EA have announced that the final line-up to forthcoming FIFA 16 will be slimmer than hoped, after it emerged the inclusion of 13 female players could possibly risk their eligibility for collegiate athletics programs.
For the first time in the series’ history FIFA 16 sees the arrival of 12 women’s National teams, but in a press release ahead of the game’s release this week EA have said: “Of the hundreds of players on these rosters, 13 are currently attending or likely to attend NCAA-sanctioned schools in the U.S. The NCAA recently informed EA SPORTS that these 13 student-athletes would be risking their eligibility for collegiate athletics by being included in FIFA 16.”
The following players are those affected by the decision, who will now no longer feature in FIFA 16.
- Celia Jiménez (Spain)
- Kadeisha Buchanan (Canada)
- Jessie Fleming (Canada)
- Ashley Lawrence (Canada)
- Janine Beckie (Canada)
- Rebecca Quinn (Canada)
- Sura Yekka (Canada)
- Tanya Samarzich (Mexico)
- Greta Espinoza (Mexico)
- Christina Murillo (Mexico)
- Amanda Perez (Mexico)
- Emily Alvarado (Mexico)
- Maria Sanchez (Mexico)
EA have stated they “do not agree with this position” and will update gamers in future if the situation surrounding the players should change.
“All rights were secured following standard protocol with national governing bodies and federations, and none of these NCAA student-athletes or potential student athletes were to be individually compensated by EA SPORTS for their inclusion in the game.
We believe this decision denies these 13 athletes the opportunity to represent their countries in the game, but we have removed them from FIFA 16 to ensure there is no risk to their eligibility.”
Source: EA
tactical20
What a load of bollocks
Pixel_nme
Yeah this ^
ron_mcphatty
Indeed. Can anyone explain why their eligibility is at risk? I don’t get it, it doesn’t make sense and it’s probably massively disappointing for those 13.
In other news, I hear the new Lara Croft won’t be in the next Tomb Raider because her breasts aren’t big enough.
wonkey-willy
damn!!
cancelling that pre order then!!
Amphlett
Perhaps they could replace Lara Croft with Sam Fox?
Starman
@Amplett are you Sam Fox’s agent?!
TheShepanator
Seems like a bigger bully came along.
Kronik76
Who actually really cares though? Without meaning to sound at all sexist, the women are just a tacked on gimmick. Only available as international teams, not able to play against any teams other than other women’s international teams. And, sorry to say, the majority of football fans aren’t interested in women’s football as the skill level and pace of the game is way below that of the men’s. I’d be surprised if more than 5% of the people who buy FIFA 16 ever play a game using a woman’s team.
Starman
Isn’t everything they add to Fifa just a tacked on gimmick though? There is never any huge changes because they’ve pretty much perfected it now, so all they can do is add gimmicks. Though I’m sure plenty will at least try out a game with the women’s teams just to see the difference (if any).
Kronik76
Usually I’d agree, but this release has a couple of features added into the manager mode that I’m quite happy about. Pre season tournaments are a welcome addition, particularly as a means of boosting revenue. Also the player training for working on specific player stats is something that I feel will improve the manager mode.
Stefan L
All of those features are added incrementally though, and you can expect to see women’s football built up over time as well. Just in terms of the added workload for the development team, they’ve obviously decided to do so in a relatively small way to start off with to lay the foundations on which they can expand in future, with adding more teams, leagues and extending more features to the women’s game.
It’s like having the Premier League and Bundesliga presentation style and stadiums all recreated. They’re doing one at a time because it would be too big a workload to do a dozen different leagues all at one, though I’m sure Italian fans might like to have their TV broadcast style represented in the game as well.
The only real gimmick here is that they’re riding on the success of the women’s world cup and didn’t decide to introduce it a few years ago, or whatever.
Kris Lipscombe
Women’s football used to be so popular in England that the FA banned grounds that hosted men’s football from hosting women’s matches. They viewed it as that much of a threat. That, in my opinion at least, is why it’s so far behind in terms of popularity.