I find the Mario Strikers games way, way more fun than the FIFA ones. But you definitely need a FIFA to appeal to fans of traditional sports games.

Sega had this problem with EA too. Sega acruelly created some Gems such as virtua tennis. Nintendo could definately make say a successful boxing game or maybe tennis or golf. But foot ball is completely wrapped up tight by fifa

WTF do I read on the american box art? Realistic soccer???

Damn what carnage would that be on the playfield if you'd get tackled so hard you'd fly over half the field and couldn't get up anymore after a few minutes in.

Maybe Nintendo should get motherland sports like Tennis.. Its been a while since a new top spin or Virtua Tennis

So basically the answer is no. The FIFA license having the real players/team is the core appeal of the FIFA series that's why it sells so well.

Nintendo can't replicate that without the FIFA license. Yes they make a fun soccer game, but it's not going to appeal to the same people who buy FIFA.

A FIFA clone? No.
A realistic football game? Probably no.
A football game similar to wii sports(casual experience)? Yes.

I always thought that Nintendo would turn the Wii Sports series into something more deep and complex. Instead of Wii Sports like minigames and motion controlls, a full fledged sports game, with miis instead of players. They would have online mode, campaign mode, miis with customizable stats, moves, gear... whatever it's needed to give the depth a sports game should have. Shame it never came into being.

Bring back Virtua Striker.

Football is a big market but FIFA is dominating it. Nintendo can just money hat EA and Konami to port their games for a Nintendo console.

Or I don't know when would be the next contract is, but if Nintendo can partner with Konami and bid properly with the license, I know they can get more audience into it.

As of the moment, EA would always win due to the fact they have the player, club, league licenses. If they could just dethrone EA.

They can just get the license.