In May 2022, EA blew the whistle on its long-running deal with world football governing body FIFA. The publisher's execs had long grumbled that they were paying a huge royalty and had done more than anyone to grow the FIFA brand to where it is today,

Konami Digital Entertainment and FIFA have announced a collaboration to continue their worldwide commitment to the advancement of esports. As part of this initiative, two FIFAe World Cup will be featuring eFootball game as the title.

FIFA and Konami team up for an all-new FIFAe World Cup event played on eFootball. Back in 2022, Electronic Arts and FIFA split up their 30-year partnership, causing the end of the FIFA football game franchise and the creation of EA Sports FC.

The 2024 FIFAe World Cup will be held across two platforms – console and mobile. Players on PS4 and PS5 can compete in the console category, so it's bad luck for any players on Xbox or PC. The competition will be held offline this year, with 18 countries from around the world competing in the tournament.

As announced on Konami's official site, the company's eFootball games will be utilized for two different FIFAe World Cup tournaments: one for mobile and one for consoles. However, the deal between Konami and FIFA is only for esports, and doesn't involve a new console game or rebranding eFootball as a FIFA title.

Now here's a move that we didn't expect. Following the split from EA, FIFA has announced that it is partnering with one-time rival Konami on a new eSports collaboration.

FIFA didn't exactly get out of the video game business after parting ways with EA. Soccer’s governing body has teamed up with Konami to host two editions of the FIFAe World Cup on the console and mobile versions of eFootball later this year.

FIFA is partnering with Konami on the current edition of the FIFAe World Cup. eFootball will be used for the first time ever in the competition. FIFA is apparently working on its own competitor to EA FC.