FIFA 15: why Brazilian teams didn't make the cut

FIFA 15 missed out on Brazilian teams because the local licensing system is a shambles, apparently.

FIFA 15 does not include Brazil's domestic leagues. Announcing this news, EA Sports said only that "due to some changes in the ways players are licensed in Brazil domestic leagues" it was "unable to reach an agreement with the Brazilian rights holders for their inclusion in FIFA 15".

New information has since come to light. According to a Reuters report published on NDTV, it wasn't just a matter of negotiations failing to reach an amicable conclusion - they didn't even start.

"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," Daniel Landi, a representative for the Brazilian distributor of FIFA 15, said.

"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."

"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."

In short: the legal status of the rights to Brazilian players and clubs is up in the air.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this situation is likely to change soon: FIFPro said the Brazilian union has not "provided them with the proper guarantees and that they were working to get Brazil back into the game".

Despite fronting one of the best national teams in the world, Brazil's domestic leagues are reportedly a bit of a mess. The Reuters report claims "most of the clubs are in debt and even some of the top teams in the country cannot afford to pay their players on time".

Image from EA Sports 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.