Ea agrees bumper Premier League deal for FIFA successor

Fans of FIFA have been growing concerned. Mostly because this year, FIFA will cease to exist. That might be a bit of a dramatic way to put it, but it's accurate.

As of 2023, the FIFA license has expired on EA Sports' most popular title, and it is set to be renamed to EA Sports FC.

The branding is secondary to the game, but the title itself is set to be affected too, as many of the licenses attached to FIFA as a company allowed for the game to bump its realism with rights to use players, kits, stadiums and more.

With FIFA out of the picture, the EA Sports FC franchise could be stripped of all that makes it special to fans. But it looks like it could be saved.

Premier League is closing a deal with EA sports

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As reported by Sky Sports, EA Sports has agreed to pay $588/£488 million in a brand-new deal with the Premier League. With jaws on the floor, the site writes that the new partnership is "worth more than double the existing deal involving the two parties."

The deal is set to create a six-year partnership, and it has been suggested by a club executive that it means EA would remain as the league's lead partner, and that it could hang on to its exclusive game license.

This is pretty big news for the game, as after its 30-year ties to FIFA, EA has been in an incredibly shaky situation. The entire sports gaming community is watching as it takes the biggest risk the FIFA game series has ever made. But, it looks like we might not be in the trouble we expected it to be.

What does this mean for EA Sports FC?

This could mean that concerns over the licenses lost in the game disconnecting from FIFA will be resolved, suggesting that little could change about the series beyond its name.

It's hard to tell what kind of licenses the upcoming EA Sports FC has acquired, but at the very least, it means that some of the iconic images of televised football will be coming to the game.

There will likely be other omissions that are sadly unavoidable in the loss of the FIFA license, but it's certainly a start. Fingers crossed that EA Sports FC won't be the catastrophe we feared it could be.