Athletes in video games: the right to an image

300 footballers ready to take legal action against the FIFA 21 video game

FIFA 21: around 300 footballers say they are ready to take legal action to denounce the methods of using their name and face in the FIFA 21 video game, according to the sports agent Mino Raiola. The exploitation of their name and face is however very supervised and locked by the publisher EA Sports. Agreements are in fact reached with soccer unions, even if the gains for those involved are relatively low.

The negotiation of image rights between EA Sports and athletes

As a reminder, EA Sports buys image rights negotiated collectively from player unions. In France, it isNational Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) who acts as an intermediary. Subsequently, the UNFP transfers the benefits to FIFPro, which itself authorizes the use of players' images on a video game. Thus EA Sports pays FIFPro, unions such as UNFP and clubs.

These collective actors are thus responsible for redistributing these confidential amounts to the players.

To date, this legal action is still possible, but it is more likely that footballers will question the negotiation of their image rights with their unions to possibly obtain a larger percentage.