EA Removes Russian Teams From FIFA 22 and NHL Titles

EA has made the decision to remove Russian teams and clubs from FIFA 22 as well as their NHL games, an act of condemnation against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement today, EA expressed their solidarity with the people of Ukraine amid the ongoing violence.

“EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine”, the statement reads.

The changes would affect FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile as well as FIFA Online, which is interesting to note since they could have easily just promised to remove the Russian players from future editions of the game.

Considering the fact people spend real money on cards for FIFA Ultimate Team, it’s not currently known if there will be any kind of renumeration scheme for players playing with Russian clubs.

EA are applying this stance to their other licensed sports games too- they’d issue a  similar statement in their NHL games, saying Russian and Belarusian teams would be removed from NHL 22.

It should be interesting to note that even if EA hadn’t taken a stance on the Ukraine conflict, they would have needed to remove the players anyways- since FIFA had already banned the Russian national team from taking part in the World Cup, EA’s licensing deal likely stipulates they wouldn’t have been allowed in the game anyways just like how they can’t include any other non-FIFA-approved teams.

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