Zlatan Ibrahimović has been part of the FIFA series for years. In FIFA 21, the Swedish striker is also featured. Now, the forward raises the question of who actually allowed this.
What's going on? Zlatan Ibrahimović has had a very long and successful career, which has also been accompanied by the FIFA series for years. He has been part of FIFA 05 and every year since then.
This does not seem to please Ibrahimović very much. The AC Milan player spoke up on Twitter:
Who gave FIFA EA Sports permission to use my name and my face? @FIFpro? I am not aware of being a member of FIFPro, and if I am, I was put there without real knowledge, through some strange maneuver.
And I certainly did not allow @FIFAcom or FIFPro to make money by using me.Someone has been profiting from my name and face all these years without an agreement. Time to investigate.
Zlatan Ibrahimović on Twitter (translated)
FIFPro is a worldwide organization that brings together various players' associations. Among other things, it awards the annual accolade for the best eleven football players of the year, the FIFA FIFPro World XI. In 2013, Ibrahimović was part of the awarded team.
It is also the source of the rights to use real player names and likenesses, as is always displayed at the start of FIFA 21.
Update, November 24, 4 PM – This is what EA says: In a statement on the issue, which MeinMMO has, EA Sports emphasized the long-standing collaboration with FIFPro.
"EA SPORTS FIFA is the world's leading football video game, and to create an authentic experience, we work year after year with numerous leagues, teams, and individual talents to secure the rights to the player identities that are to be included in our game. One of these is a long-standing relationship with the global representative of professional football players, FIFPro, which works with a range of licensors to negotiate agreements that benefit the players and their unions."
Official statement from EA Sports (translated from English)
Licenses: An important topic for FIFA 21
The topic of licenses has always been important for the FIFA series. After all, it was often the extensive real player and team names that gave them an advantage over, for example, Pro Evolution Soccer. If something changes there, there is always much excitement. It was a big topic when Juventus Turin suddenly had to be renamed Piemonte Calcio.
This year, EA Sports has also entered into an exclusive partnership with clubs like Inter and AC Milan to prevent such occurrences. The latter is Ibrahimović's club. At the beginning of 2017, the Swede was also shown with his FUT card.
Moreover, Ibrahimović commented in an official interview with EA Sports regarding the topics of football and FIFA after the POTM nomination from the tweet. He stated that he plays FIFA with his children, who are big fans of the game. When asked how it feels to be the highest-rated player in the Premier League next to David de Gea, he responded: "I am happy for the fans who have been able to play as me. It also means that I am good in the game, so I am happy!" (via EA Sports)
However, the discussion about names and rights is now making waves. Footballer Gareth Bale also raised the topic in a tweet:
The discussion comes somewhat unexpectedly, as many football players are also very openly using FIFA 21 and other parts of the series on their own channels.
However, the biggest topic in this regard only emerged recently: FIFA 21 has secured the rights to use the now-retired footballer David Beckham in the game, and is supposed to pay a whole lot of money for it.
