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FIFA World Championship v1.2

Following the tremendous success of its debut season in FM16, the FIFA World Championship is back for FM17 - and better than ever!

This mod replaces the FIFA World Cup - and all other senior international tournaments - with a new annual knock-out competition featuring 224 national teams (all 211 FIFA members, plus 13 non-FIFA members).

This competition is divided into two phases: the qualifiers, and the finals tournament. The rules and format for each phase are explained below.

FIFA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS

All 224 competing nations enter the qualifiers at certain stages based on their FIFA World Ranking. The lowest-ranked teams will start at the very beginning, whilst the highest-ranked teams will enter at the final qualifying round.

All qualifying round ties will take place on a home-and-away basis over two legs. If the aggregate scores are level after the Second Leg, the away goals rule will apply. If there is still a tie, a penalty shoot-out will take place immediately - there is NO extra-time.

All draws are random, although teams are seeded by their FIFA World Ranking.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

Played in early-mid August
Teams ranked 161st-192nd enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
Teams ranked 193rd and below enter as UNSEEDED teams and will play First Leg at home

FIRST ROUND

Played in early September
Teams ranked 129th-160th enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
Preliminary Round winners are UNSEEDED and will play First Leg at home

SECOND ROUND

Played in early-mid October
Teams ranked 97th-128th enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
First Round winners are UNSEEDED and will play First Leg at home

THIRD ROUND

Played in mid November
Teams ranked 65th-96th enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
Second Round winners are UNSEEDED and will play First Leg at home

FOURTH ROUND

Played in early-mid January
Teams ranked 33rd-64th enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
Third Round winners are UNSEEDED and will play First Leg at home

FIFTH ROUND

Played in late March-early April
Teams ranked 1st-32nd enter as SEEDED teams and will play Second Leg at home
Fourth Round winners are UNSEEDED and will play First Leg at home

FIFA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

After the qualifiers have been completed, the 32 remaining nations will compete in a finals tournament played over the course of four weeks between mid-June and early July.

The 16 highest-ranked nations are given a seeding from 1 to 16 and placed into a fixed tournament bracket. The seeded nations will then be drawn, one by one, against one of the remaining teams for the Sixth Round.

The teams' path for the remainder of the tournament will then be determined by the bracket, as detailed above.

All ties in the finals tournament will take place over one leg in a predetermined host nation. Extra-time WILL apply if the scores are level after 90 minutes, and a penalty shoot-out will take place afterwards if still required.

MAJOR CHANGES FROM v1.1

Added 8 new national teams to competition
Set all finals tournament matches (from last 32 onwards) to be played over one leg rather than two
Set all finals tournament matches (from last 32 onwards) to be played in the same host nation
Reduced finals tournament schedule length from approx five weeks to approx four weeks
Added new finals award for tournament's Best Young Player (aged 22 or under)

OTHER NOTES

The 224 competing nations consist of all 211 FIFA member nations (as of 2016) plus the following 13 non-FIFA members: Bonaire, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Réunion, Saint-Martin, Sint Maarten, Tuvalu, Wallis & Futuna Islands, and Zanzibar.

The host venues for the Semi Finals and Finals of the first six FIFA World Championships have already been determined: these are United States in 2017, Russia in 2018, Brazil in 2019, England in 2020, Cameroon in 2021, and Qatar in 2022. All host venues from the 2023 tournament onwards will be randomly determined.

International manager turnover may be higher than usual, particularly when a major nation fails to qualify for the finals tournament. This is most likely because there will now be one major tournament every year for all nations, rather than two or - for African nations - three tournaments in the space of four years.

This mod may be incompatible with some other database files that add extra competitions.

There seems to be a problem with some players winning or being nominated for certain awards (i.e. Best XI or Most Valuable Player) on the back of playing only one match in the finals tournament. I'm afraid that I do not currently know how to fix this issue.

For best results when using this mod, don't forget to load all current international players when setting up the game. To do this, go to the 'Advanced Setup', click on the Custom database menu (under the 'Approximate Player Count'), select 'Advanced...', and then set up the database as listed above. (It doesn't matter whether you set Database Size as small, medium or large, as long as you load all international players.)

I am planning to release another version of this file that will feature rebuilt continental competitions in the future.

This is obviously a fantasy mod, and it won't be for everyone, but it's just a bit of fun. Enjoy!