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EA has withdrawn Legendary Player Marco van Basten from FIFA 20 after the former professional football player said “Sieg Heil” in a Fox interview with a German football coach (via Game Rant).
van Basten has since apologised for his words, explaining that he intended to “ridicule” the language skills of German Heracles team manager Frank Wormuth. “Sieg Heil” is “hail victory” in German, and is known to be a Nazi salute and is chanted in Nazi rallies. Fox and EA have enacted sanctions against van Basten for the misjudged “joke”. The former has suspended the commentator for one week while it considers its next move, and van Basten’s salary will be donated to the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation in the interim.
The latter has taken out, “Marco van Basten ICON items from being available in packs, SBC's and FUT Draft until further notice.” The withdrawal of van Basten content pertains to the Legendary Player’s availability, and therefore any player who has earned the former striker will keep the character in their team. “We are aware of the recent comments made by Marco van Basten. We have an expectation that our commitment to equality and diversity is upheld across our game,” said the publisher in a statement.
FIFA 20 is out now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
