FIFA 19 distances itself from Cristiano Ronaldo: Electronic Arts eliminates footballer’s promotional photos from all social pages. Here’s why.
FIFA 19 removes Cristiano Ronaldo from social channels. The player, who appears as a testimonial in all covers of the game, has been removed from all FIFA official social pages. Electronic Arts seem to take, at least for the moment, precautionary distances from the player following the accusations suffered by the current number 7 Juventus.
At the center of the scandal was a woman named Kathryn Mayorga: the alleged victim had accused Ronaldo of harassment in 2009, in Las Vegas, and later withdrew the name of the champion. The reason? The champion would have paid out a sum of 260,000 euros to have the woman remove her name from the complaint.
FIFA 19 distances itself from CR7
The investigations are still ongoing but the accusation, not yet verified, seems to be sufficient for Electronic Arts, which pending an explanation chooses a surprising line. It is no secret that Cristiano Ronaldo is the symbolic face not only of fans but also of the videogame: Ronaldo has been on the cover for years and following his acquisition by Juventus EA had replaced the promotional photos with the new shirt quickly and fury.
Now the situation is different: the official Facebook and Twitter profiles of the game have removed and replaced the face of Ronaldo with logo and infographics quoting the votes of the data from the trade magazines, changing both the profile and the cover images.
Eletronic Arts has issued a sibylline statement about the situation: “As a company we expect the athletes on the cover and the FIFA ambassadors to maintain their behaviour in line with our values”.
Cristiano Ronaldo declares himself innocent and completely unrelated to the facts, while opposing opinions come from Juventus and other partners.