We started discussing a name for the fifa 15 ultimate team coins game. It was just called EA Soccer at this time, " says Webster. "And a few of us said that if we were follow the EA Sports tradition, then we should go for the official association, which was FIFA. "I ended up making the first call to FIFA's press secretary, I explained who we were and he gave us the details of the FIFA marketing agent. Then I handed it off to Tom Stone. "Stone continues: "My first job at EA was to get on a plane and fly to Switzerland to see FIFA. "We met the head of ISL marketing who were the representatives of FIFA, and we shook hands on a deal there and then over dinner. "The deal lasted through until 1998, it was a five year deal.

style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;">I'm not going to reveal what the royalty payments were, but it was miniscule. "There was a reason why EA managed to secure the FIFA licence for such a small amount of money. "It was only later we discovered there were no player names, likenesses, or team logos included because football wasn't organised in a commercial way like the US Sports leagues, " laughs David Gardner. "In hindsight it is all quite funny and a great stupid American story that turned out quite successful anyway after hundreds of deals later. "Stone adds: "In many ways our asking for these rights helped football become organised. "I went to the Football Association, the Premier League, the PFA and so on. I got to know those people quite well and they were like: 'Oh right, who has the rights to player likenesses then? Who has the rights to the stadium? These guys are asking for those rights. '