[Same nation teams facing during league phase]

On 11/03/2024 at 12:19, Jimmy Wong said:

Hi, this is a known issue and one that we'll need further information about from real life before implementing it in the game. Rest assured, this is logged in our system. Thanks.

The information in real life is available aplenty. Just look at https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0283-1874e7570089-f2d5555be979-1000/20230707_circular_2023_36_en.zip

[FM24 does not follow the real life rules for European Cup qualifying, club and NT]

 

Quote

"For instance: if the winner of the Champions League of last season qualifies for the league phase of the next CL via their domestic league, in real life the spot left open by the CLTH goes to the club which has the highest coefficient in the champions path. Ans if the winner of the Europa League qualifies via their domestic league, the spot left by the ELTH goes to the club with the highest coefficient overall in the qualifying stages."

This is something we're currently looking into, but the complicated qualification rules are not straightforward to add to the game and this particular one is on our radar but has not been addressed yet.

"In Europa League and Conference League similar things happen, especially with rebalancing the qualifying rounds. In the Conference League, teams automatically qualify for the 3rd qualifying round, whilst in real life that will not be the case at all."

We will look into this further.

I believe it's not that complicated (but I'm a data-nerd so it's a bit easier to comprehend for me :-) ). For the Champions League, you know how many teams are directly qualified: 29. So you need:

 

League path (max. 11 teams): Q4: 4 teams, no-one directly qualified), Q3: 8 teams (max 5 directly qualified, 3 ohers from Q2), Q2: 6 teams. When one of the teams are directly qualified based on coefficient points, the path will be rebalanced, but no team will get a bye to Q4. So that will mean 6 teams directly qualified for Q3 and 4 teams competing in Q2.

Champions path: It's a given that Q2 will consist of 24 teams, Q3 of 12 teams (winners of Q2) and Q4 of 10 teams (6 winners of Q3 and 4 directly qualified). So, based on that, you can rebalance this path if one or two teams are directly qualified for the league phase based on their coefficients.

 

Europa league is the same. You know how many teams are directly qualified (13, titleholder Conference League and 12 other teams), and you know how many teams will qualify through the CL qualification system: 11 (champions path: 5 losers of Q4 and league path: 2 losers of Q4 and 4 losers of Q3). So there are 12 spots remaining, which tells you that Q4 will always have to contain 24 teams. And you know where those 24 teams come from: 5 directly qualified, 6 losers from the Champions League Q3, 6 winners of the champions path Q3 (the 12 losers of Champions League Q2) and 7 teams from the league path of the Europa League Q3.

So you have 14 teams in Q3, and there it's get a little bit complicated. You have 3 teams directly qualified, and depending of how many teams enter via the Q2 league path of the Champions League (2 or 3), you will have 8 or 9 qualifiers of Q2. With a maximum amount of 25 teams entering in Q1 or Q2, you can rebalance Q1 and Q2 accordingly

When the titleholders-spot in the league phase isn't being used, that spot will be taken by the team that has the highest club coefficient. Depending on where that team would enter the qualifying phase, a further rabalancing is needed. 

 

Conference League: no teams are directly qualified for the league phase, but you know how many teams enter via the Europa League (12 losers of Q4) and the Champions path of the Conference League (5 winners of Q4). So there are 19 spots left, meaning that Q4 always have to contain 38 teams. With 7 teams coming from Q3 ot the Europa League, and 5 teams directly qualified for Q4, you know that there will be 26 teams will come from Q3. So Q3 always contains 52 teams with no teams directly qualified. Depening on the number of teams that will come from Q2 of the Europa League, you will have to rebalance Q2 accordingly, with in mind that in Q2 there will also be teams that qualify through Q1 of the Europa League, not being sure how many that will be.

And finally, Q1 of the Conference League will have to be rebalanced also.

 

17 hours ago, Zachary Whyte said:

"Also, the game doesn't use the correct qualifying method regarding the UEFA qualifying section for the European and World championships."

We'll need to be a little more specific information for us to look into.

 

 

 

World Cup qualifying in the UEFA-section IRL involves a group stage with 12 groups of 4 or 5 teams from which the group winners qualify for the World Cup. Seeding for the draw of the goups stage is based on the FIFA-ranking at the time of the qualifying group stage draw.. The game divides the competing countries into 10 groups of 5 or 6.

Secondly, IRL the remaining 4 spots (16 for UEFA in total) are being decided through a play-off system which involves the 12 numbers 2 of the groups and the 4 highest ranked group winners in the previous UEFA Nations League (who are not already 1st or 2nd in the qualifying group). The 16 competing countries are devided into 8 seeded and 8 unseeded (based on their FIFA-ranking) and drawn into 4 play-off paths. The unseeded teams play the single leg semi-final at home and the final venue (single leg) is being decided via a draw.

In the game, the 10 teams that finished 2nd are being ranked, based on their group results (excuding results against a possible 6th placed team) and the 6 best placed teams qualify for the World Cup.

 

The EURO qualifying seems to go a bit better in the game. In real life, the competing nations are being drawn into 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams, seeding based on the final position of the previous Nations League. The winners and 2nd placed of each group qualify for the EURO's. The remaining spots (max. 3, but it depends on the number of countries that are seen as organizing countries) are decided by selecting 12 teams based entirely on their performance in the previous Nations League. These teams are divided into three paths (A, B and C), each containing four teams. The group winners of Nations Leagues A, B, and C automatically qualify for the play-off path of their league, unless they qualify for the final tournament via the qualifying group stage. If a group winner already qualifies through the qualifying group stage, they are replaced by the next best-ranked team in the same league. However, if there are not enough non-qualified teams in the same league, then the spot firstly goes to the best-ranked group winner of League D, unless that team already is qualified for the final tournament. The remaining slots are then allocated to next best teams in the Nations League overall ranking. However, group winners of Leagues B and C can not face teams from a higher league. If there are more than 4 teams selected from Nations League B or C, a draw will decide which non group winner will play in a higher Nations League which has not already have 4 teams.

In each path, the teams are ranked using their final position in the previous Nations League. The 4th ranked team plays the singe-legged semi final at home against the 1st ranked team, and the 3rd ranked plays against the 2nd ranked. The venues for the final (single leg) are being determind via a draw.

 

In the game, the nations do get drawn into 10 groups and the 1st and 2nd of each group qualify. So far, so good. I haven't the slightest idea why the game shows the total ramking based on the qualifying results. Maybe it's an attemps to show the total ranking, based on the Nations league? Anyway, it's getting a bit unclear regarding the play-offs. It looks like the teams are indeed selected based on the Nations League, but there are still some errors. In the 2036 playoffs, Bulgaria appears, whil based on the Nations League ranking, North Macedonia should have been selected. The other 11 teams are indeed the teams you would expect, based on the Nations League.

 

The play-off path however is a mess. In my example, in 2036, the highest placed team from Nations League A, Iceland, should have played Armenia (best group winner of Nations League D). Instead they play Serbia, a group winner of Nations League B. That's not possible in real life because as stated, group winners cannot play a team from a higher league.

I realize those are very complicated rules amd maybe not posible to execute in the game. But at least the FIFA qualifying could do with an overhaul. If the UEFA qualifying stays at it is, it would be disappointing but understandable.