EA has stated today that they have no plans to introduce women’s soccer to the FIFA series. The comment was spurred on by a petition posted on Change.org, which has now been signed by nearly 2,900 people. The petition argues that excluding female players from FIFA “makes no sense”, and says:

The US National women soccer team won two World Cups (in 1991 and 1999), three Olympic gold medals (in 1996, 2004, and 2008) and they just won the 2012 Olympic Gold in London.

By offering just men’s teams as playable options on FIFA we’re not only denying these girls a chance to relate to the characters they play on a videogame, but we’re also wasting a great opportunity to encourage those same girls to be who they are, develop their passion, motivation and promote a healthy image and relation between women and sports.

Don’t restrict our choices to Messi, Rooney, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo. Allow girls and boys to play with Wambach, Sawa, Morgan, Cristiane, Miyama, Rapinoe, Marta, Hope Solo, Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz.

Speaking to CVG.com about the issue, FIFA’s executive producer, David Rutter said:

We get literally thousands upon thousands of suggestions from our fans for new features and we have to evaluate those suggestions, such as the inclusion of female players in the game, against our resources, priorities and overall fan feedback. At present, we don’t have plans to include female players in the game.

Despite the petition, FIFA 13 will be released for all platforms on the 28th of September in the UK and Europe, without a single female player in sight.