The truth behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale’s claims on social media on FIFA 21

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has taken on EA SPORTS, the creator of the FIFA game franchise, taking to social media claiming they have used his likeness without permission.

FIFA 21 was released on October 9, the last game in the FIFA game franchise.

It has more than 7,000 players, 700 teams, 90 stadiums and 30 leagues, with exclusive access to the biggest competitions in the world, including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Copa Libertadores, Premier League, Bundesliga , La Liga and more.

However, despite appearing in versions of the game for nearly two decades, in a tweet posted Monday evening, AC Milan striker Ibrahimovic accused EA SPORTS and FIFPro of using his name and face without permission.

“Who authorized FIFA EA Sport to use my name and face? @FIFPro? Ibrahimovic said.

“I’m not aware of being a FIFPro member and if I am, I was put there without any real knowledge thanks to a strange maneuver. And of course I never allowed @FIFAcom or FIFPro to earn money using me.

“Someone has been making a profit on my name and my face without any agreement for all these years. It’s time to investigate.”

Tottenham winger Gareth Bale responded quickly, again referring to FIFPro.

“Interesting, what is FIFPro? #TimeToInvestigate” asked the Welshman, in a tweet posted an hour later, which Zlatan then retweeted.

Shortly after, Ibrahimovic’s agent Mino Raiola also floundered on Twitter: “I hope we get our letters answered now. @Ibra_official. ”

* Click here to subscribe to Level up! The Esports and Gaming Show, the podcast is available on Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. *

Ibrahimovic and Bale, along with their names and likenesses, have both featured in many previous FIFA matches.

Ibrahimovic, while at Manchester United, even posed with his FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Premier League Player of the Month card awarded in January 2017.

Former Real Madrid star Bale has covered FIFA 14 in the UK, Ireland and the Middle East alongside Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.

Additionally, EA SPORTS is currently the official video game partner of Spurs and AC Milan, with the two having entered into exclusive multi-year licensing agreements with EA SPORTS in August for FIFA 21 and beyond, with the partnership including a player, a kit and stadium rights.

Moreover, while Bale had yet to join Spurs at the time, veteran striker Ibrahimovic featured largely in the promotional photos released to announce the Milan deal.

The truth of this story and what Ibrahimovic and Bale said have more to do with Fifpro and their support for agent reforms, with the player’s respective agents – Raiola and Jonathan Barnett – in stark opposition to FIFpro reform proposals.

These were unveiled by FIFA in January, and the football governing body issued a statement which said: “The Football Stakeholders Committee and the FIFA Council unanimously approved last year a series of reform proposals concerning football agents with the aim of protecting the integrity of football and preventing abuse.

“These measures are the result of an extensive consultation process with stakeholders (players, clubs, leagues and member associations), as well as agents invited to several consultation meetings.

“The overriding objective here is to improve transparency, protect the well-being of players, improve contractual stability and also raise professional and ethical standards.

“In other words, to eliminate or at least reduce the abusive and excessive practices which have unfortunately existed in football.”

FIFA’s statement led to Raiola, Barnett, Jorge Mendes and other agents threaten legal action.

Barnett said publicly: “We want fairness, FIFA must recognize us and treat us appropriately.

“The truth is, FIFA doesn’t know exactly what an agent is doing. No one from FIFA has ever come into my office or had a conversation with me.

“If you ask the players what they want, they are in favor of the agents. There are never any complaints about player agent fees.

“We will try until the last minute to resolve the issue, but rest assured, if necessary, we will go to all courts in the world.”

This story has less to do with Ibrahimovic, Bale and EA SPORTS, than the ongoing battle between major football agents and FIFA and Fifpro over reform.

For their part, EA Sports is relaxed about the situation, an EA spokesperson told Mirror Football: “EA SPORTS FIFA is the world’s premier football video game, and to create an authentic experience year after year, we work with many leagues, teams and individual talents to ensure player likeness rights to be included in our game.

“One of these is a long-standing relationship with the global representative of professional soccer players, FIFPro, which partners with a number of licensors to negotiate deals that benefit the players and their unions. . “

Subscribe to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.

* FIFA 21 is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The next-gen version of FIFA 21 is slated for release on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5 on December 4, 2020.

Additionally, fans new to FIFA 21 can also benefit from the double entitlement, allowing them to upgrade their copy of the game from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, or from Xbox One to Xbox Series X / S at no additional cost.