One of football’s most iconic stadiums hasn’t featured in an EA Sports title since FIFA 19.
Six years after its last FIFA appearance, Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena stadium may be ready to return for EA FC 26 after the club ended its license with Konami’s eFootball.
Right now, the football gaming scene is popping off, with the likes of UFL, eFootball, and the newly-released Rematch all offering good competition for EA Sports and its EA Sports FC game series. One of the major factors that has always made EA Sports FC stand out from the crowd, though, is its authenticity, with EA priding itself on its unmatched realism when it comes to players, clubs, leagues, and stadiums.
But, EA can’t have it all, with some team and stadium licenses unavailable in EA FC 25 due to partnerships with Konami and its free-to-play football game, eFootball. EA lost the license for Inter and AC Milan ahead of EA FC 25’s launch while big stadiums like Barcelona’s Camp Nou, Inter and AC Milan’s San Siro and Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena are missing from the game, but now, it looks like the latter could be returning for EA FC 26, with Bayern Munich’s licenses being removed from eFootball.
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Allianz Arena tipped for EA FC 26 return
It was recently announced by Konami that eFootball will lose the licenses for Bayern Munich’s club name, club emblem and club kits, while the Allianz Arena will no longer be available, meaning Konami has lost the rights to use the stadium in-game. The update will go live in eFootball on Thursday, June 26, so if you play eFootball, you only have a week to make the most of the Bayern Munich license.
There has been no announcement of any agreement for the Allianz Arena to be used in EA FC 26, but with the license no longer with Konami, we can assume that EA will be ready to stake its claim for the iconic stadium. The last time the Allianz Arena was available was back in FIFA 19, so if you played the Champions League mode in EA FC 25, you would’ve been playing at the fictional Sanderson Park instead, with its in-game capacity of 39,000, much lower than the Allianz Arena’s 75,000 capacity.
This isn’t the only licensing change that Konami has suffered recently. It was revealed by the Japanese company earlier this month that the Mexican league, Liga MX, was being removed from the game, meaning after a four-year hiatus, Mexican clubs could be available in EA FC 26.
EA FC 25 has over 120 different authentic football stadiums available to use, and this may increase by one for EA FC 26.
