For this new series, I am creating an entirely new tournament – the Draft World Cup – which (as the name suggests) uses FM17’s draft mode to create a World Cup.
The main twist? Each country will be picking from players based in their league, rather than players of that nationality. For example, Spain can no longer pick Diego Costa or David Silva; however they can now pick Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – which isn’t a bad trade-off.
You may be wondering which team I am going to manage in all of this. The answer is, all of them – or none of them. Basically, I am going to select the squads and tactics, but then leave the tournament in the capable hands of my auto-generated assistant manager for the most part. I like playing God.
The teams
FM17 has 51 playable leagues, so each of these gets their own side in this tournament. However, this is a *World* Cup, and currently a lot of the world isn’t represented (for example, South Africa are the only African nation to have a playable league). Therefore, the remaining nations are split into various geographic groups, which each get their own team.
Some of these are just within-game regions which don’t have a playable league. These are Oceania, the Caribbean, North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Western Africa and Central Asia.
The next group of teams are regions with only the odd playable league. These are Central America (minus Mexico), the Middle East (minus Israel), East Asia (minus China, Hong Kong and South Korea), Southeast Asia (minus Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), Southern Africa (minus South Africa), South America (minus Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Colombia) and South Asia (minus India).
As most UEFA nations have playable leagues, the remaining ones are grouped as effectively as possible. These groups are Mediterranean (Cyprus, Malta and Albania), the Baltic (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), Central Europe (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra and San Marino), Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo) and the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). As the Faroe Islands are left on their own, they are paired with similarly-lonely Canada to create the tenuously-linked North Atlantic team... it’s not like they’re likely to qualify!
This makes a total of 71 teams. For my chosen format (see below), we need 72 teams, so I’ve allowed my heart to rule my head, and given my native county of Yorkshire its own team. This means England can’t pick any Yorkshire-based players.
The format
For the World Cup itself, we will be using the classic 32-team format. We’ll be having none of Infantino’s 48-team nonsense, thank you very much! However, we have the small problem that there are 72 teams, so we will need to have qualifiers.
As FM17’s draft mode allows leagues of up to 6 teams, we will have that as the size of our groups. This makes twelve groups in total – there won’t be separate groups for each continent. The top two teams from each group (so 24 overall) automatically qualify for the finals, whilst the teams placed between 4th and 6th are eliminated.
That leaves eight spaces and twelve 3rd-placed teams. The four teams with the best record in their group automatically progress, leaving eight teams to play off for the final four spaces.
The draft mode imposes a maximum squad value, which can be anywhere from £1m to £250m. For the qualifying round we’ll have a maximum of £200m, as this is high enough that the big nations should still have plenty of quality, but not so high as to make it uninteresting. Each team will have a chance to pick a new squad at the halfway mark of qualifying. For the finals this limit is increased to the maximum £250m.
The draw
Firstly, the teams are seeded into pots: 12 teams make up each of pots 1 & 2, whilst 24 teams make up each of pots 3 & 4. This means each group will have one team from each of pots 1 & 2 and two teams from each of pots 3 & 4.
The 21 teams which are based on non-playable leagues are automatically placed in pot 4. By checking lists such as UEFA league coefficients, and using the club rankings on Football Database, the teams were placed in the following pots:
The draw, made at the usual high-glamour ceremony by well-known football figure Microsoft Excel, gave the following groups:
Over the next twelve updates, we’ll see how each qualification group panned out. So join me next time, as we look to see whether Italy coast to qualification from a relatively easy-looking Group A, and whether my faith in Yorkshire as an independent nation is justified!
The main twist? Each country will be picking from players based in their league, rather than players of that nationality. For example, Spain can no longer pick Diego Costa or David Silva; however they can now pick Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – which isn’t a bad trade-off.
You may be wondering which team I am going to manage in all of this. The answer is, all of them – or none of them. Basically, I am going to select the squads and tactics, but then leave the tournament in the capable hands of my auto-generated assistant manager for the most part. I like playing God.
The teams
FM17 has 51 playable leagues, so each of these gets their own side in this tournament. However, this is a *World* Cup, and currently a lot of the world isn’t represented (for example, South Africa are the only African nation to have a playable league). Therefore, the remaining nations are split into various geographic groups, which each get their own team.
Some of these are just within-game regions which don’t have a playable league. These are Oceania, the Caribbean, North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Western Africa and Central Asia.
The next group of teams are regions with only the odd playable league. These are Central America (minus Mexico), the Middle East (minus Israel), East Asia (minus China, Hong Kong and South Korea), Southeast Asia (minus Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), Southern Africa (minus South Africa), South America (minus Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Colombia) and South Asia (minus India).
As most UEFA nations have playable leagues, the remaining ones are grouped as effectively as possible. These groups are Mediterranean (Cyprus, Malta and Albania), the Baltic (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), Central Europe (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra and San Marino), Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo) and the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). As the Faroe Islands are left on their own, they are paired with similarly-lonely Canada to create the tenuously-linked North Atlantic team... it’s not like they’re likely to qualify!
This makes a total of 71 teams. For my chosen format (see below), we need 72 teams, so I’ve allowed my heart to rule my head, and given my native county of Yorkshire its own team. This means England can’t pick any Yorkshire-based players.
The format
For the World Cup itself, we will be using the classic 32-team format. We’ll be having none of Infantino’s 48-team nonsense, thank you very much! However, we have the small problem that there are 72 teams, so we will need to have qualifiers.
As FM17’s draft mode allows leagues of up to 6 teams, we will have that as the size of our groups. This makes twelve groups in total – there won’t be separate groups for each continent. The top two teams from each group (so 24 overall) automatically qualify for the finals, whilst the teams placed between 4th and 6th are eliminated.
That leaves eight spaces and twelve 3rd-placed teams. The four teams with the best record in their group automatically progress, leaving eight teams to play off for the final four spaces.
The draft mode imposes a maximum squad value, which can be anywhere from £1m to £250m. For the qualifying round we’ll have a maximum of £200m, as this is high enough that the big nations should still have plenty of quality, but not so high as to make it uninteresting. Each team will have a chance to pick a new squad at the halfway mark of qualifying. For the finals this limit is increased to the maximum £250m.
The draw
Firstly, the teams are seeded into pots: 12 teams make up each of pots 1 & 2, whilst 24 teams make up each of pots 3 & 4. This means each group will have one team from each of pots 1 & 2 and two teams from each of pots 3 & 4.
The 21 teams which are based on non-playable leagues are automatically placed in pot 4. By checking lists such as UEFA league coefficients, and using the club rankings on Football Database, the teams were placed in the following pots:
- Pot 1: Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine.
- Pot 2: Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Mexico, Scotland, Serbia, Switzerland
- Pot 3: Australia, Austria, Belarus, China, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Peru, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Uruguay, USA, Wales
- Pot 4: Malaysia, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Baltic Nations, Caribbean, Caucasus, Central Africa, Central America, Central Asia, Central Europe, East Africa, East Asia, Former Yugoslavia, Mediterranean, Middle East, North Africa, North Atlantic, Oceania, South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Africa, Yorkshire.
The draw, made at the usual high-glamour ceremony by well-known football figure Microsoft Excel, gave the following groups:
- Group A: Italy, Serbia, Indonesia, Slovakia, Singapore, Yorkshire
- Group B: Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Peru, Northern Ireland, South Asia
- Group C: Ukraine, Greece, Iceland, Slovenia, North Africa, East Asia
- Group D: Spain, Chile, Finland, Poland, Central Africa, Caucasus
- Group E: France, Bulgaria, China, Republic of Ireland, Central Europe, Caribbean
- Group F: Germany, Israel, Hungary, Denmark, Oceania, Central Asia
- Group G: Portugal, Czechia, Romania, Norway, Baltic Nations, Central America
- Group H: England, Croatia, Hong Kong, South Korea, South America, East Africa
- Group I: Turkey, Argentina, Wales, South Africa, Malaysia, Southeast Asia
- Group J: Russia, Scotland, India, Belarus, Middle East, Mediterranean
- Group K: Netherlands, Colombia, USA, Australia, North Atlantic, Former Yugoslavia
- Group L: Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Uruguay, Southern Africa, West Africa
Over the next twelve updates, we’ll see how each qualification group panned out. So join me next time, as we look to see whether Italy coast to qualification from a relatively easy-looking Group A, and whether my faith in Yorkshire as an independent nation is justified!