EA has revealed that it currently has no plans to include women’s soccer (football for Europeans) in the FIFA series, despite constant requests from fans.

An online petition signed by over 2800 people claims that not including women’s soccer makes no sense. “The U.S. Department of State says that over 40% of soccer players in the U.S. are girls. By offering just men’s teams as playable options on FIFA we’re not only denying these girls a chance to relate to the characters they play on a video game, but we’re also wasting a great opportunity to encourage those same girls to be who they are, develop their passion, motivation and promote a healthy image and relation between women and sports,” it reads.

“Young girls can’t be portrayed by male video game characters. We want them to be able see themselves in the games they love, as the soccer players that inspire them. Don’t restrict our choices to Messi, Rooney, Neymar, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Allow girls and boys to play with Wambach, Sawa, Morgan, Cristiane, Miyama, Rapinoe, Marta, Hope Solo, Mia Hamm, and Birgit Prinz.”

Despite this, FIFA executive producer David Rutter told CVG, “We get literally thousands upon thousands of suggestions from our fans for new features and we have to evaluate those suggestions, such as the inclusion of female players in the game, against our resources, priorities and overall fan feedback. At present, we don’t have plans to include female players in the game.”

Of course this isn’t just the developer saying it doesn’t want to include female players, it’s simply a matter of time and resources available. I’m sure if it was given the time to do it, we would see female players in the game. With the game getting bigger with each passing year, there’s no reason, besides resources, that it shouldn’t be included.

Should women be included in FIFA? Share your thoughts in the comments below.