Behind the scenes, worldwide licensing team works on FIFA soccer video game

While one team works on the game play of EA Sports' made-in-Canada "FIFA" franchise, another toils around the globe to secure the rights to fill the video game with authentic players, teams and stadiums.

With 33 leagues and more than 600 clubs in the game and more on the "to do" list, it's a job never quite done.

An extensive licensing department deals with leagues, clubs, players unions and sometimes stadium owners to ensure they are in the game, whose most recent version "FIFA 14" just came out.

It's a complicated spider-web of agreements.

Agreements with the likes of the English Premier League and North America's Major League Soccer allow the game developer to use all their member teams. Other leagues, like Brazil, are more complicated, requiring individual deals with clubs and those owning the rights to tournament structures and league name.

A licensing deal with a league or club allows EA Sports to use uniforms, club names, and crests. A league deal also gives it the right to use trophies and championships.

A separate deal with FIFPro, the International Federation of Professional Footballers, gives the game developers the rights to use real player names and likenesses.

The agreements have finite terms, meaning the England-based licensing department constantly has to keep renegotiating.

EA also strikes special partnerships with some clubs, including Spanish giant Barcelona. That deal allows developers access to Barca players for interviews as well being able to do 360-degree 3D digital head scan images for use in the game instead of working off mere photographs.

When gamers pop in "FIFA 14" for the first time, the Vancouver-made game asks which team you support and whether you are happy to share your gaming information.

So a club can get access to information from EA on how their fans are playing the game, who they like to play against and where their supporters who play the game are located.

It's all information that a club marketing department can use to its advantage.

For a video game, the EA franchise carries a lot of clout with "FIFA 13" selling more than 14.5 million copies. More than five million gamers — a record for an EA Sports game— played the "FIFA 14" demo in advance of the game's release.

The video game's Facebook page has more than 21 million likes, which is better than Chelsea (19 million-plus), AC Milan (17.6 million) and Liverpool (13 million), just to name a few big-name clubs.

Only FC Barcelona (45 million-plus), Real Madrid (43 million) and Manchester United (35.6 million) have more Facebook likes when it comes to soccer club teams, according to EA Sports.

Filling in licensing holes is an ongoing process — "A real labour of love," according to David Rutter, executive producer of the FIFA franchise.

EA has made big strides in recent years to add Brazilian and Chilean clubs, for example.

"In many respects, football is the national sport of many different continents," said Rutter. "And to have not been able to capture the essence of domestic football in Brazil, Chile and those kinds of countries, it's obviously incredibly disappointing for us and disappointing for the fans.

"But we've managed to sort a lot of it out this year."

Rutter's wish list is all-encompassing.

"As a football fan and as a FIFA fan and as a guy that makes that game for millions of fans around the world, for me I won't really be happy until our fans have access to every single team and league in the world. Which is kind of our approach to game play and everything. But I'm not sure that's a realistic goal for the next couple of years. But it's certainly something we aim to do."

Rutter's development team in Burnaby, B.C., also has a partnership with the Vancouver Whitecaps, giving it special access to its local team. The relationship with the MLS team has opened other doors, with members of Manchester City coming to the studio to spend time with the development team during a recent visit to the Pacific Northwest.

The success in capturing the likenesses of the Whitecaps players has also helped the team convince other clubs to allow developers to do the same to them.

EA Sports also strikes deals with stadiums as needed, with Everton's Goodison Park recently joining the fold. Barcelona's Nou Camp is also back in the game this time, thanks to the partnership deal.

The venues are sometimes owned by someone other than the teams that use them, which means another layer of licensing for the video game developer.

Goodison Park was added as a part of a new two-year deal with Everton that makes EA Sports the Premier League club's "official gaming partner."

The deal also allowed EA to come in and scan the players.

In August, Everton rival Liverpool extended its deal with EA. In making the announcement, EA noted more than 500,000 registered Liverpool fans were playing FIFA 13.

EA's licensing army ranges from people contacting the clubs and their representatives to data collection teams who then acquire the information.

Real world developments constantly impact the game, with the on-again, off-again, on-again transfer of Welsh star Gareth Bale to Real Madrid from Tottenham just one recent example.

Bale was slated to be on the U.K. cover, meaning game developers were in a bind on what uniform to use. They made packages for both, allowing them to go with the Real Madrid version when the deal went through.

The North American version features Barcelona's Lionel Messi on the cover.

Player rosters in the game can be kept up to date via online updates.

EA Sports' array of licensing deals also allows it to keep ahead of its main rival, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. The Konami game, which has licensing deals with UEFA's Champions League and South America's Copa Libertadores, recently announced an agreement with the Argentina league.

"FIFA 14" is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Vita, and PC.

It will be available next month for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.