FIFA 14 has locked in agreements with 19 of Brazil’s top professional clubs, doubling that league’s representation in the world’s top selling football simulation. The deal also, interestingly, points to one of the vestiges of early licensed sports video games — ones that had permission to use players but not their teams.
The following Brazilian sides will be featured under their authentic logos and kits in the game, due to arrive Sept. 24: Atlético Mineiro, Atlético Paranaense, Botafogo, Coritiba, Criciúma, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Fluminense, Goiás, Grêmio, Internacional, Náutico, Palmeiras, Ponte Preta, Portuguesa, Santos, São Paulo, Vasco da Gama, and Vitória.
This means the current makeup of the Campeonato Brasileiro (the top league there) is all in the game save for Bahia and Corinthians. Palmeiras, listed above, is in Brazil’s Serie B this year. Curiously, Corinthians appeared to be fully licensed — under its own logo — in FIFA 13, but apparently will not return under such an arrangement this year.
Filling out the remaining teams of Brazil’s Serie A will require a little bit of creativity from EA Sports, for it has a FIFPro group licence that entitles FIFA 14 to use the likenesses of real-world football players covered under that agreement. So even if it has the rights to the actual Corinthians players, it must give them a club under a different name and logo, though it will likely have the same colours.
For example, Sport Club Internacional, which is to appear under full licence in FIFA 14, is called “I. Porto Alegre” in FIFA 13 and was given the same colours and a different logo. It harkens back to the time when sports video games often sought the licensing of players before their leagues — NHLPA ’93 and the original Tecmo Bowl from 1989 are common examples.
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