Fifa '16 Making History With Female Players On Front Cover Of Latest Game
Praise the sweet baby Jesus, finally the world of soccer is progressing. If you haven't heard by now, Fifa '16 is set to feature, wait for it... WOMEN. Yes, after twenty-two years of this game being released, EA Sports have so graciously decided to let us females in on the act. Somehow I doubt Sepp Blatter had much say in the matter, unless of course it was in deciding on the tightness of their shorts.
Don't get too excited just yet, though. Fantastic and all as it is that even one woman will feature in the newest edition of the game, to our disappointment only twelve women's national teams will be available to use. Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy and Mexico are the chosen teams but hopefully more will be added in years to come.
Another disappointing aspect of the additions is that these women's teams will only be able to play matches against other women's teams. So if you thought you'd be kicking the shit out of Barcelona, think again. I guess it wouldn't be a fair game, you know. I mean, imagine little Messi going up against Abby Wambach. He'd be fucking steamrolled.
Despite these shortcomings, this development is quite the historic moment in women's soccer. What with all the attention Stephanie Roche received earlier this year for her Fifa Puskas Award nomination, it'd be hard not to assume her success was somewhat influential in the EA Sports HQ this year. How typically Irish of us, snatching at any sort of claim to fame we can.
Being real though, it's a bit shitty of Fifa to give women this uh-fucking-mazing recognition, only to say "Yeah but you still can't play against the real teams". I absolutely guarantee the USA women's team would fucking destroy the majority of English Championship, League One and League Two teams. If the women's teams can't play against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, then why the fuck can Shamrock Rovers? No disrespect to Irish clubs but seriously. I mean, seriously.
An even more fabulously exciting aspect of the new Fifa '16 game is the cover. For the American edition of the game, USA striker Alex Morgan will stand alongside Messi on the front cover, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me. However, I do think Abby Wambach deserved that honour more than any other female soccer player, considering she holds the record for most international goals scored for both male and female teams. But anyway, that's just personal bias. In Canada, the host nation of the 2015 Women's World Cup, their captain Christine Sinclair will feature alongside The Short One. Again, that's pretty fucking cool.
As for the rest of the world, the new game's front cover will star other (male) players who have been successful in their respective countries this past year. For example, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson will be the player alongside Messi for the English editions of the game. It's a nice idea in theory but obviously we would've loved to see female players on the covers of the games being sold in Ireland. Feminism and Free The Nipple and all that shite.