It’s coming home. Tournament organiser ESL has teamed up with the Football Association (FA) to find FIFA players to represent England.
The successful players will play for the Three Lions at the inaugural FIFA eNations Cup which kicks off next month.
Online qualifiers will take place next weekend (March 9th and 10th), then four finalists will progress to the live finals to face the nation’s best in central London on Thursday March 14th.
The FIFA eNations Cup will be an invite-only exhibition event for member associations and will pit 16 national FIFA esports teams against each other in the FIFA 19 Ultimate Team (FUT) mode.
This new cup will be one of eight majors in the EA Sports FIFA 19 Global Series all gearing towards the FIFA eWorld Cup in August 2019.
“This presents an exciting opportunity for Three Lions fans to help form a new chapter in England’s history.”
Mark Bullingham, the FA
Male and female FIFA players of all ages are eligible to qualify.
Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief commercial & development officer, said: “This presents an exciting opportunity for Three Lions fans to help form a new chapter in England’s history.
“The FA prides itself on being a modern, innovative organisation that strives to engage and inspire all generations of football fans. FIFA 19 is played by hundreds of millions of players daily with many selecting our male and female players so we have a great chance to engage with these as part of our efforts to continue to grow the game in England.”
Luis Vicente, FIFA’s chief digital transformation & innovation officer, added: “The involvement of our member associations with a dedicated nations tournament is another significant and exciting step forward for FIFA and the development of eFootball globally.
“After the successful introduction of the FIFA eClub World Cup in recent years and the new team mode, we are looking forward to integrating this nation vs nation competition into our eFootball portfolio.”
The FA also added in a statement: “While this latest development will see eventual winners of any gender virtually represent the England men’s senior team, The FA will continue to liaise with FIFA about the opportunity to extend this opportunity to women’s national teams.
To enter the FA’s qualification stage, visit here for Xbox esl.im/eLionsXbox or here for Playstation 4 esl.im/eLionsPS4.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
