EA Sports face image rights problem from over 300 players according to Mino Raiola
Things could be about to get a whole lot worse for FIFA 21 creator, EA Sports.
A row has already exploded over the company’s alleged unauthorised use of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s image, and Gareth Bale was another to quickly align himself with a claim regarding his image rights being infringed.
Now it appears that as many as 300 players could be rounding on the company, FIFA and FIFPro (the player’s union), in a bid to find out who actually gave EA Sports the permission to use the players images in the first place.
What’s odd about the whole scenario of course is that the game FIFA has been out for many, many years, and if there was a problem with the unlicensed use of imagery, then surely this should’ve been raised well before now.
In any event, Mino Raiola, Ibrahimovic’s agent, is pressing ahead with the threat of legal action.
“It won’t just be Zlatan or Gareth Bale. We have around 300 requests from players,” he said to The Telegraph (subscription required), cited by The Sun.
“We will go until the end, if necessary, against FIFA and FIFpro and everybody who sells rights they don’t have.
“This is one of the biggest disgraces involving FIFA who want to weaken the players to become slaves.
“But I will not allow that. Zlatan is not a marionette, Zlatan is not someone you can tell to do something he doesn’t want to do.
“The nice thing about this is that it is being brought by players. He is committed to the cause.
“The question is very simple: FIFA and FIFpro are profiting from the rights that EA Sports happily buy from them but they buy rights that they don’t have.
“The individual image rights of the player are not with FIFA, FIFpro or AC Milan. They belong to the player himself.
“If EA Sports wants to continue the business like they do we will bring them to court but not only that we will bring to court everyone who is selling the rights that they don’t have. So if that is FIFpro, that’s FIFpro. If that is FIFA, that’s FIFA.”
The outcome of any potential legal action could certainly affect the future of FIFA gaming as we know it, and it will be interesting to find out the various positions of EA Sports, FIFA and FIFPro in due course.
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