Fans at home in the UK struggled to watch England’s first game against Iran due to iPlayer going down (Picture: Reuters)

Football fans have expressed their anger and confusion after BBC iPlayer went down as England’s World Cup campaign started with their first match against Iran.

According to Down Detector, the BBC’s streaming platform appeared to take a hit around 1pm on Monday as England’s first game of the tournament kicked off in Qatar.

More than 7,000 issues were flagged on the site, an online platform that provides users with real-time information about the status of various websites and services, in the first 30 minutes of the game.

Fans flocked to Twitter in their droves to complain about the outage as they were unable to watch Gareth Southgate’s squad, including broadcaster Louis Theroux.

He tweeted: ‘Freaking iPlayer and bbc sounds both down??’

Other fans were also fuming, with one writing: ‘Is the iplayer not working? For England’s opening game of the World Cup? Excellent work @BBCiPlayer#bbciplayer#FAIL.’

iPlayer said no (Picture: Down Detector)

Louis Theroux had to miss the start of England’s first game of the World Cup due to iPlayer’s outage (Picture: BBC/Mindhouse)

Another fumed: ‘Nah, this is an absolute piss take. How can BBC iplayer not be working during England’s first game? What a joke.’

One fan commented it was ‘f***ing disgraceful’.

BBC said in a statement to Metro.co.uk: ‘We’re aware of an issue affecting some users on BBC iPlayer. We’re trying to fix this asap.’

However, iPlayer appeared to be back online and working for some viewers just in time for England’s first goal of the World Cup, as Jude Bellingham scored against Iran in the 35th minute.

Louis was among those celebrating the return of the app, tweeting a short while later: ‘There it is!’

England’s first game was a relatively star-studded affair, with David Beckham among those at Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium on Monday afternoon to watch events unfold in the Group B game.

Within the first half, the England team was at least 3-0 up against Iran, with further goals scored by Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling.

The BBC, along with ITV, was previously slammed for not showing the World Cup Opening Ceremony on Sunday, with Piers Morgan among those calling out the broadcaster for their decision not to air it.

The opening ceremony, which featured a performance from BTS star Jungkook and a surprise appearance from Morgan Freeman, was aired on the red button, on BBC iPlayer, and online on the BBC Sport website.

Viewers watching on BBC One tuned in to a discussion between presenters including Gary Lineker and Alex Scott, which focused on the criticism levelled at the country due to its human rights record.

Piers weighed in on the decision, tweeting: ‘Outrageously disrespectful to Qatar that the BBC didn’t broadcast the World Cup opening ceremony, and instead put out more virtue-signalling guff about how awful it is.

‘If they’re that appalled, they should bring home their vast army of employees & spare us this absurd hypocrisy.’

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Joe Lycett calls out David Beckham’s ‘bulls**t’ deal with Qatar as comic finally confirms shredded £10,000 wasn’t real

MORE : England players take the knee against Iran after Harry Kane ditches OneLove armband

Absolutely gutting, to be honest.