FIFA 23 will not include Russian teams due to Ukraine invasion

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, almost the entire games industry expressed its support for Ukraine by imposing their own sanctions against Russia, with many outright suspending sales of their games in Russia, including the big three of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

EA not only followed suit, but it went as far as to ban Russia from participating in tournaments for Apex Legends and removed the Russian teams from its current sports titles, including FIFA 22. At the time of writing, it has no intention of adding them back in and has also confirmed that this will be the case with FIFA 23 when it launches this September.

“In line with our partners at FIFA and UEFA, EA Sports will not include the Russian national team or Russian clubs in FIFA 23,” the company told Eurogamer. “EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine.”

This seems to be the only thing EA and the actual FIFA organization can agree on considering the two will be going their separate ways soon. As a reminder, FIFA 23 will be the last soccer game EA makes with the FIFA license after deciding to stop paying the license fees. After FIFA 23, the series will be rebranded as EA Sports FC, while the FIFA organization looks for a new video game partner.

While FIFA 23 may lack any Russian teams, it will be the first entry in the series to feature women’s club teams and leagues, with Australian soccer player Sam Kerr as one of its two cover stars. Unlike FIFA 22, it’ll also launch with cross-play functionality on consoles and PC, although there will still be some restrictions.