EA Sports excludes Russian teams from its soccer games

After being excluded from all European and international competition by UEFA and FIFA, Russia suffered a new setback in the world of football, this time in its video game form.

EA Sports announced on Wednesday that it would withdraw Russian national teams and professional clubs from its range of soccer games. Several new versions of popular series are affected, such as FIFA 22, FIFA Online and FIFA Mobilein addition to the game of hockey NHL 22.

EA Sports is following in the footsteps of many international federations, which have decided to ban Russian athletes from their competitions in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. This is the case of FIFA, which ousted Russia from the qualifying play-offs for the Soccer World Cup, presented this winter in Qatar.

The exclusion of Russian teams has not yet been finalized by EA Sports, which claims to have initiated a process in this direction.

Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has in recent days addressed several major Western tech companies, including video game publishers, urging them to take action to ban Russian and Belarusian accounts from their services.

EA Sports stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and, like many other voices in the world of soccer, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine.wrote the American video game giant on Twitter on Wednesday morning.