{"id":3769,"date":"2025-08-31T20:15:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/11\/famous_footballers_think_ea_could_be_illegally_profiting_from_their_names_and_likenesses_in_fifa"},"modified":"2025-08-31T20:15:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:15:42","slug":"famous-footballers-think-ea-could-be-illegally-profiting-from-their-names-and-likenesses-in-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/famous-footballers-think-ea-could-be-illegally-profiting-from-their-names-and-likenesses-in-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Footballers Think EA Could Be Illegally Profiting From Their Names And Likenesses In FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leading professional footballers Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107 and Gareth Bale have voiced concern about the way their names and likenesses are being used for profit by FIFA<\/a><\/strong> creator Electronic Arts, following reports that David Beckham<\/a> has bagged a cool \u00a340 million by allowing EA to feature him in the latest version of the game.<\/p>\n

The long-running series is built on official licencing which allows EA to not only use the branding of leagues and clubs all over the world, but also the digital likenesses of some of the beautiful game’s most famous players.<\/p>\n

One of those players \u2013 Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107 \u2013 has questioned exactly who gave EA the permission to use his name and face in the game. He assumes it was FIFPro, a union for professional football players, but claims he never gave the organisation the authority to speak to EA about including him in the series:<\/p>\n

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Wales international Gareth Bale \u2013 who is signed to Spanish giants Real Madrid but is currently on loan to top-of-the-table Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur \u2013 added to the conversation:<\/p>\n

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Ibrahimovi\u0107’s agent Mino Raoila<\/a> joined the thread, first stating that his hope was that “we get the answer to our letters now,” before adding<\/a> “FIFPro and AC Milan do not have players individual rights as I’m sure you know and as we’ve told you many times, EA Sports.”<\/p>\n

Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, told The Guardian<\/a> that legal action was “something that is being looked into,” and that “at the moment, the players don’t get paid. Our big gripe is that FIFA are coming out with lots of rules and regulations saying that they are looking after the best interests of players but obviously they don’t.”<\/p>\n

EA has issued the following statement on the matter:<\/p>\n

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We are aware of discussions around licensing of players in EA Sports FIFA. The current situation being played out on social media is an attempt to draw FIFA 21 into a dispute between a number of third parties and has little to do with EA Sports.<\/p>\n

To be very clear, we have contractual rights to include the likeness of all players currently in our game. As already stated, we acquire these licences directly from leagues, teams, and individual players. In addition, we work with FIFPro to ensure we can include as many players as we can to create the most authentic game.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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In these instances, our rights to player likenesses are granted through our club agreement with AC Milan and our long-standing exclusive partnership with the Premier League, which includes all players for Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to GamesIndustry.biz<\/a>, the “current situation” EA is referring to is FIFA’s recently-announced plans to “introduce regulations on agents in 2021 that would limit their ability to represent more than one party in a transfer and add a cap to commission fees.”<\/p>\n

Following Ibrahimovi\u0107 and Bale’s public statements on Twitter, some fans have been quick to point out that the pair have enjoyed a close association with FIFA over the years \u2013 Ibrahimovi\u0107 was picked as EA Sports Player of the Month in December 2016<\/a> and was later photographed with a physical copy of his Ultimate Team player card to promote FIFA 17.<\/a> Bale, on the other hand, was one of the cover stars for FIFA 14<\/strong>.<\/p>\n