Earlier this week, Zlatan Ibrahimovic voiced his frustration at EA using his likeness in FIFA 21 to make money.
The story has rumbled on all week, but does Zlatan along with other professional players have a right to be annoyed?
Read more below.
Original Post
The Zlatan/EA saga began when the Swedish striker tweeted to question the use of his likeness in FIFA 21.
Clearly unhappy, the situation was unclear at this stage.
Some thought that the mercurial forward might be removed from the game entirely!
EA's Response
As the story gathered pace, EA responded quickly, putting any questions of licensing to bed.
Their official statement was as follows:
“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 3rd parties and has little to do with EA Sports.
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 licenses 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.
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.”
FIFPro's Issue, Not EA's
Not EA's fight. That is the official word from EA Sports.
EA has further distanced themselves from the debate, stating that"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.”
Zlatan Bites Back
39-year-old Ibrahimovic took to Facebook to publish his response.
His post reads "EA SPORTS, FIFPRO and FIFA do not OWN me. But I believe they OWE me. About time me and my fellow players get some explanations of what is going on"
Included was the graphic shown above displaying FIFA's earnings over the past six years.
The issue looks set to continue for the time being, we just hope it doesn't affect the current licenses on FIFA 21.