Here comes a new challenger. Okay, so wrong game genre but that’s a bit what it feels like when the football game backed by the likes of Ronaldo steps out of the shadows to take on EA FC and eFootball, alongside whatever new FIFA game 2K eventually gets around to announcing.

It may have celeb soccer star backers but one thing that it does not have much of is official licenses. Gone are the days in the 80s when you could just use footballer’s names and clubs with no legalities to worry about.

We live in a time of Munchicester United and Birmingham Villa, captained by none other than Marco Tashford and Phil Cortinahoe.

And that could be a problem for some. My kid is already moaning about it, and while the game will hopefully bring a fresh take and (controversially) actually make videogame soccer about the game instead of monetized trading cards again it could still put some off.

Having said that UFL does have some official licences. Ronaldo is obviously in there, and so is Kevin DeBruyne. Just he will be providing assists for Earlish Harbinger.

Let’s see what other licenses we can expect when the three-day day open-beta goes live.

Licensed Stadiums

You may be used to playing in the Theatre of Dreams in EAFC (hopefully when it’s not raining) but in UFL we get a stadium from YouTube soccer team #Hashtag United.

There are some proper stadiums in there as well including the London Stadium – site of the 2012 Olympics and home of West Ham United, who are also one of the licensed teams.

Time for a list:

Borussia-Park (Borussia Monchengladbach)
Donbas Arena (Shakhtar Donetsk)
Estadio do Redentor (Generic)
Hashtag United Arena (Hashtag United)
Jose Alvalade Stadium (Sporting Lisbon)
London Stadium (West Ham United)
Louis II Stadium (Monaco)
Tupras Stadyumu (Besiktas)

Licensed players

Here’s a first in-game look at our Game Ambassador Oleksandr Zinchenko! Zina’s here, let’s party! New announcements coming #fairtoplay #uflgame #joinufl pic.twitter.com/tz06TMwnpc
— UFL () September 22, 2021

Player likenesses are neither here nor there more me, even most of the EAFC ones, while recognizable are hardly perfect. Here are some of the names we have so far of players who have their likenesses in the game.

Alessandro Bastoni
Bernardo Silva
Bruno Fernandes
Bukayo Saka
Cristiano Ronaldo
Declan Rice
Eduardo Camavinga
Erling Haaland
Fede Valverde
Frenkie de Jong
Harry Kane
Jude Bellingham
Kai Havertz
Kevin De Bruyne
Kylian Mbappe
Lautaro Martinez
Lionel Messi
Luis Diaz
Luka Modric
Martin Odegaard
Nico Barella
Rodri
Toni Kroos
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Vinicius Jr.

As you can see from the ZInchenko image they are no worse than any others we have seen.

Licensed teams

There are six confirmed teams at this stage, but remember we are still only at the beta stage so more are likely to be added before the game launches.

Besiktas
Borussia Monchengladbach
Monaco
Shakhtar Donetsk
Sporting Lisbon
West Ham United

So as you can see UFL isn’t flush with star names, teams, and venues but will it matter? It’s always a bit odd when licensed teams come up against made-up ones so if that bothers you it could be an issue. Hopefully, though the gameplay shines through.