EA is taking off the FIFA jersey from next – Season and putting on its own bodice. The EA Sports FC brand is intended to continue the success of the FIFA games. An important pillar for this success has always been the many licenses. To make sure that this will continue in the future, EA is already starting to sign new contracts. The first handshake is with the Spanish association LaLiga. Toni Kroos, Antonio Rüdiger and Marc-Andre ter Stegen will definitely be part of the FIFA successor.

EA Sports FC should be in no way inferior to FIFA

This is what it’s all about: EA and FIFA are going their separate ways starting next year, as the parties were unable to agree on a contract extension. Thus, the FIFA series is history for now, unless the association should spontaneously find a new developer.

Allegedly, FIFA actually wants to send its own product into the race against EA’s new EA Sports FC series, but what this will look like and when it will come is still up in the air. So for now, EA will continue to dominate the soccer genre.

The first of many handshakes: It can therefore be assumed that most of the names and brands from FIFA 23 will make it into EA Sports FC, which will be released for the first time in 2023. So now LaLiga, which includes La Liga (Spain’s first soccer league), La Liga 2 (the second division), La Liga Promises (youth league) and eLa Liga (eSports), kicks things off. The deal will cost the publisher around 30 million euros per year, according to sports newspaper Marca (via eurogamer).

Here’s what LaLiga president Javier Tebas has to say about the new deal (via La Liga):

This year, there will be another FIFA. Here is the announcement trailer for FIFA 23:

FIFA 23 Reveal trailer shows Hypermotion2, women’s club soccer, crossplay and more

This is what’s new for the last FIFA for the time being:

This is how it goes with the licenses: As we reported last year, EA will keep most of the licenses of players and clubs thanks to a new contract with FIFPRO – the players’ union represents a total of 65,000 professionals. FIFA currently only supplies international competitions such as the World Cup in Qatar, in addition to the name.

However, in recent years, individual clubs have repeatedly broken with EA to join Konami’s eFootball series. With Juventus Torino – still called Piemonte Calcio in FIFA 22 – a prominent club returns this year and will also be exclusively represented in EA’s soccer simulations in the years to come.

What licenses does EA Sports FC need to make the game interesting for you?