Football Video Gaming & Meanings Given to Race

Exploring how football video games shape perceptions of race and inclusion.

Overview

This 5-year project (starting in 2026) focuses on the popular practice of football video gaming that engages many millions of young people worldwide. The popularity of football video gaming applies especially to the ‘EA FC’ game, formerly known as the ‘FIFA game’. Its popularity positions the game as an informal learning site for ideas about societal issues. This includes ideas about race and ethnicity, given the racial/ethnic diversity of the digital players in the game. EA FC assigns meanings to the racially diverse (digital) players, but in a different way from mainstream sports media, which requires new research. This research project will address this.

The project will not only look at the actual content of the game but also attend to its development/production, and to how streamers, as influential figures in gaming culture, shape their community’s perceptions and attitudes of in-game footballers in relation to race. The question of relevance is what messages about race and ethnicity are conveyed to those engaged in football video gaming, and how these messages are developed by game developers and shaped by players who stream the EA FC game content.

To further boost its impact, the project will also explore football video gaming as a site of change. Specifically, we aim to cooperate with the industry to further foster football video gaming's inclusionary potential and increase ‘racial-consciousness’, using a practical intervention which we call ‘equity conversation'.

Ongoing

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To be recruited

Lead Researcher

Funding: Dutch Research Council (NWO) – NWO-M scheme
Duration: 5 years (starting 2026)
Main locations: Rotterdam, with additional data collection in Vancouver and Bucharest (EA FC studios)

Soccer match with three players near the goal, one in a white jersey kicking the ball, another in a maroon jersey attempting to block, and a goalkeeper in a dark uniform stretching out to stop the shot, in a stadium filled with spectators.

“Football gaming mirrors society’s racial narratives and offers a space to challenge and redefine them”

Project Team

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Dr. Teresa De La Hera

Researcher

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Key Goals

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To examine how EA FC represents race and ethnicity through its digital football players and how these meanings differ from mainstream sports media.

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To explore how streamers and gaming communities shape perceptions of race and identity within football gaming culture.

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To collaborate with industry partners to foster inclusion and raise racial awareness through practical interventions such as the “equity conversation.”

Methodology

Content Analysis

The project conducts content analysis of EA FC’s in-game materials to understand racial representations

Interviews

It includes interviews with developers, streamers, and players to capture diverse perspectives on race in gaming

Participant Observation

Used to study how race-related meanings are produced and negotiated within gaming and development spaces