The UK’s Daily Mirror reports that David Beckham is being paid £40 million over three years to appear as an ‘icon’ in FIFA 21 and future games. A source told the paper that “FIFA makers EA Sports offered him £30million over three years but he managed to get a better deal. It is a big addition to the Beckham brand and the easiest money he’s ever made.”
[Update: 18:52 BST, 24/11/20: EA Sports has provided PC Gamer with this statement: “We’ve seen the reports on the terms of our deal to bring David Beckham back into our EA SPORTS FIFA game. We don’t disclose specific details, but we can be definitive that the figures being reported are being completely sensationalized and are in no way accurate.”]
Nevertheless, these reports have set off Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a man who is never knowingly undersold (Twitter bio: “Lions don’t compare themselves to humans.”)
Who gave FIFA EA Sport permission to use my name and face? @FIFPro? I’m not aware to be a member of Fifpro and if I am I was put there without any real knowledge through some weird manouver. And for sure I never allowed @FIFAcom or Fifpro to make money using meNovember 23, 2020
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Zlatan goes on to say in a follow-up that “Somebody is making profit on my name and face without any agreement all these years. Time to investigate.” Man, now I bet EA’s really pissed. Could it get worse?
Former FIFA cover star Gareth Bale, currently at Spurs, decided to wade in.
.@Ibra_official Interesting… what is @FIFPro? 🤔 #TimeToInvestigateNovember 23, 2020
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Bale turns Ibrahimovic’s last words into a hashtag, presumably expecting a great mass of FIFA players to join in this battle to ensure multi-millionaires are paid fairly.
The background to this is an ongoing battle between certain football agents and FIFPro, the body supposed to represent the interests of footballers. Ibrahimovic’s representation was quick to weigh in, and what this essentially comes down to is high-profile players wanting to negotiate separate image rights.
One key difference with Beckham is that he’s retired from playing, whereas EA Sports is ‘official video game partner’ of both AC Milan (Ibrahimovic) and Tottenham (Bale), deals that will include rights to the clubs’ players, jerseys and stadia. So it’s complicated. And probably the only thing we can for certain is that this spat will result in some extremely well-paid lawyers and footballers.