FIFA 16's Inclusion of Women's Soccer Teams

The FIFA video games are known for being the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world. The new FIFA 16 game is gaining headlines and publicity for its inclusion of women’s soccer players both on the cover and in the game. Before this point, gamers only had the option to play as men’s soccer teams, and only male soccer players had been featured on the game’s cover. However, the game now offers the opportunity for gamers to play as 12 different women’s national teams from across the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the US. FIFA 16 is also being recognized for placing women on the covers of the game in versions of FIFA 16 being sold in the United States, Canada, and Australia. To decide who would be on the covers, EA Sports, the makers of the game, placed a poll on the internet so that fans could vote for who they wanted to see on the cover. The winners were each placed alongside Lionel Messi, the face of the franchise since 2013, on the game’s cover in their respective countries.

Highlighted names show the 3 women who have been featured on the cover of FIFA 16. The rest of the names are male.

In a preliminary survey, the “announcement of the inclusion of woman players was met with positive critical response from IGN,” or Imagine Games Network. When asked what he thought about starring alongside Alex Morgan on the United States’ FIFA 16 cover, Messi said, "Having women's national teams in 'FIFA 16' will be great. Alex and her team have accomplished something amazing for their country and the sport in the USA, and to share the cover with her is an honor." Not only is this good publicity for EA Sports and FIFA 16 for including women in their game, but also good publicity for the United States’ Women’s National Soccer Team, especially Alex Morgan, and women’s soccer as a whole. At an EA Sports press release, Morgan said, "It is an incredible honor to be one of the first women featured on the cover of EA SPORTS FIFA. I know people all over the world play this game and I'm really excited that 'FIFA 16' is putting such an important spotlight on women's soccer…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siVeBCaYeko

There are some limitations to the women’s teams included in the game. Unlike men’s teams, the women’s national teams only have the option to play in friendly games, as well as an offline tournament mode. The game’s most popular mode, Ultimate Team, is unavailable for women’s teams. Also, when compared to the sheer amount of men’s teams and leagues represented in the FIFA 16 game, the women's representation is incomparable. The main reason for the discrepancy may be because this is the first edition of FIFA in which women are included, however, are there hopes for more women’s teams to be represented in the future?

Shown here are the covers of the FIFA 16 game in Canada and the United States, respectively.

Also, there may be an ulterior motive to the franchise’s inclusion of women in the game. Some people have argued that FIFA only included women in the game for a predicted sales boost. A main point of an argument presented by a London blogger Amanda Connelly is that “…women have played FIFA and participated in equally exciting high level sports forever…  it highlights the fact that FIFA ignored the already undervalued successes of women in sports and the women playing its game for so long.” It could be argued that FIFA only included women in fear of losing consumers, as they had been receiving requests for years to include women in the game, but in the realization that women are just now being recognized for their accomplishments in soccer, in the form of finally being given representation in FIFA 16, is a bit concerning.

Advertisement for FIFA 16's most emphasized new feature: inclusion of Women's National Teams.

The idea of there being gender inequality connects to Alex’s current event presentation, on the grounds of trying to create equality within sports. Also, the idea of one woman representing an entire group relates to when Alexa mentioned how Hayley Williams is the most well-known woman in punk rock; as Alex Morgan is essentially the face of women’s soccer in the United States, as demonstrated with her being on the FIFA 16 cover.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think EA Sports waited until now to include women in their FIFA video games?

2. Only 3 out of 15 countries voted to put a female soccer player on the cover of their FIFA 16 game. What do you think could’ve caused this discrepancy?

3.  Do gender roles play a part in women being “accepted” into the sports world, as represented by their inclusion in the FIFA 16 video game?

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/28/fifa-16-to-include-womens-football-for-the-first-time

http://espn.go.com/espnw/athletes-life/the-buzz/article/13288807/alex-morgan-represents-us-women-historic-fifa-16-cover

http://www.i4u.com/2015/07/93427/alex-morgan-appears-alongside-lionel-messi-ea-sports-fifa-16-cover

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_(video_game_series)

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fifa-16-puts-woman-on-cover-for-first-time-ever-in/1100-6429028/

http://www.i4u.com/2015/07/93427/alex-morgan-appears-alongside-lionel-messi-ea-sports-fifa-16-cover

http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/07/21/fifa-16-acknowledging-women-exist-isnt-something-to-applaud/

http://www.fifa.com/media/news/y=2015/m=5/news=twelve-women-s-national-teams-to-feature-in-ea-sports-fifa-16-2609581.html