Ibrahimovic and Bale are the first to raise their voices, other elite players are thinking of joining
For many years, Electronic Arts has kept a tight grip on some of the biggest licenses in football as one of its main advantages over its rivals. Having the biggest media stars of the beautiful game, their appearance, the real name of their teams, that of the stadiums and other elements taken from reality, is a guarantee of recognition and sales, especially at a time when the American company has multiplied your income thanks to FUT. But now some players could be considering individually if those rights are so clear. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the first to speak, loud and clear being true to his style: “Who has given you permission to use my name and face?” But it might not be the last.
Gareth Bale, now a Tottenham player, responded to Ibra’s two incendiary messages endorsing the “must investigate” idea. It was the thinly veiled threat that both players were going to personally take action on the matter to find out to what extent EA has the right to “use them for money” without their express permission. According to The Athletic, other elite players would be studying similar initiatives, which could be a real torpedo in the way in which EA has organized its complex global licensing system in FIFA.
Who gave FIFA EA Sport permission to use my name and face? @FIFPro? I’m not aware to be a member of Fifpro and if I am I was put there without any real knowledge through some weird manouver.
And for sure I never allowed @FIFAcom or Fifpro to make money using me– Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) November 23, 2020
EA fights back
It is a more complex issue than it may seem. Electronic Arts’ main agreement is with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association itself, which gives its name to the game, and with the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels, known as FIFPro, the organization that brings together 63 national footballers associations throughout world, encompassing more than 65,000 professional footballers and with the theoretical mission of ensuring their physical, mental and economic interests. In addition to that, the company reaches individual agreements with the clubs to secure some rights outside that umbrella, such as the name of the stadiums.
From EA these official explanations are offered: “EA SPORTS FIFA is the world’s leading soccer video game, and to create this authentic experience, we have worked with numerous leagues, teams and individual talents to secure the rights year after year. of the players so that they are included in our video game. One of these long-standing relationships is with the global professional player representative, FIFPro, who partners with a number of licensors to negotiate deals that benefit players and their unions. ”
. @ Ibra_official Interesting … what is @FIFPro? 🤔 #TimeToInvestigate
– Gareth Bale (@ GarethBale11) November 23, 2020
But Zlatan, in his tweets, argues that he is not associated with FIFPro (Bale even wonders what that is). But EA would have another letter as it has an individual agreement with Ibrahimovic’s current club, AC Milan, as the Dutch headquarters explains to the nu.nl newspaper. But the issue of licenses is complex, since each country has its own legislation on the subject, when the game is the same all over the world. In addition, not all leagues offer their license with the same conditions and it is also necessary to bear in mind the individual agreements of the players with their clubs – there are precedents of companies reaching agreements with teams and then not being able to use the rights of a player of the same, as is the famous case of Michael Jordan, who did not appear in NBA Jam because his image rights belonged to Nike and not to the Chicago Bulls.
In any case, it seems that there will be a storm and a train crash. Nobody escapes the fact that EA has just reached a significant individual financial agreement with David Beckham, whose figures would be around 40 million for three years, which could be a trigger for other media footballers to start looking more closely at this topic.
