14 DAY TRIAL // On Wednesday, the football world was rocked by news that nine high-level executives from FIFA were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, accused by prosecutors of being involved in racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies.
They are: Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin, Nicolas Leoz and Jack Warner.
A wider probe into the activities of the organization is ongoing, with the authorities investigating how the hosts for the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 were chosen.
Today the development team at EA Sports has announced the first set of features to be included in FIFA 16, the new installment in the long-running football simulation series.
The Federation Internationale de Football Association (that's what FIFA stands for at an organizational level) is not involved in the creation of the video game in any way, but it does have an institutional relationship with publisher Electronic Arts.
For fans of the sport, the two announcements are not related, but the fact that they took place so close to one another raises some major questions about the link between FIFA 16 and the way football is organized in the real world.
Will gamers care about the corruption and its impact?
When Tiger Woods was implicated in a set of scandals, EA Sports decided to drop the cover star from its golf sim to make sure that the public did not see the association as toxic.
The most recent version of the PGA Tour title is focused on the personality of Rory McIlroy, and the transition seems not to have had a negative effect on the series.
The FIFA arrests might lead to big shake-ups in world football, and we might even see the next two World Cups change organizers, as both Qatar and Russia are under suspicion.
EA Sports might need to distance itself from the organization in order to make sure that it is not tainted by association, especially for those fans who have long been suspicious about the negative impact that the federation has on the sport.
For the company, gamers and football lovers are more important than the governing body, but a separation between the two entities might result in problems with licensing for competitions and stadiums.
Can the EA Sports football sim get a name change?
The Electronic Arts series started life as FIFA International Soccer before the name was shortened.
The NBA series from the company also received a title change recently, although that was precipitated by problems with quality and by the need for re-invention.
FIFA is a household name in the video game world, and EA Sports might find it hard to move to a new designation, especially given that the current one has international recognition.
The positive aspect of a name change and a separation between EA Sports and FIFA is that it could also lead to big changes in the gameplay of the series, which has been focused on spectacle and presentation for a long time, partly because it needs to reflect the impressive show of international football.
A lot depends on whether the scandal will expand and on who is elected as president of the Federation Internationale de Football Association this week.
It's entirely possible that EA Sports will limit itself to a statement about the situation and will emphasize that FIFA does not have any direct involvement in the development of the video game and that its scandals should have no impact on it.
But for football fans all over the world, the interaction between the two is clear, and in time, it might be easier to sell Football Sim 2017 than to deal with the FIFA connection and the problems that it generates.