Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale are among the notable players who are speaking out against the use of their likenesses in the FIFA video game series.
Ibrahimovic took to Twitter on Monday to say he never knowingly agreed to allow FIFA or EA Sports to make money off of his likeness.
Zlatan Ibrahimović
@Ibra_official
Somebody is making profit on my name and face without any agreement all these years. Time to investigate
Bale, in a response to Ibrahimovic’s thread, called for an investigation into how the company is using his likeness as well.
Gareth Bale
@GarethBale11
.@Ibra_official Interesting… what is @FIFPro? ???? #TimeToInvestigate
Both players have been part of EA Sports’ flagship soccer series for several years. The Athletic reported a “growing” number of players believe their likenesses are being used without “proper consent.”
An EA Sports spokesperson sent Bleacher Report the following response:
“EA SPORTS FIFA is the world’s leading football video game, and to create an authentic experience year after year we work with numerous leagues, teams and individual talent to secure the rights of player likeness to include in our game. One of those is a long-standing relationship with the global representative of professional football players, FIFPro, who partner with a number of licensors to negotiate deals that benefit the players and their unions.” continue reading