EA removes 13 NCAA women’s soccer players from Federation Internationale de Football Association 16 game

In a blog post informing players of the roster change, EA took a firm stance against the NCAA, with the publisher stating outright that it does not agree with its position.

The removed players include six on the Canadian team, one on the Spanish team and six players for Mexico.

Buchanan, 19, was a breakout star for Team Canada at this year’s Federation Internationale de Football Association Women’s World Cup, winning the organization’s Best Young Player award for her performance during the event. The collegiate players will be replaced in the game by women who have played for the national teams in question.

Although EA disagrees with the claims, in order to avoid any “risk to their eligibility”, Canadian players Kadeisha Buchanan, Jessie Fleming, Ashley Lawrence, Janine Beckie, Rebecca Quinn, Sura Yekka, Mexico’s Tanya Samarzich, Greta Espinoza, Christina Murillo, Amanda Perez, Emily Alvarado, Maria Sanchez, and Celia Jiménez from Spain have now been removed from the game.

As a result of the settlement, EA Sports isn’t allowed to make an NCAA video game without compensating the college athletes that appear in the game. The company removed the players from the game after the North America’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) informed it that including these North American players could endanger their eligibility for “collegiate athletics”. Their involvement with the game was determined by the NCAA to be a potential threat to their eligibility, EA said today in a news release.

In just 24 hours, an online petition has garnered over 1100 signatures calling on the company to rethink the “sad” decision. But gamers who belong to the EA Access got their hands on it Thursday.

The soccer game has not had such problems before, since the men in the game are all professionals.