EA SPORTS AND SHEFFIELD F.C. – THE F.O.A.T.

In football, everybody is talking about the G.O.A.T. – the greatest of all time, but why is no one talking about the F.O.A.T.? The first all time – Sheffield F.C. – the world’s first football club (founded in 1857) and the founding fathers of the first rules we still play by today. These are incredible facts not many people know about because today, Sheffield F.C is playing in the 8th division, far from the attention the club deserves.

Sheffield F.C. wanted to be at the centre of attention again, so on its 164th birthday, we helped the oldest club in the world to collaborate with the newest iteration of the most popular gaming franchise ever – EA’s FIFA 22. EA honoured the first club by giving the F.O.A.T. the exclusive right to repeat history and write down the unwritten rules of the FIFA community, thus making them officially official.

Rules like “no time-wasting” or “no ragequitting”. In order for the gaming community to be able to commit to the F.O.A.T. CODE (the rulebook), EA even released the historical Sheffield F.C. kit in FIFA 22, which made it clear: if you wear the kit, you play by these rules. The release of the kit and the rulebook were celebrated with a branded content campaign on various social media channels. And the results were massive.

Global sports media outlets reported about the F.O.A.T. and its new CODE of conduct. We got 180 million earned media contacts in over 20 countries worldwide and over 4 million organic reach on social media. Finally, Sheffield F.C. was back to the spotlight the club deserved, thanks to a co-creational effort with EA’s FIFA.