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New 'FIFA Mobile' season brings revamped visuals and team chemistry
FIFA Mobile has usually played second fiddle to its 'full-size' counterparts. That gap just closed a bit, however. EA has updated FIFA Mobile on Android and iOS for the new season, and it includes some much-needed improvements. There's a full gameplay engine revamp that promises more fluid animation as well as smarter, more realistic AI. You can also expect more authentic-looking star players (like Neymar above) and reworked menus. And yes, there are some significant gameplay changes.
European football is finally embracing VAR
The Champions League will begin using VAR, or video assistant referees, during the 2019 to 2020 season, UEFA announced. The technology will also be used in the Europa League starting in 2020 and in the 2019 Super Cup, at Euro 2020 and at the 2021 finals of the Nations League.
Swiss soccer fans interrupt game to protest esports
While a growing number of professional sports leagues are supporting esports, not everyone is too pleased that they're doing so. This weekend, fans of two Swiss soccer teams -- Young Boys and Basel -- protested the rise of esports during a game, hurling tennis balls and video game console controllers onto the field around 15 minutes in. Some of the controllers appeared to have "fuck esports" written on them. Fans on both sides also unfurled banners, with one featuring a giant pause button and another saying "scheiss esports."
'FIFA 19' has everything it needs to be the best
I've always tried to love FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer equally, though there are years when one franchise wins me over the other -- even if it's by a tiny bit. You can always count on the game mechanics of Konami's PES to be a pleasure to play, but EA Sports' advantage with FIFA has been that it owns the official licenses to the biggest clubs and players. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play with Manchester United than Man Red. This year, the most important change to FIFA 19 is the addition of the UEFA Champions League, Europe's premier club competition, which had featured on PES since 2008. EA Sports didn't need the Champions League to make FIFA great, but it was basically the only thing it was missing. And now, at the expense of PES, it's finally here.
'FIFA 19' demo gives you an early taste of The Journey this week
It's that time of year again: FIFA demo season. The demo's 2019 installment for, you guessed it FIFA 19, will be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One September 13th, around two weeks before the full game. The playable teaser features 10 teams total including UEFA Champions League clubs Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
ESPN is testing a global fantasy soccer game
ESPN has launched a new global fantasy soccer game that will let soccer fans around the world compete across 13 global editions of ESPN.com. ESPN Fantasy Soccer, which launched in beta today, is presented in three languages -- English, Spanish and Portuguese -- and is available on smartphones, tablets and computers. At launch, the game supports multiple professional leagues -- Champions League, English Premier League, La Liga and Liga MX -- and more will be added next year.
Nike releases its first NFC-enabled soccer kit for Chelsea FC
Nike is bringing its NFC-enabled replica sports jerseys to the soccer sphere for the first time through its partnership with English Premier League club Chelsea. The $90 shirt, which the likes of Eden Hazard will wear in Europa League games, features a NikeConnect label. Fans who use the NikeConnect mobile app to connect to the label will gain access to exclusive content and experiences, including playlists, the chance to win tickets and the opportunity to collaborate with Nike designers on a "fan jersey."
Facebook will stream live Champions League matches in Latin America
Facebook's soccer (aka football) ambitions aren't stopping with July's Premier League deal. The social network has secured the rights to stream live Champions League matches for free in Latin America between 2018 and 2021. It's not as sweeping as the earlier arrangement, as Facebook will only broadcast 32 games per season. However, the company will share highlights and magazine programming every match week.
ESPN+ is the only place you can watch FA Cup soccer in the US
The FA Cup is the oldest single-knockout cup competition in soccer, and the 138th edition of the famous old tournament is about to get underway. However, you won't be able to watch the inevitable upsets through your cable provider in the US for the foreseeable future. That's because ESPN landed a multi-year deal to show games exclusively on the ESPN+ streaming service. Fox's deal for the FA Cup expired at the end of last season, and there were rumors a streaming service would pick up the rights.
Snapchat deals with NFL, NBC add more sports videos
The jury's still out on whether or not Snapchat Stories are successful, but giants in the sports realm are apparently happy. Snap has signed deals with the NFL and NBC that will bring more sports programming to your phone. To begin with, it's extending its NFL partnership to include a "best of" Sunday Story in the Discover section that summarizes American football news and highlights for the past week. You'll continue to see Snapchat-produced NFL Our Stories material as well as Bitmoji, filters and lenses.
Amazon’s Manchester City soccer docu-series debuts August 17th
Now that the World Cup is over, the football world can settle back to obsessing over the Premier League. And just in time, Amazon's documentary series All or Nothing: Manchester City is arriving on Prime Video worldwide on August 17th.
Amazon sets its sights on official soccer shirt sales
Amazon's foray into clothing and fashion has been met with mixed responses, particularly from major labels that believe its marketplace could devalue their brand. That notion doesn't seem to fit with Italian soccer giants Napoli, however, as the club has just become the first team in the world to launch its own "brandstore" on Amazon's sprawling marketplace.
World Cup tweets were viewed 115 billion times
Twitter had high hopes that the World Cup would be a big hit on its platform. The previous games in 2014 happened before the platform released video features, but this time around, it secured a deal with the event's US rights holder Fox Sports, as well as others across the world, for exclusive content like highlight clips and interviews. As the dust settles following the French team's triumph over underdog Croatia's squad in Sunday's final game, Twitter has released its own numbers to give us an idea how the World Cup went for the platform.
The World Cup showed how VAR will shape soccer’s future
For every football (aka soccer) fan, it doesn't get any bigger than the FIFA World Cup. Every four years since 1930, the tournament has been held in different parts of the globe, and honestly, it hasn't changed much. There was the expansion to include 32 teams in 1998, but the game's rules have rarely been altered -- largely because of FIFA's unwillingness to embrace emerging technologies. But the 2018 edition in Russia, which ended Sunday with France's win over Croatia, was different. For the first time ever, FIFA used the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at its flagship competition. And the tech, for better or worse (depending on which team you cheered on), certainly made a mark.
After Math: Stage 4 capitalism
It's been another fun-filled week of plebes like us being crushed under the heel of big business. Want to take a trip into orbit? You're gonna need to mortgage your house and your children's futures. Want to own the last decent MacBook Pro? Tough, Apple now says that the garbage touch panel version is the only one for sale. Trying to watch the World Cup on YouTubeTV? NOPE. NO SOCCER FOR YOU. COME BACK FOUR YEARS!
Even the World Cup couldn't escape the 'Fortnite' fever
Now that England is out of the 2018 World Cup, there's one thing we're really going to miss about its team: The goal celebrations from midfielders Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard. While professional athletes creatively expressing themselves after scoring is nothing new, these guys stood out because their quirky moves were inspired by none other than Fortnite. Best of all, they did it at the world's biggest sporting event. Fortnite's mark on the World Cup in Russia is just the latest example of how inescapable the Epic Games' survival title is.
Elon Musk is sending teams to assist with the Thailand cave rescue
Elon Musk has offered assistance in the rescue of the boys' soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand. Engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company will travel to the country on Saturday to help with what is becoming an increasingly perilous rescue effort. As CNN reports, conditions are becoming life-threatening, with a former navy diver involved in the operation losing his life after a sudden drop in oxygen levels underground.
Amazon may add to its ‘free’ TV streaming in the UK
Amazon's next foray into video probably isn't what you expect. No, the e-commerce juggernaut isn't jumping into VR (that we know of), it will potentially start offering more free, ad-supported channels however. At least in the United Kingdom. According to the UK's This is Money (an offshoot of The Daily Mail), Amazon recently posted a job listing for "head of free to air TV and advertising" based out of London. The expectation is that it'll broadcast Premier League soccer next year for free, with traditional commercials running during the matches.
Facebook will broadcast live Premier League games in Asia
Facebook made clear its intentions to move into sport earlier this year, when it hired Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton to lead negotiations for worldwide live sports streams. Hutton's been earning his keep, because the company has just agreed a £200 million broadcast deal with the Premier League.
Fox set a streaming record during the World Cup on Monday
Fox Sports has done a lot of work to deliver live streaming coverage of the World Cup in Russia, but it seems to be paying off. The network announced that the Brazil-Mexico match was its top authenticated streaming event ever with 1.4 million unique visitors, and that Monday was its best all-time streaming day with 2 million viewers. That trumps its previous all-time high of 1.8 million unique visitors set just a week ago on June 27th.
