November 22 – The Norwegian FA has officially launched their six-player official esport national team that will focus on EA Sport’s FIFA and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer games. Four players will specialise on the PlayStation platform and two on Xbox, meeting six times a year at the Ullevaal Stadium in a dedicated esport arena.
November 22 – Major League Soccer’s eports platform – eMLS – will go into its second season in 2019 with three new teams, taking the league number up to 22.
November 14 – France’s FC Nantes will complete the six-team line-up of clubs for the first season of the eFootball.Pro League, the esports competition that will be played using KONAMI’s Pro Evolution Soccer video game.
November 12 – UEFA and EA Sports have unveiled plans for the new eChampions League which will start in March 2019 with knockout competition and culminating with a final in Madrid on May 31, the day before the Champions League final.
November 5 – EA Sports has been building new league partnerships in recent months with European leagues, including the Premier League and Bundesliga, for competitive leagues in its FIFA 19 platform. Now it has partnered with 13 worldwide esports professional organisations.
October 25 – New eSports league e.Football.Pro has signed Portugal’s Boavista as the fifth participating team for Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer platform.
October 23 – Germany’s DFL will kick off its first esports league, the VBL Club Championship (Virtual Bundesliga), on the EA Sports FIFA 19 platform in January next year. Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 teams have until December 21 to register teams.
October 22 – Paris Saint-Germain has expanded its esports division partnership with Chinese esports organisation LGD Gaming to form a FIFA Online team as it builds its brand presence on the continent.
October 19 – Alisports, the sports arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has signed a deal with Happy Valley (HVAA), a Hong Kong first division club, to promote Alisports’ esports World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) event.
October 12 – Premier League Manchester City have partnered with top esports team Epsilon for the Gfinity Elite Series.
October 11 – Denmark’s Superliga is launching its own esports championship with the top tier clubs set to begin play in the eSuperliga on November 5.
October 10 – Serial Scottish champions Celtic are set to test their league dominance skills internationally and join the eFootball.Pro eSports league alongside FC Barcelona, Schalke 04 and AS Monaco.
October 9 – Premier League West Ham, one of the first English clubs to sign professional esports players, will also be one of the first to host their own esports tournament with online qualifiers open now.
October 9 – The football esports calendar is becoming as crowded as the match schedules for clubs and players. FIFA and EA Sports, hard on the heels of the success of the 2018 eWorld Cup, have announced the schedule for 2019 FIFA 19 Global Series.
By Paul Nicholson
October 5 – The English Premier League are entering the esports business with the launch of ePremier League with league partner Electronic Arts. The ePL will be played on the FIFA19 game and operated by esports tournament organisers Gfinity.