FIFA 14 Petition Calls for the Inclusion of Female Footballers

By Matthew Bennett, Associate Editor
Posted on April 16, 2013 AT 04:56am

A new petition has been created on change.org requesting that the FIFA development team add female footballers to FIFA 14.

The petition requires 19,000 signatures and will be sent to Brian Keaster, Senior Director of Customer Service Operations, if successful. It argues that 40 percent of football players in the U.S. are female and, according to the ESA, 47 percent of gamers are female.

“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,” the petition explains.

“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, Cristiano Ronaldo. Allow girls and boys to play with Wambach, Sawa, Morgan, Cristiane, Miyama, Rapinoe, Marta, Hope Solo, Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz.”

The petition currently has 8,668 supporters at the time of writing.

Matthew Bennett has only been covering the gaming world for a short while, but he’s eager to make his mark. An ability to go many hours without sleep and a quick wit make him ideal for his role as associate editor at EGMNOW.com. He often thinks back to the days when the very idea of this career seemed like nothing but an impossible dream. Follow him on Twitter @mattyjb89. Meet the rest of the crew.