For over a decade, this was one of the discussions that kept an entire genre and its plethora of fans guessing. Ever since Konami entered the scene of professional football games, the rivalry between FIFA and PES defined an entire genre multiple times. It was always a case of “anything you can do, I can do better”. This was a joy for the regular fans of both franchises rejoiced in the fact that both FIFA and PES had to come up with innovative additions to their games in order to retain they’re fans.

In 2008, PES dealt a significant blow to FIFA in the rivalry when it managed to acquire the exclusive rights to UEFA Champions League. The competition which is often considered football’s greatest competition gave PES an enormous advantage over FIFA. While FIFA could boast of its completely licensed leagues, its gameplay and its extensive stadiums, PES had the holy grail of football i.e. the Champions League.

In almost any argument between the fans of both the franchises, there would be comparison of gameplay vs. graphics and licenses vs. the customization. However, there was no ample response from the FIFA fans when the question of the Champions League license was raised.

That is all about to change.

The news broke out in April that Konami and UEFA had officially decided to part ways after a 10 year partnership. This meant that the licensing rights for the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League were up for grabs. Fans knew what was going to happen, but they still awaited any official confirmation or announcement.

Their wait seems to be over, or close to being over after the first concrete news of the Champions League being in the new FIFA game was accidently leaked.

According to the Dutch football commentator, Evert ten Napel, who spilled the beans during the recent FIFA eSports tournament, he had been asked to record updated lines for the new FIFA games because of some additions that had been made to the game.

There were some calls on the internet saying that he may have been referring the FIFA World Cup patch that had been added to the game. That seems unlikely considering how that patch is all but finished and soon to be rolled out following the conclusion of the football season.

The most logical explanation can be the fact that EA Sports had asked Napel and all other commentators to record their updated lines because of the last minute updates that will need to be made to the game in order to shoe horn the UEFA Champions League in it.

Napel further revealed that he was almost finished with the commentary for the next FIFA entry which was all set for an October 2018 release. He revealed that after he’s all done with his job, the finished product would then be forwarded to the test centre where EA’s beta testers would check all of the game’s aspects thoroughly.