‘FIFA 17’ Won’t Include Iceland Because of EA Cash Dispute

As if the world of soccer and FIFA weren’t already littered with cash controversies, now there’s a new money issue at hand involving Iceland and Electronic Arts.

According to BBC, the Iceland football association (The KSI) is at arms with the FIFA 17 developer, Electronic Arts, which has led to the exclusion of the Iceland team from the developer’s upcoming soccer game. According to KSI, EA only offered $15,000 USD for their inclusion in the game, to which KSI responded with a counteroffer that they believed to be more fair.

Here’s what the KSI president Geir Thorsteinsson had to say on the issue:

“They are the ones buying these rights and they almost want it for free. The performance at the Euros show that we are quite a good team and many would like to play with our team. It’s sad for the players – but the criticism should be towards EA Sports.

I really feel if we are giving away rights, or offering rights, it has to be proper negotiations and fair fees.

I didn’t feel that this was done in a fair and open manner.”

The 27th ranked team in the world, Iceland, were not featured in any of the previously released FIFA games. However, the team was hoping to earn themselves a spot on this year’s team list following their recent run to the quarter-finals of the European Championship.

Oddly enough, they wouldn’t even have been the lowest ranked team featured in the game — that belongs to 148th ranked India, who you can get your hands on when FIFA 17 releases later this week.

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