FIFA and Konami join hands to host FIFAe World Cup inside eFootball

Japanese game developer and publisher Konami has now signed an esports contract with FIFA. As per the agreement, the next two iterations of FIFAe World Cup will be played inside eFootball. The exact dates for the tournaments are yet to be revealed, but as per the announcement, 18 countries will be taking part in the event.

The countries were invited based on their performance in the previous FIFAe World Cup. These include Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Türkiye.

“We are incredibly excited to join forces with Konami. This collaboration aligns perfectly with our mission to promote football globally and to provide a platform for players to showcase their skills. We truly believe in an inclusive ecosystem that allows different communities to be part of the FIFAe competitions,” said Romy Gai, FIFA's Chief Business Officer.

FIFA and EA Sports fallout

The fallout between the two companies comes after a licence disagreement between FIFA and EA Sports regarding the video game franchise. At the time, EA reported that there were several restrictions they needed to abide by along with an increase in licensing fee, while FIFA was asking for new things too fast.

FIFA announced that they will release their own game which will compete on the same level as EA and Konami. However, players have yet to hear anything about the said game. On the flip side, EA Sports rebranded their game to FC series, which is doing quite well as of now.

Also Read: Best graphics settings for EA FC 25 on PC

Enemy of my enemy

This partnership is also ironic because, at one time, both FIFA and Konami used to be rivals during their time with EA Sports. eFootball was the alternative to FIFA and quite frankly, FIFA remained a superior product and was more popular.

“At Konami, we have continued to take on challenges in the development of football simulation and esports. We are very pleased to be able to contribute to the promotion of e-Football in a new dimension through this collaboration with FIFAe,” said, Koji Kobayashi, Senior Executive Officer at Konami.