Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has backed Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s investigation into FIFA using his image rights without permission.
However, the Swede’s case is becoming undone before his eyes.
Ibrahimovic took to Twitter to send out a serious of tweets questioning where FIFA and EA Sports got permission from to use his face and name in the game. He suggested this has been going on for ‘years’.
Somebody is making profit on my name and face without any agreement all these years.
Time to investigate— Zlatan Ibrahimovi? (@Ibra_official) November 23, 2020
MORE: “Somebody is making profit on my name” – Zlatan Ibrahimovic takes aim at FIFA in furious Twitter rant
In wake of Zlatan sending out the tweets, his campaign gained another supporter – Tottenham winger Gareth Bale. The Welshman sent out the below, suggesting that he was backing Ibrahimovic in his investigation.
.@Ibra_official Interesting… what is @FIFPro? ? #TimeToInvestigate
— Gareth Bale (@GarethBale11) November 23, 2020
The problem is, while we are ignorant to the actual details and legalities involved here, Ibrahimovic was clearly aware prior to today that he was being included in FIFA. In fact, he seemed delighted with it.
This you? pic.twitter.com/c9DkPWF4SA
— Jamie Hewitt (@JHewitt01) November 23, 2020
I guess he isn’t happy about that pace EA gave him in fifa 21 lol. pic.twitter.com/j0Lcv5YdMV
— ScoutTheStreet (@ScoutTheStreet) November 23, 2020
And let’s not forget that Bale himself was on the front cover of the game, just a few years ago, so you’d assume that he was pretty clued in when it came to his image rights being used by FIFA.
ok man pic.twitter.com/r93xyd6Mpo
— . (@Ido7ii) November 23, 2020
It’s all very bizarre – and it’s not clear where it’s come from.
If said ‘investigation’ does go ahead and a case is built, it will be down to the parties’ respective legal teams to figure out who’s right or wrong in this instance.
For now, enjoy playing with Ibrahimovic and Bale on FIFA 21, because you never know, they might not be on there for long!