October 13: US TV coach Ted Lasso returns to EA Sports FC, but this time the spotlight has shifted to AFC Richmond’s women’s team.
EA has renewed its licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, bringing fictional AFC Richmond back to FC 27 four years after they first appeared in FIFA 23. The new deal gives the Lady Greyhounds their first playable outing in Kick Off, Career Mode and Online Seasons, with Ted Lasso also available as coach.
Ted Lasso’s fourth season, which concluded last week, focused on Ted’s return to Richmond to coach a second-division women’s team, taking the soccer story away from the men’s team program that ran its first three seasons.
EA has effectively brought this story right into the game.
AFC Richmond Women will sit in the Women’s Rest of World section, while Nelson Road returns as a playable stadium. Career mode goes further, with social media stories, cutscenes, contact line sequences and themed challenges built around Lasso and the Lady Greyhounds.
Football Ultimate Team will also carry Richmond-branded kit, stadium merchandise and coaching rewards.
Jeff Sharma, VP of Brand, EA Sports FC, said: “Ted Lasso celebrates the power of football to bring people together, and that’s what FC 27 is designed for. FC 27 gives players more ways than ever to play and connect, and AFC Richmond is the perfect club to welcome them.
“Fans can take to the pitch with their women’s team in Kick Off, lead the Lady Greyhounds as Ted in Career mode and represent Richmond for their own club in Football Ultimate Team. However you play, FC 27 and Ted Lasso are united by the belief that football is better together.”
The tie-up also lands perfectly alongside EA’s continued expansion of women’s soccer within the franchise.
Women’s club teams first arrived in FIFA 23, before female players were introduced to Ultimate Team for the first time with FC 24 after EA formally parted ways with FIFA.
FC 27 now boasts an extensive lineup of licensed women’s competitions, headlined by the WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue, NWSL and the Women’s Champions League.
At the time, EA said more than 739 million female player items were used in the starting eleven in the first 24 days of FC 24 alone, an early indication that women’s play could travel comfortably into Ultimate Team rather than remaining on the sidelines of the title.
Actress Abbie Hern, who appears in the latest series, said: “It was incredibly special the first time I played for AFC Richmond in the game, and it’s amazing to be part of the Lady Greyhounds team in (the game). Our fans have embraced Richmond as more than just a fictional club. Giving people a way to play and connect with a women’s team as an FC72. It’s a wonderful next chapter, and I hope the players enjoy being part of it. of his football stories”.
Four years after Ted Lasso first moved from TV to FIFA, the association is now tracking the show’s own change of direction.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at harry.ewing@insideworldfootball.com
