EA Sports plans national children's football tournament

by Ben Carter, Marketing 06-Apr-05

LONDON - Electronic Arts is in talks with the government to secure backing for a nationwide grass-roots football tournament, intended to contribute to its policy of encouraging children to get more exercise.

The gaming giant has run limited tournaments in the past, but is now aiming to create a high-profile event under its EA Sports brand.

The competition will be the flagship venture of its 'active-play strategy', which is viewed internally as being crucial to persuading both schools and parents that it is not encouraging a 'couch-potato culture'.

As well as trying to win the backing of the government and Sport England, EA is understood to have approached the Football League with a view to involving its 72 clubs and their fans in the tournament, which it hopes will take place later this year.

The talks with the Football League follow its backing of a pilot programme organised by EA Sports in Reading last month. Some 150 children from local schools took part in the event.

The move by EA to focus on encouraging a more healthy lifestyle follows a tie-up between Sony PlayStation and Nike last year. This saw the two develop an activity-based video game for the Sony console called EyeToy Kinetic.

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