After being removed from FIFA 23, Ivan Toney may not be included in EA Sports' new game, EA Sports FC.
Brentford striker Toney was handed an eight-month ban from football and all football-related activity by the FA after pleading guilty to 232 of the 262 charges placed on the 27-year-old for betting offences. The bets placed by the England international date all the way back to 2017, which even included 11 bets against his parent club Newcastle to lose whilst he was on loan at Wigan between August, 2017 and March, 2018.
The ban meant that Toney missed the last three games of the 2022/23 Premier League season, a campaign which saw the striker hit the best form of his career and notch 20 goals in the Premier League. Despite ending the season as the league's third top goalscorer, Toney was not nominated for the FIFA 23 Premier League Team of the Season (TOTS) squad.
At first, many were confused as to why, but EA has now opted to remove the striker from FIFA 23 completely following his ban from football. In their latest squad update, Toney was removed from the Brentford squad in FIFA 23, meaning he is no longer able to be used in all game modes apart from FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, where his three FUT items remain.
So, what does this mean for the Brentford striker in EA Sports FC?
Why Ivan Toney may not feature in EA Sports FC
EA Sports FC (FC) is EA 's brand-new football game, replacing their long-lasting FIFA series after the publisher and FIFA put an end to their three-decade-long partnership. With FC expected to be released in a few months' time, around the same time EA released their FIFA titles, Toney will still be banned from football when the game is out.
The striker's ban will end on January 16, 2024, meaning he wouldn't feature for Brentford, or even be registered in their squad, in the first half of the season. If EA had no problem with Toney being in the game when FC is released, it would make no sense for them to remove him from FIFA 23.
Based on this, we expect the 27-year-old not to be included in the Brentford squad in FC or Ultimate Team when the game is released. This doesn't mean that the striker won't be added to FC at a later stage, though.
With EA updating squads regularly during the season, it's almost guaranteed that Toney will be added back to the Bees' squad once his ban is up. We also see EA add new players into Ultimate Team after the end of the January transfer window, so this means we could potentially see him receive an FC Ultimate Team item at one point in the game if he's not included at launch.
None of this is confirmed though, so we will have to wait and see if Toney will feature in EA Sports FC.
