Just over a week ago FM19 came, and with it means the start of a whole new Draft World Cup cycle! This episode will go over the format of this year's event, which will be even bigger than last year's marathon series!
The teams
Any team where I have been able to put together a squad of at least 23 is included. This means that the 211 teams from last year's edition return, plus eight new faces:
There are also two name changes to reflect real life, as Swaziland and Macedonia are now known as Eswatini and North Macedonia (the latter is currently going through parliament, but looks very likely to happen).
In due course, you will be able to download all 219 squads from our Squads page.
The rules
For those of you new to our DWC series, the key thing is that each team is represented by the players who play in that nation. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo will play this year for Italy, as his team is Juventus. Players who are out of contract are eligible for either the nation they last played in, or their home nation.
A couple of small tweaks will have a large impact on a few teams. Firstly, teams playing in a foreign league now count towards the nation they are actually in. For example, Cardiff City's players are now eligible for Wales rather than England. This will see a huge improvement in the Welsh squad, whilst the other big beneficiaries are Canada who will gain a load of MLS players.
Secondly, loan players are now eligible for the team they are on loan to, not their parent club. So for example, James Rodriguez will play this year for Germany rather than Spain, as he is on loan at Bayern Munich from Real Madrid. This was extremely difficult to implement due FM19's editor not having a search function for loan clubs, so there may be the odd error.
Finally, one anomaly in FM's stupendous database is the lack of players at Japanese clubs, due to licensing issues. This has led to very under-powered Japanese teams in the past, but this year I am hoping to include a full strength Japanese squad - either by finding a user-created database update, or by creating one myself.
Rankings
This is something I have been working hard on since concluding last year's DWC. The previous ranking system simply saw points allocated for progress, weighted stronger the further in a team got. This basically required a huge amount of estimation from me, and I wanted to move toward something automated.
Specifically, as a mathematician I am a fan of the Elo Rating system, but this was not easy to implement. Luckily, my wife is a software engineer, and she helped me create a Python program to replicate the World Football Elo Ratings. This is what we will be using from now on.
In order to test the program, I had each team play a few friendlies, with their FM18 squads. This is how the rankings look following the friendlies (compared to beforehand). The eight new teams have been put to the bottom of the pile, unfortunately for them.
The teams
Any team where I have been able to put together a squad of at least 23 is included. This means that the 211 teams from last year's edition return, plus eight new faces:
- Africa: Comoros, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan
- Europe: Liechtenstein
- North America: Puerto Rico, Suriname
- Oceania: Tuvalu
There are also two name changes to reflect real life, as Swaziland and Macedonia are now known as Eswatini and North Macedonia (the latter is currently going through parliament, but looks very likely to happen).
In due course, you will be able to download all 219 squads from our Squads page.
The rules
For those of you new to our DWC series, the key thing is that each team is represented by the players who play in that nation. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo will play this year for Italy, as his team is Juventus. Players who are out of contract are eligible for either the nation they last played in, or their home nation.
A couple of small tweaks will have a large impact on a few teams. Firstly, teams playing in a foreign league now count towards the nation they are actually in. For example, Cardiff City's players are now eligible for Wales rather than England. This will see a huge improvement in the Welsh squad, whilst the other big beneficiaries are Canada who will gain a load of MLS players.
Secondly, loan players are now eligible for the team they are on loan to, not their parent club. So for example, James Rodriguez will play this year for Germany rather than Spain, as he is on loan at Bayern Munich from Real Madrid. This was extremely difficult to implement due FM19's editor not having a search function for loan clubs, so there may be the odd error.
Finally, one anomaly in FM's stupendous database is the lack of players at Japanese clubs, due to licensing issues. This has led to very under-powered Japanese teams in the past, but this year I am hoping to include a full strength Japanese squad - either by finding a user-created database update, or by creating one myself.
Rankings
This is something I have been working hard on since concluding last year's DWC. The previous ranking system simply saw points allocated for progress, weighted stronger the further in a team got. This basically required a huge amount of estimation from me, and I wanted to move toward something automated.
Specifically, as a mathematician I am a fan of the Elo Rating system, but this was not easy to implement. Luckily, my wife is a software engineer, and she helped me create a Python program to replicate the World Football Elo Ratings. This is what we will be using from now on.
In order to test the program, I had each team play a few friendlies, with their FM18 squads. This is how the rankings look following the friendlies (compared to beforehand). The eight new teams have been put to the bottom of the pile, unfortunately for them.
Qualification
I felt that last year's DWC format was a resounding success, and this will largely remain in place. Teams will go through continental qualification, with a set number progressing to the finals, and one team from each continent going into the Intercontinental Play-Off:
I felt that last year's DWC format was a resounding success, and this will largely remain in place. Teams will go through continental qualification, with a set number progressing to the finals, and one team from each continent going into the Intercontinental Play-Off:
Below you can go through the format for each continent's qualification. Some countries have small tweaks due to a larger number of teams, but the only real change is with North America, which will feature more pre-qualifying to reflect real-life. Africa will also feature a play-off specifically for teams finishing 2nd in their group.
The finals
With no actual World Cup this year, this year's DWC won't necessarily take place in the summer - it depends how long it takes me to get through the qualification! The tournament will be the standard 32-team format - even with talk of the real one becoming 48 sides for 2022, I refuse to acknowledge such tomfoolery.
Updates
It was a huge amount of effort to do last year's DWC, and the one thing I will be cutting back on is the level of updates, specifically during qualifiers. So expect a bit less detail on the pre-qualfying rounds.
I will be making sure everything is ready before starting qualification, so don't expect anything immediately soon - the best thing to do is to follow my Twitter and keep an eye out.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, or if you fancy picking a squad/team yourself!
With no actual World Cup this year, this year's DWC won't necessarily take place in the summer - it depends how long it takes me to get through the qualification! The tournament will be the standard 32-team format - even with talk of the real one becoming 48 sides for 2022, I refuse to acknowledge such tomfoolery.
Updates
It was a huge amount of effort to do last year's DWC, and the one thing I will be cutting back on is the level of updates, specifically during qualifiers. So expect a bit less detail on the pre-qualfying rounds.
I will be making sure everything is ready before starting qualification, so don't expect anything immediately soon - the best thing to do is to follow my Twitter and keep an eye out.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, or if you fancy picking a squad/team yourself!