On our football app countdown to the World Cup, we now look at FotMob, a football app for Android. We have downloaded version 5.0  of the free version (ad supported) of the app and have seen plenty to impress us.

First off, a confession – this ain’t really a World Cup-only app. FotMob does have a World Cup avatar too but we went for full app that is designed to give you coverage of most important football matches all over the world. So you can hang on to the app even after the dust settles in South Africa, and use it to track the latest in the Premier League, the La Liga or the Serie A (and a host of others), depending on your tastes and preferences.  For the 2010 World Cup, well, simply select the tournament.

FotMob serves up news about the tournament using FIFA.com’s RSS feed which is detailed enough for those who want to know what is happening.  There is also regular stuff like fixtures and tables and the option to choose favourite teams, but where the app really shines is in its live coverage. Yes, we know the World Cup has not started yet but based on what we have seen of the app in the Premier League, it works very well indeed, giving score and event updates from matches, and best of all, displaying updates on your Android device’s notification bar – push football, here we come. All this is a neat, finger-friendly interface.

Of course, it has flaws. We could not see team profiles or options to include other RSS feeds. And it seems to take forever to start on an EDGE connection, as well as load complete news stories. But if it is live football you are looking for, this app is going to take some beating. Incidentally, an iPhone version of FotMob is available too on the App Store, but heck that costs $0.99 and well, no notification bar. Need we say more?