China Erases Mbappé from FC Online and eFootball: The Mao Meme Reaches Video Games

The storm Kylian Mbappé unleashed in China with a meme about Mao Zedong is no longer confined to billboards and television. According to Vandal, citing the newspaper Beijing Daily, several companies that operate football video games in the country have begun removing content related to the Real Madrid striker. We are talking about heavyweight names such as Tencent, NetEase and Shenzhen Wangchen Technology, and titles as popular as FC Online and various versions of eFootball.

This matters well beyond football gossip. It is the first time we have seen so clearly how a footballer's personal controversy translates into changes inside games that millions of people use every day and that have active competitive scenes. For those of us who make a living playing, streaming and creating content around these titles, what is happening in China is a warning about how fragile the link can be between a real player's license and the product we see on screen.

What you need to know

• Source of the information: the newspaper Beijing Daily, as reported by Vandal, is the outlet detailing the measures announced by the Chinese companies.
• Companies involved: Tencent, NetEase and Shenzhen Wangchen Technology have announced action against Mbappé's presence in their games.
• Scope: at least eight football video games are affected, including FC Online, Electronic Arts' free-to-play PC title, and several versions of eFootball, the Konami series formerly known as Pro Evolution Soccer.
• First concrete steps: Tencent, which distributes FC Online and FC Football World in China, has already started removing the player's promotional material.
• Background: before the video games, several brands cut their advertising deals with Mbappé and Chinese state television suspended its LaLiga broadcasts.

From adverts to loading screens

The sequence described by the source is very telling about how the Chinese market works when a public figure clashes with the country's political sensitivities. The sponsorships fell first: various companies decided to stop associating their image with the striker. Then came state television's decision to stop airing LaLiga, a blow that indirectly hits the entire Spanish competition and not just Real Madrid. The third step is video games, a sector where local operators have total control over which content is shown and which disappears.

It is worth underlining who makes the decisions. In China, games like FC Online or FC Football World are not managed directly by Electronic Arts but by Tencent, which acts as distributor. The same goes for the Chinese versions of eFootball, which are run by local companies. It is these companies, not the Western studios, that have announced the removal. That explains why, at least for now, the source refers only to the Chinese versions and not to the games we play in the Americas or Europe.

What changes for players in China

What has been confirmed so far is the removal of promotional materials, meaning images, campaigns and marketing pieces featuring Mbappé. Vandal notes that the companies are preparing additional measures, although the full details of how far the removal will go within the games themselves are not included in the available information. The sensible approach is not to assume the player will vanish from squads or card systems without official confirmation.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz editorial team, the reaction from Chinese operators does not surprise us, but the precedent does worry us. Football games have built their business model on licenses for real players and on competitive modes where a specific card can be the difference between winning and losing a tournament. If a top-tier striker can evaporate overnight for reasons unrelated to sport, competitive players are left at the mercy of decisions they neither control nor can anticipate.

For content creators the message is similar. Anyone who has built their channel around a specific player, squad or league knows that a political or commercial twist can leave them without material from one day to the next. It is true that today this only affects China, but virtual football is a global business, and the decisions of such a large market end up influencing how publishers and licensors manage risk everywhere else.

Nor do we want to be naive about Mbappé himself. A footballer with his reach knows that every post has commercial consequences, and what is a meme to him may be something else entirely to millions of fans and to his business partners. What does strike us as excessive is that the punishment is indirectly paid by players who simply want to enjoy a complete video game, with all its stars, without politics deciding which cards they can use.

What do you think?

The Mbappé case proves that the line between real football, politics and video games is getting thinner all the time. Do you think game operators should remove a player over a controversy like this, or do you believe sporting content should be kept out of these decisions? Tell us in the team chat or on our Discord: we want to know what you would do if your favorite striker disappeared from your squad overnight.