FIFA Infinity The Absolute FIFA Site
The sports world has changed considerably over the years. While sports has always been a lucrative business, the model has changed, and there are more sponsorships and brand partnerships with athletes than ever before.
Companies must consider the sponsorship fit when launching sponsorships with teams and athletes. Is there a typicality fit? A geographic and image fit? These considerations will strengthen the sponsorship, which is why gaming franchises like FIFA use professional footballers as ambassadors. In fact, FIFA uses a three-tier system to organise its ambassadors: main ambassador, tier 1 ambassador, and tier 2 ambassador.
Which #FIFA23 Ambassadors make your Starting XI? 📋🎮
See the Top 23 tomorrow 👀 And get ready for Sept 27 by pre-ordering now: https://t.co/iPTBqb2pqq#FIFARatings pic.twitter.com/hEb55QQ2e8
— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) September 11, 2022
Football is one of the world’s most popular sports. That’s why many sports streaming platforms centre around football. For example, DAZN is a sports subscription streaming service that previously marketed itself as ‘Canada’s home of the English Premier League.’
Likewise, ExpressVPN’s sports streaming article shows that football is the most popular sport in the United Kingdom, with most people streaming games involving England’s top 5 teams: Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur.
In the UK, FIFA is also one of the top-selling video games, hence why FIFA has hired ambassadors like Jack Grealish (tier 2), Heung-Min Son (tier 1), Virgil Van Dijk (tier 2), Kai Havertz (tier 2), and Christian Pulisic (tier 2).
What Does Each Tier Mean?
Regardless of the tier, all FIFA ambassadors like Tottenham’s Heung-min Son and Manchester City’s Jack Grealish promote FIFA in real life and the game. They’re featured on game mode screens and in marketing campaigns, with the main ambassador getting the spot on the FIFA cover. For FIFA 23, Kylian Mbappé and Sam Kerr acted as main ambassadors on the cover.
Meanwhile, all tier 1 ambassadors like Heung-min Son are players who feature in FUT pack covers, game mode screens, and most FIFA’s marketing campaigns. Tier 2 ambassadors have a similar role, but they are not featured in as many marketing campaigns or game screens. Typically, FIFA has between 3 and 13 ambassadors at any time, who are typically announced before the new title is revealed to the public.
Kylian Mbappe and Sam Kerr are FIFA 23's Ultimate Edition cover stars 🌟 pic.twitter.com/IUZKPYPVmd
— GOAL (@goal) July 18, 2022
Future Changes
The direction of FIFA sponsorships and ambassadors may change in the future, and that’s because FIFA 23 is the last FIFA game that EA Sports will make. Last summer, the Canadian video gaming company didn’t renew its contract with the FIFA association. Because of this, FIFA plans to make their own game, and EA Sports is coming up with its own title: EA Sports FC. In other words, the anticipated FIFA 24 will come straight from EA Sports, not FIFA.
The sports world and the video game industry have always been interconnected. But sponsorships and partnerships have made this connection even stronger over the years. And as sports streaming, especially football games, becomes more popular worldwide, introducing more countries to leagues like the English Premier League, franchises like FIFA are keen to hire ambassadors from these leagues to use in their marketing campaigns.
While the future has yet to be discovered due to EA Sports losing the naming rights to the football video game, we do know an alternative to ‘FIFA 24’ is coming, but who will be the ambassadors? We’ll have to wait and see.
