League fixtures are wrapped up, international squads are out, and club football is firmly on the backburner
Needless to say, World Cup season has officially commenced.
It’s all eyes on Qatar for the next month, as 32 of the globe’s best national sides compete for the biggest prize in the game. And Fans have been busy getting into the groove as matchday 1 draws closer.
Holding them over until then is FIFA 23, EA Sports’ annual Football simulation video game, which recently received a thematic refresh through a World Cup update.
Aside from bringing a playable World Cup mode, the update also brought along limited edition players, new challenges for FUT players, a compilation of the greatest FIFA tunes ever, and some nifty cosmetic items in kits and badges.
Overall, the update has ticked all the right boxes, aside from one very peculiar oversight which poses a specific problem for those hailing from the Emerald Isles. And strangely enough, the oversight has all to do with Iran instead of Ireland, so how did we get here?
As mentioned before, the update brought new badges to the table, including a customized one for every national team, all available to be acquired through packs.
The badge for Iran displays concentric circles made up of Green, Red and white, with the colours borrowed for the national flag. Pretty standard.
What is far from routine however are the letters depicted right at the centre. Despite Iran’s FIFA code being IRN, EA has seemingly taken a bit of creative liberty and have gone with IRA instead.
It didn’t take long for Irish Football fans on Twitter to put two and two together, and now the blunder is impossible to un-see.
For the uninitiated, IRA stands for the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that most notably operated during the Troubles, and sought to bring an end to British Rule in Northern Ireland.
Naturally, seeing the acronym pop up when you’ve sat down for a round of Ultimate Team can be pretty awkward, to say the least.
FUT players are all set to have a hard time figuring out whether their opponent is using the badge ironically, or if there’s more to it.
