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Juventus Licence Won't Feature In Football Manager 2020 After Konami's Exclusive Partnership

Juventus Licence Won't Feature In Football Manager 2020 After Konami's Exclusive Partnership

Football Manager 2020 will have Juventus rebranded as Zebre, but the title will include the actual player names from the Old Lady's squad.

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz

Football Manager 2020 will miss out on the Juventus rights after Konami's exclusive partnership for eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020.

The PES 2020 publisher announced in July that it had entered into a partnership with the reigning Italian champions for the next three years.

And Football Italia now reports that the highly anticipated Football Manager 2020 will not include any of the Juventus branding.

Juventus will be rebranded as 'Zebre' in Sports Interactive's title, which is a reference to the Old Lady's black-and-white stripes.

Konami dealt a major blow to fierce rivals EA Sports and its FIFA franchise by snapping up the Juventus IP for PES 2020.

FIFA 20, which was released in September, rebranded Juventus as 'Piemonte Calcio' after losing the licensing rights to Konami.

EA Sports' latest instalment included alternative kits for Juventus, club crest and home stadium.

In July, Electronic Arts' value plummeted by a whopping £660m in the hours after Konami signed its lucrative partnership with Juventus.

But Konami's partnership with Juventus didn't affect players' real names and likeness in FIFA 20.

According to Football Italia, Football Manager will follow FIFA 20 in having the actual real-life player names for Zebre.

Giorgio Ricci, the chief financial officer for Juventus, said in July that the partnership with Japanese publisher Konami would help "increase our appeal to both sports fans and those of eSports."

Konami

He explained: "We are particularly proud of the partnership signed with Konami.

"This agreement sees two global football and entertainment icons, PES and Juventus partnering together for the next three years, and it will allow us to easier identify with our younger fans, as well as increase our appeal to both sports fans and those of eSports."

Football Manager 2020 is slated for release on 19th November for PC.

Publisher Sega has also confirmed that the football-managing sim will be a launch title for the upcoming Google Stadia.

Featured Image Credit: PA/Millennium Entertainment

Topics: gaming news, GAMING, Serie A, old lady, Juventus

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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