FIFA Competitions

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The FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC), inaugurated in 2004, is the world's largest and fastest growing football gaming tournaments. Players from around the globe battle it out in "FIFA09" (EA Sports) on PLAYSTATION®3 (Sony Computer Entertainment) with the chance to be crowned FIFA Interactive World Player.

This season's FIWC has surpassed last season's player numbers by far: Over 9,400 players (prev. season: 4,600) competed at the live qualifier events in 19 countries across six continents, and more than 515,000 gamers (prev. season: 25,000) from 52 countries took part in the on-line qualification on the PS Network.

The FIWC09 season started in September '08, and 32 finalists qualified through the on-line qualification on the PlayStation® Network (a free-to-access interactive environment that offers online gaming, chats to friends and family around the world and web surfing for free) and live qualifier events. This year's Grand Final took place at Port Olimpic in Barcelona on May 2, 2009. At the end of the tournament day 22-year old Bruce Grannec from France was crowned FIFA Interactive World Player and carried home a VISA cheque for $20,000, a mini multi-purpose car Soul from Kia, a PS3 from Sony Computer Entertainment, EA's FIFA09 game, and last but not least an invitation to the prestigious FIFA World Player Gala in Switzerland to receive the trophy alongside the greatest football players of the year. Mexican Ruben Zerecero who had entered the Grand Final as South America live qualifier finalist beat 14-year old Francisco Cruz from Portugal in the semi-final and came second.

Sony Computer Entertainment is one of the two presenting partners of the FIWC since 2008, which means that the "FIFA09" (EA Sports, the second presenting partner) is played on PLAYSTATION®3 in live qualifier events and on-line on the PlayStation® Network. At all live qualifier events, incl. the Grand Final, the PLAYSTATION® consoles are connected to 46-inch BRAVIA LCD screens.