EA Sports drops Marco van Basten from FIFA 20 over Heil Hitler “joke”

EA Sports decided to drop Marco van Basten from its FIFA 20 game after a Nazi-related comment he made on television on November 24th. "We have an expectation that our commitment to equality and diversity is upheld across our game. As such, we will suspend Marco van Basten ICON items from being available in Pacs, SBCs and FUT Draft until further notice", EA sports said in a statement.

Van Basten made his comment on the program De Eretribune while acting as an analyst during the match between Ajax and Heracles Almelo. Hans Kraay junior interviewed Heracles' German coach Frank Wormuth. After the interview, Van Basten mocked Kraay's poor German with the comment "Sieg Heil". The comment was inadvertently audible for the viewers.

While some FIFA 20 players responded with understanding to EA Sports' decision, many were outraged and accused the company of being too PC. "Since when are players (and not just players, but an ICON in world football) getting removed from the game just by telling a stupid bad JOKE?? I understand his words might be offending but come on people.. he immediately apologized for these words", one player wrote on a FIFA 20 forum.

Following his comment, Fox Sports suspended Van Basten for a week and donated his salary for that week to charity.