EA and BT are uniting in FIFA 22 to tackle online hate.
With recent news stories, it could be easy to take an unfavourable view of footballers, but Hope United are looking to be the shining light that leads the way forward in tackling hate of all kinds.
To mark Safer Internet Day, the companies have teamed up to provide Ultimate Team players with a new consumable, host a FIFA tournament, and teach some Tech Tips to help against online abuse.
Hope United
Launched ahead of Euro 2020, Hope United brought together some of the top names in football with the aim of raising awareness of, and stamping out, online hate.
Marcus Rashford, Gareth Bale, Andy Robertson, Lucy Bronze and many more joined the cause, offering Tech Tips to teach the nation about the digital skills needed to tackle online hate and become good digital citizens.
Now coming to FIFA 22, Hope United will help teach players how best to act when online, and bring some new consumables and a pro versus pro tournament too.
Free Kit
One of the ways you can show your support for Hope United, and stand against online hate yourself, is by donning the new kit coming to Ultimate Team.
Available for free via FUT Season Objectives, all players will be able to unlock the item, and we could soon see the purple, blue and pink kit dominating online matches as the FIFA community takes a stand.
The objectives are yet to come to the game, but we expect to see them added at 1pm ET / 6pm GMT, on Tuesday, 8 February.
Tech Tips
As part of the campaign, BT has launched a new Tech Tips series to help gamers tackle online hate.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, and Michail Antonio will share information on how to report abuse while online gaming, as well as how to be a leader in the fight against hate.
You can visit the Hope United homepage here, to learn more about the campaign and educated yourself through the online videos.
Champion Antonio
Another aspect of the campaign is the Hope United FIFA Challenge, where Declan Rice, Michail Antonio, Danielle Carter, and Alexander-Arnold and four of the best FIFA esport players, Tekkz, Lisa Manley, FUTcrunch, and Ebru, battle it out to win the Hope Cup.
The action will be shown on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport's YouTube channel at 1pm ET / 6pm GMT on Tuesday, 8 February, with the players opening up on their own experiences of online hate.
Take a little sneak peek from one of the games below, where Michail Antonio takes on Tekkz.
Tekkz has 11 titles in his career so far - more than any other player - so a win for Antonio was quite the upset!
An unbelievable showing from West Ham's striker, does this now mean that Michail Antonio is the best FIFA player in the world?!