Fernanda Schabarum, a gamer and footy fan from Florida, has launched a petition at Change.org asking EA Sports to include female players in the upcoming FIFA 14.
She quotes statistics showing that 40% of US soccer players and 47% of gamers are female, and notes that soccer is now the most popular sport for women at US colleges. The gold medal winning success of the US women's team at the 2012 Olympic Games is also noted.
The petition reads: By offering just men's teams as playable options on FIFA we're not only denying these girls a chance to relate to the characters they play on a videogame, but we're also wasting a great opportunity to encourage those same girls to be who they are, develop their passion, motivation and promote a healthy image and relation between women and sports.
It remains to be seen how EA Sports will react. Similar requests were made last year but weren't reflected in FIFA 13. VG247 points out that EA Canada, which develops both the FIFA and NHL franchises, has already included female players in its hockey series.