FIFA and Konami extend current partnership

14 October 2024

Great news for the fans of eFootball and especially for those looking forward to the next FIFAe World Cup, because FIFA and eFootball developer Konami have just announced an extension of their current partnership. An important part of this renewed collaboration is the guarantee that the inaugural FIFAe World Cup featuring eFootball will be held later this year, both on mobile and on console. Thanks to the ongoing partnership, the future looks good for one of the most popular and followed events in international esports.

First edition of FIFAe World Cup

Qualifications for the inaugural edition of the FIFAe World Cup featuring Konami are already underway, at the moment of writing. As we wrote before, there will be two formats with each their own FIFA3 World Cup champion, mobile and console. In each format, eighteen invited nations will be participating. Their invitations have been based on a combination of factors, including player bases and historic performances by players from the respective countries. The countries that will feature at the inaugural FIFAe World Cup collaboration with Konami are:

Argentina	Indonesia	Poland
Brazil	Japan	Portugal
Costa Rica	Korea Republic	Saudi Arabia
England	Malaysia	Spain
France	Morocco	Thailand
India	Netherlands	Turkey

“We are incredibly excited to join forces with KONAMI”, says Romy Gai, Chief Business Officer at FIFA, “This collaboration aligns perfectly with our mission to promote football globally and to provide a platform for players to showcase their skills. We truly believe in an inclusive ecosystem which allows different communities to be part of the FIFAe competitions.”

Promising deal with former competitor

The die-hard fans of football video games will know this already, but for decades, Konami and FIFA were actually competitors. Where FIFA had teamed up with EA Sports to create the world-famous and hugely successful FIFA series of video games, Konami was the brain behind Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), their biggest rival. PES was often lauded by experts and players alike as the football game with more realistic gameplay, but it was FIFA who could offer EA Sports the exclusive licensing rights. This allowed them to use the real names of players, clubs and stadiums, while Konami often had to use fake names.

“At KONAMI, we have continued to take on challenges in the development of football simulation and esports”, says Koji Kobayashi, Senior Executive Officer at Konami Digital Entertainment, “We are very pleased to be able to contribute to the promotion of eFootball™ in a new dimension through this collaboration with FIFAe. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to FIFA for providing us with this opportunity. We can't wait for the FIFAe World Cup™ to begin. We look forward to sharing the enthusiasm, excitement, and joy of our players around the world through the FIFAe World Cup.”

Even though qualifications have already started, dates for the upcoming FIFAe World Cup have not been announced yet. Rumor has it that the event will soon be announced for December of this year, but that has not been confirmed as of yet.