For a generation of young adults and teenagers, EA Sports has meant only one thing: video games. And for a large portion of that group, the company came to be associated with one title in particular: FIFA.
However, the end of EA Sports’ 30-year relationship with soccer’s global governing body in 2022 sent shockwaves through the gaming industry. The split not only required a rebrand of the beloved FIFA franchise, which is now known as EA Sports FC, but it also created an opportunity for one of the world’s biggest video game manufacturers to reimagine how it engages with soccer fans around the world.
To that end, the launch of a new brand identity and logo was swiftly followed by the introduction of EA Sports FC Futures, a purpose-driven initiative that aims to grow grassroots soccer globally and bring the company’s most popular video game into the real world.
Most recently, FC Futures hosted an event at the Uefa Euro 2024 fan zone in Berlin, where more than 50 local teenage boys and girls took part in a session featuring training drills taken from the EA Sports FC video game and delivered by official Uefa and German Football Association (DFB) coaches.
Introducing #EASPORTSFC FUTURES, our global plan to grow the world's game through investment in community football.
— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) April 11, 2023
It all starts here, at Turnham Academy in London, delivered alongside @FootballFoundtn and @IanWright0.
Find out more: https://t.co/w1dtuLbNNR pic.twitter.com/cJfLlU8zHj
According to James Salmon, senior marketing director at EA Sports, which is among 64 brands that have been recognised in the Laureus Sport for Good Index since its inception for delivering social and environmental impact through sport, the decision to launch FC Futures was based on feedback from fans during the rebranding exercise.
“We felt we had an opportunity and a responsibility to invest in grassroots football,” Salmon tells SportsPro. “At the very start of the journey, we were speaking to a number of our fans who told us as they were going out there and playing the real world of the sport, that they recognise a lot of the training practices from our experiences.
“So FC futures was really inspired by that: an opportunity to give back to the grassroots game, to work with partners to complement their programmes, and to use our platform and technology to transition from the interactive version of the sport into the real one.”
How does FC Futures work, who is involved, and what impact has it had?
The desire to support grassroots soccer has largely manifested in the form of a free-to-access online library of 42 EA Sports FC training drills, which the company views as a way of using its technology to democratise access to the sport for players and coaches. Those practices, which are created in collaboration with Uefa and focus on skills like dribbling, passing and finishing, are being integrated into 54 national soccer associations and their coach education programmes.
The training drills are also brought to life through events like the one held in Berlin in June. The events have been attended by soccer greats such as David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, as well as former England striker and beloved pundit Ian Wright, who is an ambassador for the initiative alongside the likes of US women’s national team manager Emma Hayes, ex-Chelsea winger Gianfranco Zola and French Football Federation (FFF) secretary general Laura Georges, who made 188 appearances for France.
FC Futures work also extends to equipment and facilities. The initiative has already teamed up with foundations, leagues and federations to create and refurbish 11 soccer pitches globally, including the new Rocky and Wrighty Arena at Turnham Academy in southeast London, which overlooks the estate Wright and his former Arsenal teammate David Rocastle, who passed away in 2001, grew up on.
A range of other pitches have been funded by the programme in countries like South Africa, Australia and South Korea, while FC Futures has also provided more than 12,000 soccer balls to grassroots clubs, coaches and children, as well as equipment like boots, cones and bibs.
All told, EA Sports claims those efforts saw FC Futures open up grassroots soccer to over 170,000 people across six continents in its first year.
“We went into this transition and evolution from being EA Sports FIFA to becoming EA Sports FC with a focus of wanting to both change the symbol, but also to demonstrate symbols of change,” Salmon says. “And FC Futures is one way through social impact that I hope we’re able to accomplish that.”
How does FC Futures marry purpose with profit?
Delivering impact on that scale and coordinating programmes with different organisations isn’t always straightforward. FC Futures touches various teams internally at EA Sports and Salmon admits that delivering such a far-reaching project requires “a significant amount of effort, energy and resource”. That includes a substantial financial commitment from EA to invest an initial US$10 million in the initiative over the first three years.
That might not seem like much for a company that amassed net revenue of US$7.6 billion for the 2024 financial year, but the decision makers at major corporations have historically been reluctant to spend money on purpose-driven campaigns that aren’t guaranteed to have an immediate positive impact on the bottom line.
However, Salmon reveals that the early work EA Sports did to articulate the purpose, mission and values of EA Sports FC made it easier to get buy-in internally for that level of investment in FC Futures.
“That upfront strategy work really helped when having some of those tougher conversations that are inherent in any big company about where we ought to invest and where we ought to focus,” he continues. “There was a real understanding right up to our most senior executives internally about why FC Futures was key and social impact was a key part of the journey that we’re embarking on.
“We spoke to fans around the globe across our products. The one [piece of feedback] that surprised us was [the importance of] purpose and that EA Sports FC had to stand for something. So that combination of it being really core to our strategy and our beliefs, alongside the fact that our fans were saying that this is something they wanted to see from a new brand – or from any brand – really made those conversations a little bit smoother than you might anticipate.”
The latest EA Sports FC Futures event was held at Adidas’ mini-stadium in the Euro 2024 fan zone in Berlin (Image credit: EA Sports)
That isn’t to say that FC Futures doesn’t bring benefits for EA Sports. According to Salmon, part of the reason the company launched the initiative is because it found that 63 per cent of its players were participating in more sport as a result of playing its video game, so it also made business sense for the gaming firm to further integrate itself into that journey.
Armed with that context, the company is tracking traditional metrics like brand affinity to measure the success of FC Futures, as well as the “duality” of people playing its interactive experiences alongside joining a grassroots club. Plus, there’s the potential that some of those impacted by the real-world initiative might one day become part of its video game community.
Salmon says there are also “softer benefits”, such as how it enables the company to deepen relationships with the rights holders it has licensing agreements with, including Uefa, the Premier League and LaLiga, some of which have supported FC Futures on developing grassroots facilities.
The initiative also allows EA Sports to create additional touchpoints for some of its brand partners, including Adidas, whose mini stadium inside Berlin’s Euro 2024 fan zone was used for the FC Futures training sessions in June.
What next for FC Futures?
Ultimately, FC Futures was part of a broader, extensive marketing campaign initiated by EA Sports to raise awareness of its new soccer franchise and ensure consumers knew that, despite the name change, the same players, clubs and leagues would still be featured in the game.
However, the initiative also signals the start of a shift in how a storied video game brand wants to be perceived.
“We want to go from being a video game built from football, to becoming a football platform built from video games, and that’s a lofty aspiration,” Salmon states.
“We’re going on this mission to get to a billion fans. You’re not going to achieve a billion fans going from where we’re currently at – 150 million fans – if you’re looking through the same platforms and approaches that you have done historically.
“So engaging in the real-world of the sport is a way we can be more expansive in our approach.”
EA Sports has now partnered with Unicef to launch Namibia Futures, which will be a key focus of the second year of the programme (Image credit: EA Sports)
FC Futures is therefore seen as playing a key role in helping EA Sports reach that target. For its second year, EA Sports has already announced the launch of the Namibia Futures programme in partnership with Unicef, which aims to reach 46,000 young people in the country through soccer and games-based training.
In addition to that, year two of the programme will see FC Futures launch new pitches, create and publish more training drills, provide more playing equipment and further expand its partnerships.
“It’s been a really big first year for us,” says Salmon. “But also, there’s a huge amount more that we believe we’ll be able to deliver in years two and three and beyond.
“That continual blurring of the lines between interactive and real, and how that comes to the fore through our experiences, is going to be fundamental to the future of EA Sports FC Futures.”
This feature is part of the Sport for Good Playbook, which explores how brands are implementing strategies that deliver social and environmental impact through sport.
To learn more about the Laureus Sport for Good Index, click here. To nominate a brand for inclusion in 2024, click here.