Thousands Of Players Set To Join Zlatan Ibrahimovic And Gareth Bale In Objecting Their Likeness Being Used In FIFA 21

Thousands of players are set to join Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale in objecting to their likeness being used in FIFA 21.

Both players, along with Ibrahimovic's agent Mino Raiola, have taken to Twitter to call out EA Sports and FIFPro in relation to their likeness being used in the video game, feeling that they did not give consent to do so.

EA Sports are official video game partners for both AC Milan and Spurs and signed multi-year agreements to use their players, stadium and kits.

Bale has been a FIFA cover star during his time at Real Madrid, while EA believe their deal with Milan gives them access to Ibrahimovic's rights.

However, The Athletic are reporting that thousands of players, including many with a high profile, are poised to follow suit and object to their likeness being used.

There is no campaign planned but it's believe plenty of top footballers share the same concern as Ibrahimovic and Bale and are likely to follow suit in speaking out.

There could be more than meets the eyes though as The Mirror say truth about this story is more about FIFPro backing agent reform proposals in January - something both players agents are opposed to.

EA Sports issued a response with the following statement to Eurogamer: "We are aware of discussions around licensing of players in EA Sports FIFA.

"The current situation being played out on social media is an attempt to draw FIFA 21 into a dispute between a number of third parties and has little to do with EA Sports.

"To be very clear, we have contractual rights to include the likeness of all players currently in our game. As already stated, we acquire these licenses directly from leagues, teams, and individual players. In addition, we work with FIFPro to ensure we can include as many players as we can to create the most authentic game.

"In these instances, our rights to player likenesses are granted through our club agreement with AC Milan and our long-standing exclusive partnership with the Premier League, which includes all players for Tottenham Hotspur."

Recently, England legend David Beckham signed a lucrative deal with EA Sports and FIFA to be on cover of the next-gen version of the game and be added as an 'Icon' on FIFA Ultimate Team.

It comes 23 years after he first graced the cover.

Topics: gaming news, Football News, GAMING, Football, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, gareth bale, FIFA 21

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

@https://twitter.com/JoshLawless_