The death of Belgian Miguel Van Damme has once again brought out the ugliest face of some FIFA 22 Ultimate Team (FUT) community members
Miguel Van Damme, who was a goalkeeper for Cercle Brugge in Belgium, lost his year-long battle with leukaemia on 29 March. The former professional footballer was only 28 years old and his club addressed the public with a statement saying, “Words are not enough to describe what we feel, even though we knew that things were not going well for a while. “
While many fans and professional colleagues expressed their condolences, especially in Belgium, there were once again impious reactions to Van Damme’s tragic passing in FUT 22. Some traders took advantage of the keeper’s death from cancer and bought up his properties to artificially inflate the price.
FUT value rises almost 4,000 per cent
On 30 March, the market value of the bronze card was suddenly almost 8,000 coins, after having been in the low to mid triple digits for a long time. This is not the first time that some FUT players have shamelessly exploited the death of a professional; similar less than empathetic practices had also been observed with Davide Astori or Junior Malanda.
EA SPORTS is now aware of its responsibility after such tragic events, however, and the developer reacted quickly: via an in-game message, it was communicated that Van Damme would be removed from the Cercle Brugge squad – however, he is currently still playable. In addition, his FUT card is no longer available from the packs.
The ugliest face of a few
But the most important measure is the fixing of the price range on the transfer market, Van Damme’s value is currently back down to around 500 coins. The fact that this intervention in what should be a free market by EA SPORTS is necessary at all is testimony to what is probably the ugliest face of a part of the FUT community.