Diego Maradona Removed From FIFA 22
Diego Maradona - one of the best footballers ever - has disappeared from FIFA 22. The reason? Legal problems came to the fore.
One of the elements that attract players to FIFA 22 is the ability to as footbal Icons - special versions of players who have dominated the game in the past. Unfortunately one of the best players in the history of the sport, Diego Armando Maradona, falls out of this group..
As we can read from the announcement published by Electronic Arts, Diego Maradona has been "suspended" indefinitely.. This means that FIFA 22 will no longer feature cards with his likeness in the Ultimate Team mode, and the price of existing copies on the transfer market will be set top-down. From now on, the player cannot be played outside of Ultimate Team as EA must remove him from the Soccer Aid World XI, where Maradona played alongside Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and other ex-stars of world soccer.
The decision to "suspend" (or de facto remove) of Diego Maradona from FIFA 22 is dictated by an ongoing legal dispute. EA has not provided any details, but behind the scenes it is said it's about issues related to the rights to the image of the soccer legend. A few years ago Electronic Arts obtained a permission to put "Divine Diego" in FIFA, but the court proceedings have ruled it to be invalid. It turned out that the rights to Maradona's image belong to another person. Argentinian court confirmed some time ago that Maradona's trademark is owned by his former lawyer - Matias Morla, and not Stefano Ceci, with whom EA sign an agreement a few years ago. Morla has become so involved in various legal disputes over the use of Maradona's name that he even sued the footballer's family.
For now, it is not known what future awaits Maradona in the FIFA series. It seems that everything will depend on whether Electronic Arts will come to an agreement with Matias Morla about using the rights to the image of "Divine Diego".
