How to Follow the 2026-27 Football Season on BBC Sport

How to Follow the 2026-27 Football Season on BBC Sport

Fans of Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two or Scottish Premiership clubs can get real-time scores pushed straight to their phone's lock screen for every match their team plays this season (BBC Sport, two weeks ago). That is the quickest setup covered in this guide to follow the 2026-27 football season on BBC Sport, and turning it on takes only a few taps once you follow your football team on the BBC Sport app. This guide walks through exactly how to do that, what to try if the alerts don't show up, and where to find fixtures, live text and highlights for your club once you're set up.

BBC Sport's July preview says it and teams across BBC Nations and Regions cover every club across the Premier League, WSL, EFL, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (BBC Sport, five weeks ago). The confirmed lock-screen alert feature, though, applies to five competitions specifically: Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and Scottish Premiership. If you support a WSL, Welsh, Northern Irish or non-league club, the cited BBC guidance doesn't confirm equivalent alerts for your team, so follow the setup steps below anyway and check your lock screen on matchday to see what appears.

What you need before you start

Download the BBC Sport app on iOS or Android and open it. New users are prompted to create an account or sign in the first time they launch the app (BBC Sport, earlier this summer). Sign in before you follow a team: Apple users specifically must be signed in to receive automatic live match updates once their club is playing (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).

How to follow the 2026-27 football season on BBC Sport

1. Open the app and sign in. Skip this and the follow-and-alert setup below won't work properly on Apple devices.
2. Go to Football, then tap "Follow My Team" in the black navigation bar at the top of the page, and select your club (BBC Sport, two weeks ago). You can also do this from the My Sport tab, which is where you manage followed teams and BBC Sport football notifications more broadly (BBC Sport, last week).
3. Tap +Follow on the team's page to confirm your choice (BBC Sport, two weeks ago). BBC Sport says following a team gives you quicker access to its pages at the top of your Home tab and more personalised coverage going forward (BBC Sport, last week).
4. On Apple devices, that's the whole job. For clubs in the Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two or Scottish Premiership, live match updates appear automatically once you've followed the team while signed in (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).
5. On Android, there's one more setting to flip. Go to your phone's settings and turn on notifications for the BBC Sport app. Following a team in-app isn't enough on its own to trigger Android alerts (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).
6. Watch for updates from around an hour before kick-off. They disappear from the lock screen automatically once the match has finished, so there's nothing to clear manually (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).

Who gets lock-screen score alerts?

BBC Sport confirms lock-screen live match updates for clubs in the Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and Scottish Premiership (BBC Sport, two weeks ago). Championship supporters get an extra layer: guaranteed live text coverage for every match in the division, all season (BBC Sport, last week).

Outside those five competitions, the picture is less clear. Nothing in BBC Sport's published guidance confirms equivalent lock-screen alerts for WSL, Welsh, Northern Irish or non-league clubs. Follow the same steps above and check your lock screen on matchday. Don't assume it behaves the same way it does for a Championship or Premier League side.

Troubleshooting: fixing alerts that don't show up

Run through these in order if the score isn't landing on your lock screen.

• Check you're signed in. Following a team while logged out is a documented reason Apple users don't get automatic updates, so confirm your account status first (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).
• On Android, check device notification settings separately from the app. Following your club inside BBC Sport doesn't switch on Android notifications by itself; that's a setting you enable on the phone (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).
• Confirm your club is in an eligible competition. BBC Sport has not confirmed equivalent lock-screen alerts for competitions outside the Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and Scottish Premiership.
• Consider your device. BBC Sport says live match updates aren't yet available on every Android device, so it's possible to complete every step correctly and still not see alerts because of compatibility (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).

To switch alerts off without unfollowing your team, swipe away an individual update on your lock screen, or turn off notifications for the app in your device settings to disable the feature entirely (BBC Sport, two weeks ago).

BBC Sport football live scores and fixtures

Once your team is followed, BBC Sport's Scores & Fixtures pages track matches in real time across the football pyramid, with kick-off times listed in UK time and subject to change (BBC Sport, five weeks ago; BBC Sport). Check that page directly if you need a kick-off time close to matchday. BBC Sport notes it isn't responsible for changes made after times are listed (BBC Sport).

BBC Sport Championship live text and match reports

BBC Sport covers all 24 Championship clubs with dedicated online and radio reporters (BBC Sport, last week). Live text pages run for every match in the competition across the season, and that's paired with match reports, analysis, features, interviews and fan views after the final whistle (BBC Sport, last week).

Pre-season coverage works differently, which is worth knowing if you're checking early in the summer window before a new campaign starts. BBC Sport's July preview says live pages are available for selected pre-season matches, not every fixture, alongside features and reporting from club tours (BBC Sport, five weeks ago).

Highlights and commentary plans for 2026-27

BBC Sport's July preview says it plans to provide men's highlights covering the Premier League, Champions League, Scottish Premiership, FA Cup, La Liga and Bundesliga, with women's highlights covering the WSL and Women's Champions League (BBC Sport, five weeks ago). Live pages for the Premier League and Champions League are also planned to include Radio 5 Live audio commentary, with live video for the FA Cup (BBC Sport, five weeks ago).

Treat these as season plans rather than guarantees for every single fixture. Check the live page for your match directly if audio or video commentary matters to your plans, and recheck closer to kick-off since these are stated intentions rather than fixture-by-fixture confirmations.

Search, Shorts and transfer coverage

• Search. The app's search function returns both articles and topics, which helps when you're hunting for something specific rather than browsing. Tap the search icon on iOS, or "All Sport" on Android, to open it (BBC Sport, earlier this summer).
• Shorts. A short-form video tab carries explainers, pundit analysis, interviews and behind-the-scenes club content throughout the week, and can be set as your default tab in Settings (BBC Sport, five weeks ago).
• Transfers. Transfer reporting, including from senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel, runs alongside a daily gossip column that wraps up rumours from across the game (BBC Sport, five weeks ago).

What to do next

Open the app before your team's next fixture and work through the steps above: sign in, follow your club, and, on Android, check the notification setting in your phone separately from the app itself. Those are the main checks BBC Sport documents for missed alerts. If your club sits outside the Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two or Scottish Premiership, follow the same process anyway, then check your lock screen about an hour before your team's next kick-off to see whether an alert appears for your competition.