The Argentine court has since confirmed that the trademark owner for Maradona‘s legal rights is Sattvica, the company of Matias Morla, who served as his lawyer. According to Argentinian sources, Morla gained control of the Maradona brand last August. This would imply that FC 24 Coins the deal signed between EA Sports and Stefano Ceci is now null and void, leading to the decision to suspend his likeness from the game. Regardless of the decision, players who currently hold any Maradona collection items will not lose them from their collections, but it's unknown whether they will be allowed to continue using him in FC 24 Ultimate Team.
Without knowing how long the legal dispute will last, it's up in the air whether Maradona will appear in FC 24 or any other soccer-related games. Maradona's passing came back in November 2020. when the legend suffered a heart attack just two weeks after being released from hospital following successful brain surgery. While EA was successful in its $11 million loot box fine being overturned, this legal dispute takes any power the company may have had out of its hands, as a new deal will have to be signed with the correct owner of Maradona's rights, Matias Morla. When, or if, that happens remains to be determined.
EA is one of the biggest gaming companies in the world and is a household name when it comes to sports video games. Over the years, though, the company has consistently promised meaningful and exciting changes in its FIFA titles and has unfortunately disappointed most fans by providing stale gameplay with few changes. The lack of changes in titles has hurt the series, as more and more fans have decided to move onto other games like eFootball. Further, the upcoming UFL game could be a genre-defining title that will hurt FIFA and other EA titles even more.
For years now, fans have been hoping that EA would make significant changes to not only the gameplay but also the online and offline game modes. While buy FC Coins did implement certain changes, like adding old features such as the quick and visual sim option for games alongside Create-A-Club, most of the offline FIFA game modes do not have any meaningful changes. Fortunately, another sports game has shown how useful a new engine can be in shaking up a franchise.