EA Sports FC's La Liga Deal Shows Leaving FIFA Was the Right Call

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EA Sports FC, the new football series that comes after the termination of the nearly 30-year partnership between EA and FIFA, has just landed its first major contract — ensuring that the teams of Spain's LaLiga will be officially represented. Spain's top soccer league LaLiga has announced that starting in the 2023/2024 season, it will be rebranding to reflect a multi-year, multi-platform deal with EA. This is the first major win for the publisher's new soccer series, which is having to make its own deals following EA's split with FIFA.

FIFA 23 will be the last game released in the series after EA and FIFA concluded their partnership, fragmenting the two behemoths. The result is EA Sports FC, EA's new series that will replace what had become the best-selling sports video game franchise of all time. The lack of a contract renewal and the subsequent announcement that FIFA was working on its own game surely worried fans of the series, but the announcement that LaLiga — one of the most-watched soccer leagues in the world — had reached a deal with EA surely quelled some of that apprehension.

Related: Sam Kerr's FIFA 23 Cover Makes History

The new contract between EA Sports FC and LaLiga will span LaLiga's first and second divisions as well as LaLiga Promises (youth development league) and eLaLiga (via VideoGamer). Most noteworthy for fans of the games is that this deal also includes a naming rights partnership for the league, which includes the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. This deal with LaLiga marks the first big move EA has taken since leaving the FIFA brand, and shows that it is on the right track to gain back some, if not most, of the rights it has now lost. FIFA reportedly wanted to charge EA $1 billion every