October 2: Konami has extended its partnership with the French Football Federation in a new multi-year deal, keeping one of the biggest national team brands in international football within its eFootball ecosystem.
The Japanese publisher will remain the official football video game partner of the FFF, continuing a relationship that began in 2022.
France will continue to be fully licensed to eFootball, while Konami retains a package of commercial, image and activation rights around the national team. The deal also extends to esports, with the FFF continuing to be present in selected Konami competitions alongside its other licensed national associations.
The timing is useful for Konami, given that EA Sports FC 27 was released worldwide just last week, kicking off another annual cycle for the dominant soccer game franchise. EA says the new title has more than 21,000 players, 800 clubs and national teams and more than 300 football partners.
Konami is playing a slightly different game: eFootball is free and operates as an ongoing digital platform, with new seasons, players and content added without replacing the main title with a numbered release every autumn.
This makes collaborations like the France one particularly useful: new licenses and national team activations give Konami regular material to push while EA generates the usual buzz around a new FC release.
EA moved a little closer to that model this year with a free-to-download FC 27 Lite product, but their core game is very much what they’re positioning for.
Shinji Namekawa, European President of Konami Digital Entertainment, said: “France’s rich football heritage and global prestige make this a very valuable collaboration.
“As eFootball continues to grow as a platform for football fans around the world, we are proud to build on our partnership with the French Football Federation and find new ways to bring fans closer to the game.”
Konami’s wider football portfolio includes partnerships with Barcelona, Arsenal, Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund, as well as Japan’s J.League, an important region as eFootball is particularly popular in Asia.
It’s a more selective licensing strategy than EA’s, but one that gives Konami some valuable properties to build campaigns throughout the year. France will now remain one of them, with eFootball heading into another season vying for attention with a newly launched FC 27.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)
