14 DAY TRIAL // FIFA 15 does not include teams and players from Brazil's domestic leagues, and developer EA Sports blamed the issue on not being able to reach an agreement with the image rights holders.
The developer made the announcement at the beginning of August, informing fans of the massively popular football video game that they wouldn't be able to enjoy playing with teams from the Brazilian League, although some of the international stars would be present.
"We want to inform you that due to some changes in the ways players are licensed in Brazil domestic leagues, we were unable to reach an agreement with the Brazilian rights holders for their inclusion in FIFA 15. While this is unfortunate news for many of our fans, we were able to retain the Brazil National Team in FIFA 15 as well as the Brazilian stars that play in other top leagues around the world," EA Sports said at the time.
However, according to a Reuters report published on NDTV, it appears that the negotiations didn't fail, but instead they simply never took place, due to the bad shape that the local licensing system is in.
"The obstacle is that the contracts of athletes from around the world are covered by an entity called FIFPro. But this year the Brazilians are no longer represented by this association," Warner Bros. Entertainment Product Manager Daniel Landi stated during an interview.
"The big problem is there is no one legal entity that represents Brazilian players and so the way round that would be to negotiate with each one and there are more than 600 players. We want to negotiate a collective contract but we don't know how yet, if it is with the clubs or the agents," he continued.
The teams could be added in a future update
It's a sad state of affairs, since the game is one of the market leaders in Brazil, one of the most football-crazed countries on Earth. And, unfortunately, the situation seems unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.
"We understand the situation in Brazil and it is extremely unfortunate that we are unable to provide the collective image rights for that particular market," FIFPro's Communications Director Andrew Orsatti told Reuters.
"Clearly, this is of immense disappointment for those who want to see Brazil represented on these platforms and we hope all parties concerned can find a solution to this issue going forward," he added.
FIFPro said that the Brazilian union had not provided them with the proper guarantees, and that they were working to get Brazil back into the game, but nothing was certain. If a deal does manage to go through, the teams could be added to the game in a future update.