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With EA Rebranding Its FIFA Games, Could Other Franchises Follow?

Football is the most-watched sport on the planet. It is estimated that as many as 3.5 billion fans follow their teams as they compete in games throughout the season. A large portion of these football fanatics also enjoy placing wagers on both individual matches and the season as a whole. In the UK, where football is by far the most popular sport, many bookmakers run special promotions for the beautiful game that let fans place a bet for free.

Another big demographic of football fans enjoy playing videogames that either let them step into the shoes of their favourite players or control the action from the sidelines as a manager. There are dozens of options for players to choose from, including PES, Football Manager, and even Rocket League.

However, no other franchise has been as popular, or as successful, as FIFA. Released by Electronic Arts every year since 1993, it has become the gold standard for football videogames, pushing the boundaries of graphics, physics, and overall realism over the life of the series.

Some players have criticised EA for not changing much between individual versions and for focusing too much on microtransactions in more recent years. However, that hasn’t stopped the company from shifting millions of copies.

So it came as a shock for many fans when it was announced that EA was parting ways with football’s global governing body, dropping the famous FIFA name, and going it alone with a rebranded title known EA Soccer.

Although the publisher spun the decision as one that allowed them to “deliver experiences that [their] players wanted”, some have speculated that an increase in the amount FIFA wanted for licensing the game led EA to part ways.

This has left many people wondering, if the company is willing to ditch FIFA, could it do the same with its other sports videogames?

What Did FIFA Bring to the Table?

FIFA is the global governing body for football. All of the continental confederations, such as UEFA and CONCACAF, are affiliated with FIFA, ensuring consistency of rules and officiating of the sport right across the world.

In addition to setting the rules for the sport, FIFA organises its own competitions, most notably the World Cup. However, the organisation doesn’t own continental or domestic leagues and tournaments like the English Premier League or the UEFA Champions League.

FIFA also doesn’t own any of the teams or grant franchises to them like we see in other sports.

For this reason, the main things that the governing body brought to the table were its name and its World Cup tournament.

Therefore, EA is able to ditch FIFA and keep all of the biggest leagues, teams, and players on the planet.

Why This is Unusual

Other sports leagues work differently. In the US, most major sports are both the rights holders and the regulators. For example, the NFL sets the rules for American football but it also owns the competition and even has the exclusive right to grant new franchises.

These franchise teams are owned by third parties, but they’re closely connected to the NFL.

Therefore, if EA were to cease its agreement with the NFL for the Madden videogame series, it would lose the official rights to the league and the teams within it.

The company does also have a separate agreement with the NFL Players Association, the labour union that undertakes collective bargaining on the part of the players in the league. However, while they are separate, it would be unlikely that the NFL and the union would pursue different aims in terms of licensing their franchise to third parties.

This structure is the same for all of the big major American leagues, including the NBA, MLB, and NHL.

A similar set up can be seen with Formula One, though the sport’s ownership is independent of the governing body.

FIFA is a Unique Case

Based on this, we can see that EA’s exit from the long-term contract it has held with FIFA could not be easily replicated with just about any of the other sports the company publishes videogames for.