Comment: Why FIFA's split with EA Sports could prove to be a hugely expensive decision
FIFA is walking away from a nearly three-decade, roughly $150-million-a-year deal after reportedly demanding at least double that to renew it — and EA is keeping the video game franchise's audience under a new name.
EA Sports and FIFA have ended a partnership that ran for nearly 30 years and generated more than $20 billion in sales, according to CBS Sports' coverage of the split. EA's soccer franchise will be rebranded as EA Sports FC starting with the installment after the 2023 Women's World Cup, and FIFA will lose its largest commercial licensing partner outside the men's World Cup itself.
The break came down to money. The existing EA deal was worth about $150 million a year, but FIFA pushed for a reported minimum of $300 million annually to extend it — roughly double what EA had been paying, according to reporting compiled by Hashtag Sports. Some accounts of FIFA's ask put the number even higher, describing a demand near $1 billion to continue the license.
Sourcing on the exact size of FIFA's final demand varies between outlets, from a doubling of the existing fee to a much larger figure; what is consistent across coverage is that FIFA's price increase, whatever its precise scale, is what ended the relationship.
What EA keeps, and what it loses
Under the new EA Sports FC branding, the game will no longer carry the FIFA name or FIFA-sanctioned tournaments such as the World Cup. EA said in a statement carried in CBS Sports' report that 'the introduction of EA Sports FC will not impact any current EA Sports global football games,' pointing to separately negotiated licenses that let the game keep the Premier League, the Champions League and individual club and player partnerships regardless of the FIFA name.
Why the split looks costly for FIFA
Reporting a year after the split, cited by Front Office Sports, found EA had generated more than 6.8 million paid signups for pre-release access to EA Sports FC — a 25% increase over comparable figures the year before. That framing, echoed across the trade coverage reviewed here, is that FIFA lost its largest non-World-Cup commercial partner and the associated annual licensing revenue, while EA retained the players who had been buying the game annually regardless of its name on the box.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by CBS Sports and Hashtag Sports, with additional trade context from Front Office Sports. It restores a story originally published on this site in May 2022; figures are as reported at the time.