AI Experiment: Can rubbish collectors become diamond polishers?!

Walcott's Wonderkids presents...

Background

32 of FIFAs poorest performing nations have come to Malaysia to trial a new example of FIFA’s Footballing Experiments. FIFA have decided that in an effort to promote football around the world, 32 nations who have traditionally suffered playing football will be given a state of the art, but modest club, to help bring young footballers from their own nation through to the big time.

Each club has been given a ‘centre of excellence’ club in Malaysia, whereby each nation can train their own national players, with their academy hopefully meaning that better prospects will come through in the future.

A random draw at FIFA’s new Malaysian home assigned 14 of the nations to the Malaysian Super League, 14 to the Malaysian Premier League, with 4 unlucky clubs just being given ‘academy’ status at the beginning, meaning they will hope to enter the league in a later season.

The Nations Selected

Aim

The experiment aims to recreate what would happen if the rubbish nations in the current global football world were to produce some potential gems.

• How would these players flourish, would they move to bigger clubs and the world in hope of nouvelle riches?
  
• How long it will take for the big European clubs to find these youngsters and snap them up?
  
• Will the European clubs fall upon the players of the small European nations first, or will it just be who can get their scouting knowledge of Malaysia up to a decent standard first?
  
• Will a potentially World Class player emerge and if so, will they be able to reach their potential?
  
• In the overall FM gameworld, can one club really transform how a country can perform?
  
• Will these clubs make an impact on the Asian domestic football scene? Can one of them eventually win the Asian Champions league?
  
• And finally, will it allow at least one of these nations to reach the World Cup Finals?!
  

Setup

Each of the 32 nations have been given an identical setup:

• Every club has a stadium in their own nation, ensuring the regens produced each year will be from that nation.
  
• 20,000 seater stadium
  
• 20 for training facilities
  
• 20 for youth facilities
  
• A Youth Academy
  
• Some money to ensure they can maintain these facilities
  
• A starting club reputation of 2,500, to ensure that those that get relegated from the Premier League are replaced by those unplayable nations currently and so on.
  

Once every season I will use FMRTE to ensure that the facilities are maintained to the current standard so that the academy products will have an equal chance whichever nation they emerge from.

How will the Experiment Unfold?

I will do 2 reports each year, once at the end of each season (barring the initial report) to review what has happened in the Malaysian League, what has happened in International Football and to give everyone a view of how the nations are progressing in terms of developing Higher CA and PA players.

I will also do a mid season update purely to update what has happened in the Malaysian League and to say who is catching the eye performance wise.

There will be a Hall of Fame ongoing throughout the experiment, where any player from these 32 nations that has a PA > 190 will be followed each season to give an update as to how they performed or how quickly they are progressing in the football world.

Leagues being run

Credits: I doff my preverbal cap towards Lower League Rules as the experiment I am running has a similar theme in it to the Outcast’s League sign up. The results of this experiment however, will (hopefully) in no reflect what may happen in his sign up!!

Major Event Summary for the Nations

<< None at this time >>

Hall of Fame Players

Inducted 2008/09 Season

Mirko Mariotti - San Marino - PA198

August 2008

Carlos Kidane - Seychelles - PA 192

August 2008

It began in Afric...... Malaysia!

The Scene Setter

32 nations were selected from around the World, each a mixture from every football continent (bar South America), as can be seen from the graphic below:

Thanks to the random draw, the following nations have been assigned to the Malaysian Super League for the 1st season:

Super League

14 other nations have been assigned to the Malaysian 2nd tier, the Premier League:

Premier League

This has resulted in Malta, Lesotho, Sri Lanka & Aruba having to start from the pitlane so to speak, being in an unplayable league for starters.

Despite that, Malta and Lesotho begin with the 3rd and 4th highest ranked CA player out of the all the players from the 32 nations. Leading the way is Luxembourg with a player on 120CA, closely followed by Liechtenstein with a player on 119CA. Down at the bottom is Sri Lanka, with their best player having only a CA of 58.

However, the more interesting news is when you look at the 1st batch of youth regens that start with their respective nation clubs and in theory what ability they could achieve. Below is a list of each countries best 16 yr old regen at the start of the game, sorted by their Potential Ability:

This shows that from the initial batch of players provided to the clubs, if their most promising youngster can reach their potential, then their nation will be better for it. In fact, for the Seychelles and San Marino, there are 2 Hall of Fame Players to introduce to you, as they both have PA’s greater than 190, meaning I will be following their careers.

Mirko Mariotti, San Marino, PA198

The 16 year old left mid has the potential to become the best player in the world, with not even the current greats having a PA as high as him. Will he make it, only time will tell?!

Carlos Kidane, Seychelles, PA192

The 15 year old centre mid has the potential to become a World Star for his country and for whatever club can pick him up long term. Will he reach the top of the world game?!

Both currently have a CA of between 70-80 so they have a long way to go and their best hope will surely be of being scouted by a top European team.

Ironically, the nation whose best regen at the start was the lowest of the 32 nations, was Luxembourg, who currently have the highest CA player! At a PA of 118, he won’t be helping out his nation massively more than their current best player over the forthcoming years.

January 2009 Mid Season Update

Halfway through the 1st season and this is how the Malaysian Leagues are shaping up. In the Super League there is a breakaway by 4 teams, with Guinea-Bissau one point ahead of Kyrgyzstan, San Marino & the Faroe Islands. At the other end of the table, the British Virgin Isles and Afghanistan are struggling in the league.

Super League Table

Super League Player Stats

In the Premier League Belize are running away with the league and look set for the Super League next season. In 2nd place is Seychelles, with a certain Carlos Kidane having the league’s leading best pass completion rate.

Premier League Table

Premier League Player Stats

One point to note across both leagues, is that the nations have attracted several of their existing, older national team players to move to Malaysia to play in the league. The best evidence of this is in Bacari, who is the current leading scorer in the Super League with 11 goals in 13 games for Guinea-Bissau.

In other competitions, the Malaysian Cup has been completed. It started with 18 teams across the Super and Premier League being put in 3 groups of 6, with the Group Stage matches being played out before the League season began. 8 teams qualified for the quarter finals and the Final came down to Liechtenstein (3rd in the Premier League) v Aghanistan (bottom of Super League), a match held at the end of November. Liechtenstein prevailed, winning the match 1-0 to pick up the 1st trophy of the season.

The Malaysian FA Cup is yet to start, with the 1st round draw taking place in February.

I like this. Will definitely follow this with interest.

An excellent idea for an experiment. I'll be following this with interest.

Love this idea it is awsome. Can't wait to see how the leagues and youths pan out.

Come on Dijbouti and St Lucia, great work so far walcott keep it up.

Great idea for an experiment WW! I'll definitely be following as I am a huge fan of how regens develop in the game. Mariotti is certainly worth keeping an eye on. A PA of 198 is just amazing. Hopefully he'll stand a chance of getting there. The first few years of his career are vital. To get there he'll probably have to get his CA well into the hundreds by the time he is 19.

Super League Table

Player Stats

Guinea-Bissau became champions of the 1st new looking Malaysian Super League, beating Faroe Islands to the title by 6 points. Undoubtedly the reason for their success was their scoring ability, scoring 18 more goals than any other side, 63 in total. Bacari, a 26 year old Guinea-Bissau national joined their national club last summer and was in fine form, netting 18 in the league and 27 in all competitions last season. He also was their leading assist maker, with 15 assists. A great season for a player with a fairly unremarkable CA /PA. The 26 year old has a CA of 83 with a PA of 93.

At the other end of the table, British Virgin Isles and Afghanistan finished adrift of the rest and were relegated.

Premier League Table

Player Stats

One of the teams replacing them are surely the best team in Malaysia at the moment. Belize, the champions of the Premier League, won the Division from Pakistan (also promoted) by a massive 19 points. They scored 65 goals, yet also had the most prudent defence, conceding only 16 goals in 26 games. They also won the Malaysian FA Cup, beating Kyrgyzstan in the Final 3-2.

The unlucky national clubs to be relegated from the Premier League were Luxembourg, who finished well adrift of the rest, and Mongolia who were in a fight with St Lucia and Tahiti to the last to decide who got relegated.

Replacing those 2 nations in the Premier League next season is Lesotho and Sri Lanka.

In the other domestic competition, Liechtenstein beat Afghanistan 1-0 in the Malaysian Cup Final.

Asian Domestic Comps

In the Asian Continental Championships, of which there are several and which run on a different calendar (Feb to Nov) to the Malaysian League (Nov to May), the national clubs are probably a few seasons away from making an impact just yet. In the Asian Champions League, there were no Malaysian club entrants as Malaysian clubs have not yet earned the right to enter the competition.

In the Asian Confederation Cup (The UEFA Cup equivalent), San Marino and Faroe Islands are representing Malaysian clubs in the 2009 version. Both impressively won their groups and in the Quarter Finals both played teams from Oman. Malaysian clubs do not enter the Asian President’s Cup as that is mainly for central Asian nations.

One Malaysian club does enter the South East Asian Club Championships though, which are held every year in June / July 2009. Again San Marino were nominally elected to represent Malaysian in 2009. They won their group stage of 3 clubs, beating a team from Myanmar and Brunei. After a 2-0 victory over Khemara of Cambodia in the Quarters and a 2-1 win over the Singapore Armed Forces in the Semis, they were faced with a Final against Chonburi of Thailand. Despite dominating the final, they could not score over 120 minutes and it came down to a penalty shoot out.... SE Asian Club Championship Final Result

After their visit to the Final, could San Marino or the Faroe Islands emulate that by winning the Asian Confederations Cup?? Well it was only San Marino who progressed from the Quarter Finals, beating Al-Urooba 2-1 on agg. In the Semi Finals San Marino faced Tampines of Singapore and over the 2 legs emerged 2-1 winners. This meant that in the 1st year of being setup, a FIFA national club had the chance to win a continent-wide trophy in Asia, in addition to the SE Asian area title won earlier in the year. In the Final San Marino faced Ansar of Lebanon. The 1st leg at home ended 1-1, with the return leg a week later. It went right down to the wire, with Ansar winning 2-1 until the 86th minute when San Marino got their 2nd equaliser of the game and went ahead on away goals. Cue mass celebrations from the away fans in the stadium, back in Malaysia and back in Europe as San Marino held on to win on away goals with a 3-3 agg scoreline.

So San Marino national club really were the star showing across Asia this season,as they picked up 2 continent titles, although admittedly not the big prize which Malaysian clubs couldn't enter this season, in the Asian Champions League.

Summer 2009 Update

Mirko Mariotti CA 85 (PA 198)

A solid first season by both players. Mirko Mariotti played over 30 times for San Marino during the season, at a decent average of just over 7.0, but has yet to venture beyond the U21 National team yet. There has been no interest in him yet from foreign clubs. He has also had a decent leap forward in CA, with a rise of around 10 points, whereas Carlos has only had a very small rise in CA.

Mirko Mariotti

Carlos Kidane CA 77 (PA 192)

Carlos Kidane also had a solid first season. He was slightly more dangerous in front of goal, but had a lower average rating for the whole season of 6.8. Unlike Mariotti, Kidane has achieved his 1st senior cap for the Seychelles, but the team were beaten 0-3 in Tunisia. No interest has been shown in him yet either from the big foreign clubs.

Carlos Kidane

Nice to see Mariotti playing a part in the team and taking a pen in the shootout. With enough games under his belt he should improve quickly for San Marino.

Keep the great work coming Walcott;)

A decent level of improvement for Mariotti. A move abroad is something he'll need though to reach anywhere near his potential. Hopefully a decent European side will move in for him in the next couple of years, otherwise we could be looking at some wasted potential.

The updates are set out great too WW.

Somalia

Good read so far WW, can't wait to get a good 5-6 years into the future to see how the nations have developed

Asia

Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Last season's initial regens looked a promising start, but they've stuttered and the national pool hasn't improved in the 2nd raft of players coming through.

Bangladesh

Akin to a couple of other nations, have the makings of a good squad, but no-one special to emerge as yet.

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

They have a couple of semi-decent players at the moment, hence their higher World Ranking than the other nations. However, the future is poor compared with some of the countries here.

Maldives

Good mix of players going forward, currently their future squad looks better than average for Asia at the moment.

Mongolia

Not a bad mix for Mongolia compared to the other Asian nations, however they lack good quality CA players at the moment.

Pakistan

Pakistan

Average future squad when compared to the others. Middle of the range, nothing to spectacular.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Last season as an unplayable nation they didn't get a lot of initial regens through. This season it looks better for them, but still don't have strength in depth.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan have one of the potential World Stars of the future. They have just seen a 189PA striker with Turkmenistan emerge, he should be one to look out for in the future. Him aside, they probably have the best base potential squad at of the 8 nations in Asia.

WW Predicts?

Overall Asia haven't had the luck of the bounce so to speak over the past couple of academy in-players. However, with a 189PA striker and a potentially decent squad, I have to pick Turkmenistan as the nation at the moment likely to emerge from the Asian bunch.

Brilliant read mate! Really enjoying this.

My support is currently split, I have supported Andorra in every single event (FM and IRL) since the sign-up you did early last year with the crazy teams and that sort of thing, but recently, I've felt myself leaning towards the might of Luxembourg based on Andy Schleck's efforts in the Tour de France and it looks like a beautiful country from its wikipedia article. It has made me want to live there in the future!

Ah, the decisions................

Great read so far, looking forward to it.

Great read so far really enjoying this. It's something i make a habit of doing on FM boosting Training and Academys of smaller nations clubs and watching them grow, i've never done it on this level though so i am really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Very interested to follow how this goes. Seems like a lot of work you've set yourself up for though.

Dunno if you've thought of it already, but you could possibly make life a little easier for yourself if you used Google Docs to make your results available. It might save having to post loads of screenshots.

Either way, keep it going. Am following with interest and cheering on the mighty San Marino!!

great read so far, will probably be supporting the Cook Islands as I was them in your sign up

Really good so far, i'm particularly interested in the regens and how they turn out

Great idea WW. Interesting to see San Marino doing so well in the continental championships. Does winning the Confederations Cup get them into the Champions League for next season? I will be very interested in Belize's progress next season - they were obviously too good for the Premier League and I expect they will do well in the Super League next time out.

KUTGW

Interesting to see San Marino doing so well in the continental championships. Does winning the Confederations Cup get them into the Champions League for next season?

Alas no, having done all the hard work by getting Malaysian clubs eligible for the Asian Champions League by winning the Asian Confederatios Cup, the sole place goes to the winner of the Super League, Guinea-Bissau.

To rub it in further for San Marino, they won't be in any continental competition next season despite winning 2 trophies - Malaysian clubs can no longer enter the Confederations Cup due to their promotion and the SE Asian Club Championship happens once every 2 years!!

More continental analysis this evening potentially, if not then definitely tomorrow.

Looking good, KUTGW

Europe

Andorra

One of the more interesting PA ranges at the moment. All of their top rate PA players are regens... could Andorra be emerging as dark horses?! Certainly if they were on a different continent to Europe they would have a much greater optimism about the future!

Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

A good mixture of potential talent from Faroe Islands, certainly a good base to start from.

Liechtenstein

Have a better existing squad than most, hence their higher World Ranking compared to the others. Future is looking average at the moment, nothing to write home about yet.

Luxembourg

Haven't had the best of luck with the academy kids as yet. At of the the PA data, only one of them relates to a regen!! Need some better luck over the next few seasons, already on the back foot.

Malta

Malta

Probably the poorest potential squad in Europe, which isn't surprising as they lacked any regens in the 1st season. The 2nd season has seen the situation improve slightly. In Asia, it would be classed as a semi decent squad, just not in Europe.

San Marino

Any nation that could have someone as good as Moratti in the future is going to get the thumbs up from me. Nobody else coming through yet of anywhere near similar quality, but plenty of players at 120 - 130 PA. Future is looking brighter for San Marino.

WW's thoughts?

Look no further than San Marino at the moment - really, really want Moratti to succeed, as it would be fascinating to see one the World's greatest ever players originating from San Marino!!!

WW this is a wonderful idea for an experiment. You've reeled me in already! I like the look of the Seychelles dude. And he is a dude

Just spotted this, excellent stuff so far. Mon Bermuda!

Just wondering, with them having dual passports, what's the chances that top class players from the likes of Bermuda and Cayman actually stick with their own nation, or are poached by those pesky English? Or will they refuse to represent their own nations in the hope of a call up?

Oceania

American Samoa

American Samoa have been blessed with one of the better PA players to have emerged so far. Their 177PA striker is also their best CA player as well, could he prove important in a few seasons time?

Supporting him is a decent PA squad, but one which will surely get better over time.

Cook Islands

A poor squad so far. Below average CA players and below average PA so far. If they were in school, their report would read 'could do better'.

Papua New Guinea

Some useful 150PA players already, spread around the pitch, with their best player a youthful DC. Another dark horse to look out for in the future.

Tahiti

Solid looking squad, good consistency at 120 range PA, but lacking the higher level potential stars at the moment.

WW thinks?

Tough one this, although an intriguing one, as one of these teams will surely overtake New Zealand in the future as the WC contender for Oceania. At the moment, I would say Papua New Guinea just edge American Samoa.

North America

Aruba

Aruba

Their lack of action by being in an unplayable league has taken its toll. Future is not bright, the future equals the past at the moment for Aruba.

Bahamas

Bahamas

A better situation than Aruba, but still poor compared to other nations. Have 11 players with PA of 120+, but nobody with a PA higher than 139. Even so, the CA of players are so low, it might be a struggle to reach those levels.

Belize

The side who looked invincible in the Premier League this season, but looking at their future it is fairly unremarkable at the moment. They have 3 potential good quality players, 2 strikers and a GK, but otherwise the strength is not potentially there at the moment.

Bermuda

Bermuda

Only 7 players with a PA > 120 and only 1 player with a PA >140. Room for improvement. It is noticeable that all the regens coming through have joint Bermudan / England eligibility, once to watch when a good player comes through!

British Virgin Isles

Potentially on of the best squads at the moment. Blessed with 2 170+ PA players coming through so far, one each year. The only slight issue to a good looking set of figures is that not a single one of those 12 players with a PA > 120 are any more attacking than a MC. No strikers or good quality wingers potentially emerging yet, but lots of defenders and defensive midfielders.

Cayman Islands

Above average PA players for North America, but across all 32 nations, probably in the average range. Along with Bermuda and the British Virgin Isles, could also be struck by the 'England' curse as pointed out by bermybhoy - that will be interesting to review. At the moment no eligible Cayman Island players have England as their 1st choice.

St Lucia

If only Rio Ferdinand was eligible for St Lucia now!! Not a bad mixture of talent, the regens do have a defensive tendancy, but there are strikers in the 120+ range.

US Virgin Isles

US Virgin Isles

Ok squad, 9 players with a PA >120. Will hope for a starlet coming through in 12 months time.

WW predicts?

The British Virgin Isles have the best squad potentially so far - but it will be interesting to see if the better players get attracted to playing for England. One thing in their favour, along with the only CONCACAF nations which have dual citzenship, these regens are going to be called up much quicker for these nations than they would for England.

So after going through the review of the season as to what happened and then reviewing what the current situation with each of the nations, I have one final update for the season - a quick glance summary.

Shown above is a season summary, which is joined below with rankings of the 32 nations by:

1. Best CA player per nation.
   
2. Best PA player per nation.
   
3. World Rankings.
   

I have colour coded the top 3 and bottom 3 values each year, so hopefully when there is a build up of data, it show highlighted where any patterns are emerging.

The only thing standing out at the moment is that the Seychelles, Djibouti and the British Virgin Isles have had good fortune in relation to their best regens each year. Both have a fairly decent star coming through. It also shows that Luxembourg are getting no better regens that their current best players.

Andorra have been very 'middle of the road' and not much to report on from then.

As for Luxembourg, we have a good crop at the moment, but with so much talent coming through from the likes of San Marino and B.V.I coming through, I doubt whether we'll be able to hold our good position.

Loving this, KUTGW WW!

Next season update should be over the weekend, might even get the mid-season update up tonight.

Super League Table

Super League Player Stats

Halfway through the 2nd season and this is how the Malaysian Leagues are shaping up. In the Super League Turkmenistan hold a narrow 3 point lead over last year’s Premier League champions Belize. Turkmenistan have used their strong away form in the league so far to open up a gap at the top of the table. These 2 teams look strong, with each nation club having 2 of the 4 top scorers at the halfway point (each with 5 goals).

Lower down the league, things are not looking so good for Papua New Guinea & American Samoa, both of whom are starting to fall away from the field, with last season’s other promoted nation Pakistan been the closest side to the teams in the drop zone.

Premier League Table

Premier League Player Stats

In the Premier League, Liechtenstein lead the way at the halfway point, but it is the Maldives who are looking strong, with a very tight defence supporting their attacking flair, with Dhagandey holding the honour of leading scorer and highest average rating at the moment.

It looks like the 2 promoted team from the unplayable zone have been left behind a bit, with both of them looking like their stay in the playable leagues could be a brief one, perhaps paying for not having 2 year’s worth of mass higher rated PA players coming through their youth academies.

The Malaysian Cup Final takes place each year in December, this year it was contested between Belize and Papua New Guinea. It turned out to be a one sided affair, with Belize romping to a 4-1 victory and due to the timing of the 2 domestic cups, now hold both the Malaysian Cup and Malaysian FA Cup trophies!

Looking at a continent wide basis, San Marino’s win the Asian Confederations Cup last season meant that for the first time in many seasons, Malaysia were represented in the Champions League, but not by San Marino. It was last season’s league champions Guinea-Bissau who are the sole representatives. Currently 5th in the Super League, it will be interesting to see if the Champions League efforts make them shy away from mounting a league championship bid this season.

Once again Andorra are sitting in the middle of the table.

KUTGW WW!!

Bangladesh are a completely ordinary second division side unfortunately.

Will follow this with interest, great idea.

WW - Do you think any of the teams will get lucky and have a regen from say, a top 4 club have a second nationality of their Nation?

WW - Do you think any of the teams will get lucky and have a regen from say, a top 4 club have a second nationality of their Nation?

I honestly don't have a clue!

I guess the chances will be the same as any other save game people have - I suppose once some affiliates are set up involving these nation clubs with the big European clubs, then maybe you could start seeing some regens in the bigger clubs.

Otherwise, then I guess the chances are fairly slim.

This is one of the most interesting I have seen so far. I just wish Canada was included haha, we get AWFUL regens. Mainly cause they dont count TFC, Whitecaps or Impact as Canadian domestic teams so were stuck with the likes of Toronto Croatia as our best source.

Very interested to follow how this goes. Seems like a lot of work you've set yourself up for though.

Dunno if you've thought of it already, but you could possibly make life a little easier for yourself if you used Google Docs to make your results available. It might save having to post loads of screenshots.

Either way, keep it going. Am following with interest and cheering on the mighty San Marino!!

Just had a look at Google Docs and it seems like quite a decent idea.

So for the end of this season's results I will post them using Google Docs and then I can see what the response is like and what people would prefer.

Certainly makes is a lot quicker for me to set up!

Start of the end of season updates possibly tonight.

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know, I haven't forgotten about this experiment - just been icnredibly busy at work for the last week and a half so haven't had much of a chance to do any updates - literally been getting home everynight, watching a bit of tv and then bed.

Hopefully some updates in the next couple of days, but can't promise anything.