Addition of women's teams in FIFA 16 a huge boost for female sport

For all the trouble FIFA has endured this week, its video game namesake is making headlines for all the right reasons, as EA’s flagship football game is set to include 12 women’s national teams in its 2016 edition.

For the first time in FIFA’s 23-year history, players will be able to control female players from 12 national teams: Australia, England, USA, France, Canada, Spain, China, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Mexico.

It’s a move EA Sports FIFA GM David Rutter has hailed as “massive”.

The news comes at a good time for women’s football, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup set to kick off in Canada on June 6, with the US Ladies team the joint favourites with Germany to add a third title to their already decorated women’s football history.

Abby Wambach, world record holder for international goals scored and forward for the United States Women’s National Team, said, “We’re all excited to see ourselves in the game, but even more excited to see the reaction from all of the fans, including the fans of our team that maybe wouldn’t be expecting something like this from EA Sports.”

The addition of women’s national teams in FIFA 16 is not only a huge step in women’s football, but it is also a masterstroke in attracting more females to play sport.

Research has proven that there is a strong link between interest and participation and Brock University psychologists Paul Adachi and Teena Willoughby found support for a long-term, bidirectional association between sports video game play and involvement in sports. Unsurprisingly, they discovered adolescents who played sports more frequently were also more likely to play sports-themed video games.

More importantly, they also found “sports video game play predicted greater involvement in sports over time”.

Its a win-win situation for both EA Sports and women’s football, as FIFA has opened themselves up to a whole new, completely untapped demographic, while women’s football, as an extension of women’s sport, is also bound to benefit with the increased exposure.

News of this magnitude will inevitably be open to wisecracks, but it’s a monumental step in increasing the exposure for women’s football and a truly groundbreaking move in sports video games, as FIFA becomes the first major multi-platform sports game to include women’s sports teams.

While women’s team sports are still largely considered as second class in the crowded and ultra-competitive professional sporting landscape, this initiative by EA will go some way in breaking down the barriers between male and female sports.