There's been much talk about whether the court case of Christiano Ronaldo will affect his standing with EA, what with the man gracing the cover of FIFA 19, and the company finally decided to make the cut and posted the new cover online.
When pressed for a statement earlier, EA said that they "expect cover athletes and ambassadors to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with EA's values".
Much like Nike, another one of Ronaldo's sponsors, EA said they will be closely monitoring the situation from the sidelines. Considering the sensitive nature of these allegations, quite understandably so.
After all, the conduct of high profile celebrities can easily reflect on their profits, as even Juventus' stockholders found after the allegations came to the fore.
Now, however, it seems that the time for waiting is over as EA tweeted the new cover without Ronaldo. Instead, the company went for a triple-threat combination of Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne, Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar and Juventus' forward and Ronaldo's teammate Paulo Dybala.
FIFA 19's official website quickly followed in suit and removed all the earlier artwork that focused on Ronaldo and the same goes for the game's remaining official channels.
EA already found themselves in hot water when Ronaldo from Real to Juventus, as The Journey: Champions mode was meant to focus on his Real days. The artwork too was a done deal, with him sporting white and all, but eventually, they redid them.
Now however, it seems like more trouble than it was worth as EA had to go and remove all the Ronaldo imagery from FIFA 19. They did a thorough job too, removing his name from descriptions as if he isn't even in the game.
So, anyone buying FIFA 19 from now on will soon not be able to find a Ronaldo cover, so if that's the one you were hoping to get - you better seriously hurry up. Just make sure not to place it anywhere prominently in your house - it's obviously bad for the image.
EA
You can find EA's tweet in question .
FIFA 18, the most important secondary game in the world
- Image: 1 / 10
