EA Sports removes Russian teams from NHL, FIFA video games
Russian and Belarusian national clubs will be removed from Electronic Arts’ FIFA22 and NHL 22, as the global backlash towards those nations for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine filters through world sports and into their video games.
FIFA, the Union of European Football Associations, and the International Ice Hockey Federation all leveled sanctions on Russia earlier in the week, starting with UEFA’s removal of the Champions League final from St. Petersburg. Then FIFA, under heavy pressure led by the Polish soccer federation, suspended Russia out of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup on Monday.
Also Monday, the International Olympic Committee, which closed the 2022 Olympic Winter Games two weeks ago, called on all international sports federations to ban Russian athletes and teams from global competition.
The IIHF followed suit by expelling Russia and Belarus from six tournaments — women’s, men’s, under-18, juniors, and other world championships — to be held between March and September.
EA Sports cited these moves — all but the IOC are licensing partners — in Wednesday’s decisions to remove Russian and Belarusian teams from its games. Belarus, which borders Ukraine’s north, is a Kremlin ally and has been a staging area for the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine.
A statement from EA SPORTS FIFA: pic.twitter.com/v3pZvpblgS
NHL22, at the end of January, received an update bringing the IIHF-recognized national teams in three divisions — women’s, men’s, and juniors — to the game’s standard, Ultimate Team, NHL Threes, and World of Chel modes. This latest announcement means those modes will lose those two sides “within the coming weeks.”
A statement from EA SPORTS NHL: pic.twitter.com/2uX4h55ok4
The removals pertain only to Russian
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