Beyond the Pitch - Why the addition of women’s leagues in EAFC career mode is a big step for representation

Nine years ago, if you were an avid fan of Women’s Football and wanted to take your love of the game into the virtual world, you had just been given a belated, but restricted first choice.

The ever popular FIFA game series, (now called EAFC), first introduced women’s international teams as a playable asset in FIFA 16, in the hope it would drive more recognition into women’s sport and then in turn, drive more people to pick their game up off the shelves.

It took a further seven years, only being added for the last edition of the game, EAFC24, that female players were added into the games most popular mode, Ultimate Team (known commonly as either FUT, or just UT).

This addition, proved to be a roaring success and has seemingly prompted the introduction this year of women’s leagues into career mode.

This section of the game is an offline mode, where users play by themselves, choosing a team to either take charge of, in manager career, or play alongside their favourites in player career.

The top five women’s leagues will be playable when the game releases in September of this year, meaning the Women’s Super League, National Women’s Soccer League, Frauen-Bundesliga, Liga F and the Ligue 1 Femenine (Première Ligue), alongside the world renowned UEFA Women’s Champions League, will all feature in FC 25.

Beyond the Pitch contributor, Georgie Lewis, has been a avid buyer of the FIFA game series:

“Having bought FIFA in the past, I remember the frustration of loading it up only to realise I couldn’t play career mode with female footballers. The fact that I can now play with my heroes in EAFC25, has unlocked a new level of love for the game.”

“It’s about time that women’s football gets the recognition it deserves in every area of the game, visibility is the most important thing.”

EA have become the second major video game franchise to add a women’s sports career mode option – following NBA2K. However, 2K have a separate WNBA Career mode, whereas EA have fully integrated the women’s side of the mode into the game itself.

So, if you start up a player career and progress all the way through to retirement, you are then able to take charge of either a men’s or women’s team, and can hop seamlessly between the two should you wish.

Readwrite profiled an interview with EAFC25 Game Designer, Pete O’Donnell, who adds:

“The key thing that we wanted to do was present the women’s career authentically, and make it feel like it really was, not just like ‘men’s career with women players,’”

“A lot of the systems behind the two mostly work the same; but it’s the financial models and other things that make a really big difference.”

The game itself will delve into the different challenges that women’s football faces in the real world, such as the financial issues facing women’s clubs, which are the equivalent to peanuts compared to their male counterparts.

The reality of working with a smaller transfer portal will be pushed to the fore too, with much shorter contracts being the norm, and players moving on following the end of their contracts, making the task of penning your stars down to a new deal even harder.

Another new inclusion to career mode this year is live start points, where players can enter at a set point during the season, rather than at the beginning of the season. So, taking last season as an example, you could enter a live start point after Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool, which left the door wide open for Manchester City to seize the advantage…we all know what really happened.

The live start points will mirror standings, team news, transfers, suspension and injuries, injecting a fresh dose of realism into the game we all love.

With women’s football being added to the equally popular Football Manager PC game series, the representation levels of women’s football are growing at a rapid rate. With people now able to play with their heroes in the virtual world, the increased levels of representation are what the women’s game needs and deserves. Let’s hope the extra leg up in FC25 for career mode opens a new door for audiences to the Women’s Game.

Photo – https://press-start.com.au/news/2024/07/19/ea-sports-fc-25-womens-career/