EA Sports have removed Manchester United and England striker Mason Greenwood from FIFA 22 after his arrest earlier this week on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, assault and “making threats to kill”.
As the BBC reports, Greenwood was arrested on Sunday when police “became aware of online social media images and videos posted by a woman reporting incidents of physical violence”. That woman was Greenwood’s former girlfriend, who over the weekend posted a series of graphic images and audio recordings on her Instagram page.
In response to the allegations, EA Sports have almost completely removed Greenwood from the game, taking him out of all “active squads” in FIFA 22, as well as “suspending” his player card from FIFA’s Ultimate Team packs. Existing cards already in player’s collections, however, will not be removed.
Nor will he be removed from Football Manager, at least for now, with developers Sports Interactive telling The Athletic that they’re going to wait for further details before making a decision:
Sports Interactive has not yet made a decision as to Mason Greenwood’s status in Football Manager 2022 and will not do so until the findings of the current police investigation are made public.
On previous occasions where players have been suspended by their clubs under similar circumstances, we have removed them from the game at the earliest opportunity.
While Greenwood’s legal status is still obviously up in the air, he has been suspended by his club, with Manchester United saying in a statement that “Mason Greenwood will not return to training or play matches until further notice”. Nike has also suspended its lucrative sponsorship deal with the player, saying “We are deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations and will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
In 2021 Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy was accused of rape, and as here swiftly removed from FIFA 22’s rosters. In that case, Sports Interactive also removed him from Football Manager’s database.
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