EXCLUSIVE: EA Sports Responds To Zlatan Ibrahimovic And Mino Raiola Criticism On FIFA Video Game

Global soccer icon Zlatan Ibrahimović made waves this week when he questioned video game giant Electronic Arts for using his likeness in EA Sports’ wildly popular FIFA game. “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 maneuver,” he tweeted to his seven million Twitter followers.

Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale, who is on loan from Real Madrid, joined the fray with the hashtag #TimeToInvestigate, and Ibrahimović’s agent Mino Raiola, who is one of the most powerful people in the sport, said in an interview with the U.K.’s Telegraph that roughly 300 players are considering legal action over EA’s use of their likenesses. “The system is wrong and that is a fight that Zlatan wants to take for all players,” said Raiola.

Electronic Arts provided Forbes with its first response in the escalating feud. “The licensing arguments being played out in social media for effect are not an issue for EA or EA Sports. This is between FIFPro, the players within their association and their representatives. FIFPro has told us this is their issue, and they’re handling it – we expect a statement to that effect imminently,” according to an EA spokesperson regarding its stance on FIFPro.

EA saved it’s strongest rebuke for Raiola though. “This isn’t our fight. This isn’t about EA Sports or videogames, players or fans. It’s a battle between football agents and FIFPro. Mino Raiola is a respected player representative who we have partnered with for many years, including this year when our relationship ensured his client Erling Haaland would be part of our FIFA 21 marketing campaign,” per Electronic Arts. “We have also enjoyed a great working relationship with Zlatan Ibrahimović, who has appeared in every FIFA since 2002 and regularly received awards as part of our FUT experience.”

The video game firm also has a close relationship with Bale. His esports company, Eleven, uses the EA FIFA game as a key platform for his professional esports athletes. Bale and Eleven were featured in a recent trailer for the launch of the FIFA 21 Global Series.

Negotiating the rights of every player at an individual level isn’t a viable strategy. Player withdrawal from this collective approach to rights granting would most results in the inclusion of generic athletes or avatars in videogames. Randall Cunningham and Jim Kelly opted out of the NFL union’s licensing agreement, and Barry Bonds did the same in baseball, leading to MLB ’06: The Show featuring a San Francisco right fielder named “Reggie Stocker.”

Navigating the use of likeness in video games is a an incredibly complex world. Electronic Arts is the leader in the space and spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to license content for its games. The bulk of the licensed content comes through league licenses, which typically include club and player rights. In some markets where the league for that country doesn’t have collective rights, EA undertakes individual club deals. EA only uses FIFpro rights for some national teams and in a few territories where neither of the above apply.