Diego Maradona has been ‘suspended’ from FIFA 22
Diego Maradona, one of the greatest footballers of all time, has been “suspended” from FIFA 22 following a legal dispute.
In a message that appears when players start the game, EA states: “Due to a third party legal dispute, we must suspend Diego Maradona from appearing in FIFA Ultimate Team Packs, Ultimate Draft and the Soccer Aid World XI team.
“As such, Diego Maradona Icon Items will no longer be made available in Packs, SBCs and FUT Draft, and their price range has been fixed until further notice.
“We share our fans’ disappointment and hope to bring one of football’s greatest icons back in the game at some point in the future.”
The issue appears to stem from a debate over who owns Maradona’s likeness rights, with an Argentinian court deciding last year that EA had potentially negotiated with the wrong party, and that it had to remove Maradona from the game until it could be determined who it should have dealt with.
According to a report on Argentinian news website Infobae in November 2021, the court found that EA had signed a commercial agreement with Stefano Ceci, the player’s former manager. However, the court came to the conclusion that Ceci had no legal authority to make such deals, and wasn’t able to prove that he did.
The debate around who owns the rights to Maradona’s image continues to be mired in controversy. Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla claims that Maradona had granted the rights to the ‘Diego Armando Maradona’ brand to his company Sattvica before his death.
In March 2021, Sattvica was banned from using Maradona’s brands, following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s daughters. The ban was overturned later that year, but Maradona’s daughters and Morla continue to wage a bitter war over who owns the player’s
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