (English Football League) clubs, including those in the Championship. With very few games picked for television, the only option for watching your team live is almost always to attend a match in person. While this is proof that the blackout is succeding in its objective, it can be very frustrating for fans who cannot make their way to live matches for various reasons.

The EFL does have its own live streaming service, iFollow, and the league is in discussions over potentially breaking the 3pm blackout and allowing clubs to make their matches available via live stream to UK fans in the near future. However, for now, iFollow is only allowed to air matches which fall outside the blackout window and aren't televised, which amounts to almost no games.

On the plus side, if you're a supporter based overseas, you can watch almost all EFL matches on iFollow. This is because international TV rights are not governed in the same way as local rights.

It means that if you're a fan of a Championship side, you can live stream all of your team's matches, apart from the very few which are chosen for domestic broadcast by Sky Sports. What's more, if you follow a League One or League Two side, you can enjoy every match, even the ones which are on TV in the UK.

How to become an overseas fan and watch iFollow with PureVPN

Thanks to our partners at PureVPN, you can become an overseas fan from your living room in the UK. You simply sign up for PureVPN by clicking the link below, download the app to your device or the extension to your browser, login and connect to any country in the world other than the UK (e.g. Spain).

GET A PUREVPN ACCOUNT FOR LESS THAN £2 A MONTH

Now, in the eyes of iFollow, you are based overseas and are entitled to watch EFL matches via live streaming.

How to sign up for iFollow and start live streaming

The next step is to actually get an iFollow account.

Make sure that you are currently in an overseas country (e.g. Spain) using PureVPN. Now head to iFollow using the link below. Select your league and team. You will now be redirected to your team's iFollow page on their website. Scroll down to the next match. Choose the type of video pass you want to buy (prices below). Follow the instructions to complete registration and payment.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR TEAM ON IFOLLOW

Here you will be asked for an address and post code. As long as your VPN is running in a location other than the UK (e.g. Spain), you will be able to put your real UK address and post code, and still complete the process and make payment.

However, if you do encounter a problem or an error at any stage, you might want to consider getting a Statescard for less than £4 a month. It's a virtual US pre-paid card which comes with its own US billing address. Thousands of people use this card to access geoblocked content from the US like Netflix, ESPN+ etc.

It's quick and simple to get. After you sign up and have your card info, just deposit some money onto the card to cover your iFollow video pass. Then be sure to start the process again, changing your VPN location to "United States" before going through the purcashing system on iFollow.

After you've signed up and bought a pass on iFollow, all you have to do is wait until shortly before kick off on match day, return to your club's iFollow page on their website, click on the match, and start live streaming.

iFollow video pass prices

To watch video live streams on iFollow, you will need to make a payment. There are various options. You can choose to pay for only a single match or buy monthly or annual passes to save money. Here are the prices for iFollow video passes:

Single Match - £10
Monthly Pass - £25
Season Pass - £140

Why use iFollow to watch EFL matches?

This process may not be free, and it may not even be that cheap when you take into account the cost of iFollow, PureVPN and potentially Statescard, but for those dedicated fans, it does provide an opportunity to watch all of your team's matches without breaking the law or endangering your devices on dodgy illegal streaming sites.

The unfortunate reality is that there just isn't any other way of watching matches from the Championship, League One or League Two until the EFL's deal with broadcasters changes. There's no guarantee that will ever happen.

In the meantime, for less than a combined maximum £6 a month, and a maximum of £10 a game, you can watch your team play via high quality, legal and reliable live stream. If you're based in the UK and not able to attend matches in person, this is your only option for staying up-to-date with the team you love.

For more info and guides on how to access football for less or even for free, check out our guides section.

You might also be interested in our own legal football live streams - we provide reliable, high quality coverage of some of the world's biggest competitions including La Liga, the Bundesliga and Serie A every week.