November 24 – Veteran Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has challenged the use of his ‘name’ and ‘face’ in the FIFA 21 video game, alleging Electronic Arts (EA) have used them both without his permission.
The FIFA franchise is one of the most popular video games in the world. EA Sports releases a new version each year to tie in with a new season and FIFA 21 hit the stores on October 9.
But 39-year-old Ibrahimovic, who is having a remarkable renaissance at AC Milan, scoring 22 goals in 30 appearances since returning from the MLS at the beginning of the year including 10 already this season, says he was not consulted, a move that could spate a wave of similar cases among players anxious about their image rights.
“Who authorized FIFA EA Sport to use my name and face? I was not told I was a FIFPro member and, if I am, I was registered without actually being informed, through some weird manoeuvre,” he tweeted.
“And one thing is certain, I never allowed FIFA or FIFPro to make money using me. Someone has been making a profit on my name and face without any deal for all these years. It’s time to investigate.”
What Ibrahimovic perhaps wasn’t aware of was that his current club agreed an exclusive multi-year partnership with EA Sports this year, beginning with FIFA 21.
But his post received more than 46,000 likes and just under 5,000 retweets.
This is not the first dispute players have had over image rights and likenesses for video games and in the past has resulted in faux identities being created for the players, but having the same playing characteristics of the ‘image withdrawn’ player.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1735151951labto1735151951ofdlr1735151951owedi1735151951sni@w1735151951ahsra1735151951w.wer1735151951dna1735151951 in the game