FIFA 22 PARTNER CLUBS & LEAGUES

History has taught us that licenses were crucial to the success of the FIFA franchise. For the past 25 years, EA Sports has consistently spent more than Konami on licensing and partnerships with clubs and leagues, often tying them down to exclusive contracts. The continual expansion of its licensing programme has made FIFA the undisputed market leader over the past decade. Pro Evolution Soccer once rivalled FIFA in the sales charts, but its historic failure to invest in licensing has massively reduced its market share. EA Sports is currently spending around €120 million on partnerships and licensing each year, while Konami doesn’t even invest 25% of that value.

EA Sports’ deal with the Premier League is unique. The clubs agreed to sell all their video game licensing rights as a collective, with virtually no intellectual property excluded. The Bundesliga is also organised in a similar fashion, with only its stadiums excluded from its collective licensing deal. However, most other leagues and competitions are far more difficult to pin down. For US sports, this licensing process is simple: a single publisher agrees an exclusive deal with the league and the players’ union, thus receiving every piece of intellectual property it could possibly need to recreate the authentic experience of an NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL game. Football game publishers must acquire rights in individual and collective deals with hundreds of clubs, leagues, agencies and player associations; as well as deals to use branded sports equipment such as football boots and balls. Completing a set of licensing rights for a league can be an arduous process, often involving middlemen and agencies.

Whether centralised or not, clubs and leagues hold distinct sets of licensing rights. This has given clubs the opportunity to strike deals with either EA or Konami, regardless of the deals completed by the league they belong to. Some clubs are braver than others – deciding to agree on exclusive deals. The competition between Konami and EA is enabling clubs to split their marketing efforts across both games.

EA Sports’ FIFA series has long boasted a superior selection of fully licensed teams than Konami’s PES. This year, for example, FIFA 22 features more than 700 licensed teams from almost 40 leagues, while PES has 19 fully licensed leagues and only a handful of fully licensed clubs in the Premier League and La Liga. In these cases, they are forced to use fake team names.

After ten long years, EA recaptured in 2019 the Champions League rights. The football’s biggest club competition is exclusive to FIFA 22, along with Europa League, Europa Conference League, Super Cup, Copa Libertadores and other CONMEBOL competitions. The only exclusive leagues Konami has are Serie A and Serie B from Brazil, as well as Russian Premier League and Thai League 1. That’s too short for the long list of EA’s exclusive leagues:

Hyundai A-League (Australia)
Osterreichische Bundesliga (Austria)
Premier League (England)
EFL Championship (England)
League One (England)
League Two (England)
Bundesliga (Germany)
2 Bundesliga (Germany)
3 Bundesliga (Germany)
Meiji Yasuda J1 (Japan)
K League 1 (South Korea)
Liga Bancomer MX (Mexico)
Eliteserien (Norway)
Ekstraklasa (Poland)
SSE Airtricity League (Ireland)
Liga I (Romania)
Abdul Latif Jameel League (Saudi Arabia)
La Liga Santander (Spain)
La Liga Smartbank (Spain)
Allsvenskan (Sweden)
MLS (USA)

Konami official partnerships include the following teams: Bayern, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Schalke 04, Monaco, Celtic, Mallorca, Rangers, Corinthians, Flamengo, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Vasco da Game, Atlético Mineiro, Alianza Lima, Sporting Cristal, Universitario, Sport Boys, River Plate, Colo-Colo, Universidad de Chile and Juventus.

However, because EA already owns the license for most of the leagues, they were forced to use fake names and generic kits and crest only for the last four: Núñez, CD Viñazu, Dep. Nuñoa and the world-known Piemonte Calcio.

FIFA 22 partnerships bring exclusive in-game content from the partner clubs to the game. These contents include the players face scans, the club’s official stadiums and activities on social media channels. In this page you can check the list of the FIFA 22 partner clubs, official video gaming partners and deal details.