World 2026-27

A historic career world of the 2026-27 season: 91 countries, 2,378 clubs (Italy down to the real Serie D: 156 clubs in 9 groups), plus 97 clubs waiting outside the world (the Eccellenza, Brazil's state second divisions, the clubs below the B teams' leagues), real squads at the end of the summer 2026 transfer window. In CLASSIC CAREERS choose WORLD 2026-27, then the continent and the country (EUROPE lists the first 43 UEFA associations by ranking, the others are under OTHER NATIONS).

Rebuilt exactly, point by point

The point of this world: today's football as it really is, down to rules most players never notice.

Every league in its real 2026-27 format

Not one fixed formula for everybody: each league plays the season the way its own federation wrote it for 2026-27.

• Mid-season splits, as the regulations say (22 leagues): after the real number of matchdays the table splits into the real groups, with the real fixtures for the rest of the season and the points kept, halved or reset:
  • Scotland: 33 matchdays, then top six and bottom six for 5 more; in the lower divisions the clubs meet 4 times.
  • Austria 2026-27: Meistergruppe 1-6 and Qualifikationsgruppe 7-12 after 22 matchdays, each a double round robin (10 more, 32), and the points are no longer halved (the clubs' 2025 vote).
  • Switzerland: 33 matchdays + 5 after the split. Denmark: 22 + 10, points kept.
  • Greece: 26 matchdays, then the 1-4, 5-8 (points halved, rounded up) and 9-14 groups.
  • Romania: after 30 matchdays, play-off 1-6 (double round, 10) and play-out 7-16 (single round, 9), points halved and rounded up; on equal points, the points before rounding come first.
  • Moldova: after the triple round robin (21), the top 6 play a double round robin (10 more) starting from half the points won against each other, rounded down; 7th and 8th are done.
  • Malta: Opening Round of 11 matchdays, then top 6 and bottom 6 once more; the Closing Round starts again from 0 points (the Opening's return legs), then top 6 / bottom 6 again; the Opening Round's table is kept.
  • Bulgaria: after 26 matchdays, championship group 1-4 (double), Conference group 5-9 (double) and relegation group 10-14 (single), with rest days in the 5-club groups.
  • Northern Ireland: after 33 matchdays, Section A / B; each split match is at the ground of the club that was away in their 3rd meeting. Wales 2026-27: 16 clubs, 30 matchdays, then the 1-6, 7-10 and 11-16 groups.
  • Israel and Cyprus: groups of 6 and 8. Czech Republic: three groups after 30 matchdays. Slovakia, Finland, Iceland: 6 + 6. Ecuador: after 30 matchdays the title hexagonal, the Sudamericana quadrangular and the relegation hexagonal. Serbia, Korea, Gibraltar, Albania: their real second phases.
• Promotion and relegation play-offs as in reality (17 countries): the real entrants by final place, the real ties, one or two legs, the real hosts and tie-break rules. Among them England's Championship play-offs with 6 clubs, new in 2026-27 (5th v 8th and 6th v 7th, then two-legged semi-finals with the 3rd and the 4th, final at Wembley) and those of League One and League Two; Scotland's three, with the Premiership play-off (Championship 3rd v 4th, the winner v the 2nd, the winner v the Premiership 11th, all over two legs); Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands (the 16th), Brazil's Serie B (2 up + 3rd v 6th / 4th v 5th), Turkey's 1. Lig (2 up, the 3rd straight into the final, 4th v 7th and 5th v 6th, neutral final), Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Romania, Wales and San Marino; Japan's J2 with its 3rd-6th play-offs.
• European play-offs: the winner takes the country's last Conference League place (Denmark 4th v 7th at the 4th's ground; Austria, the qualification group's 1st v 2nd, the winner v the championship group's 5th over two legs; the Netherlands 5th-8th; Wales 2nd-7th; Northern Ireland 3rd-7th; Romania; San Marino ...).
• Argentina 2026: the Liga Profesional of 30 in two zones of 15, Apertura and Clausura (16 matchdays each: the zone round robin, the clasico on the free day, a drawn interzonal day), the annual table, relegation by promedio (3 seasons) and by the annual table.
• Major League Soccer 2026: 30 clubs in the Eastern and Western Conference (15 + 15), the real 34-match schedule (28 conference + 6 cross-conference games per club) on the real match days and dates, the World Cup break included. Equal points are ranked by wins, then goal difference, then goals scored; the club with the best record overall (the Supporters' Shield) hosts the MLS Cup.
  • MLS Cup Playoffs: the top 9 of each conference. Wild Card 8th v 9th (single match at the 8th, a draw goes straight to penalties); Round One best-of-three, 1st v the Wild Card, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th (the higher seed hosts games 1 and 3, a drawn game goes to penalties, game 3 only if needed); Conference Semifinals and Conference Finals, single matches at the higher seed; the MLS Cup at the club with the better record. Extra time and penalties from the Conference Semifinals. Playable by your club, with the real round names. Declared: the tables are the two conferences; the Supporters' Shield is not shown as a separate table.
• Title play-offs where the champion is decided after the table:
  • Canada (CPL): the top 4, semi-finals 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd over two legs (the better placed hosts the return), a single final at the better placed's ground.
  • Australia (A-League Men finals series): the top 6, single elimination finals 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th, two-legged semi-finals re-seeded (the 1st meets the lowest survivor), a single Grand Final at the better placed's ground.
  • Costa Rica: semi-finals 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd and a final, two legs each, then the two-legged Gran Final between the table's leader and the play-off winner, not played when they are the same club.
  • Malta: the champion comes from the Opening and Closing Rounds: one club winning both is champion with no match; otherwise a Finalissima between the two round winners, or, with three or four clubs in the top two of the rounds, a decider or a Final Four seeded by aggregate points. Extra time and penalties where the tie is level. Declared for Malta: single matches at a neutral ground (the rules give no format); equal season points in the Final Four seeding are split by the Closing Round place; no third-place match. The play-offs' winner is the champion and takes the champion's continental place (e.g. Malta's Final Four winner goes to the Champions League). Your club keeps its real table place in the season record and, when it wins the title play-off, gets an extra line with the league's name and WINNERS.
• Leagues with an odd number of clubs play real rounds: one club rests each matchday, as in the real competitions (El Salvador's Tercera, Gibraltar, New Zealand, India, Taiwan ...); the original game's tables for odd sizes were not rounds.
• Parallel regional groups on more than one level (Serie C, El Salvador's Segunda and Tercera zones): every club promoted or relegated goes to the group of its own area.
• League cups in the game's own league-cup slot, with their European place: the EFL Cup from its real 4th round (two-legged semi-finals; the winner takes England's last Conference League place), the Coppa Italia Serie C from its real round of 16 (the winner into the Serie C play-off), the Taca da Liga in its real 8-club format, the Scottish League Cup, the J.League Cup, and the league cups of Northern Ireland, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, South Africa, Wales, Iceland, Finland, Chile and Peru.

Brazil's state championships 2026

All 13 of them, each a real contest of your career, played alongside the national league in the first months of the season as in Brazil: Paulista, Carioca, Mineiro, Gaucho, Paranaense, Catarinense, Goiano, Paraense, Baiano, Cearense, Pernambucano, Alagoano and Mato-Grossense.

• Every Brazilian club plays its real state: the clubs of the Serie A-D play both their state and their national division, the real 2026 state-only clubs play only their state.
• Each state's real 2026 format: club list, first stage (one table, groups, or blocks where each club meets only the clubs of the other blocks, on the real fixtures), knockout pairings, byes and legs:
  • Paulista (16): league phase drawn from 4 pots of 4 (the 3 of its own pot + 5 drawn, once), one table, the 64 real pairings with their real home sides; quarter-finals 1st v 8th, 4th v 5th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, single semi-finals, two-legged final; the bottom 2 down.
  • Carioca (12): Taca Guanabara in two groups of 6, each club against the other group once; quarter-finals inside the group (A1 v A4, A2 v A3 ...), two-legged semi-finals, single final; the Grupo X of the bottom 2 of each group from zero: the last goes down, the 3rd plays a two-legged play-off against Resende, the real 2026 Serie A2 runner-up.
  • Mineiro (12): three groups of 4, each club against the other groups once; the 3 group winners and the best runner-up in two-legged semi-finals, best campaign v 4th and 2nd v 3rd; single final; 11th and 12th down.
  • Gaucho (12): two groups of 6 against each other; quarter-finals inside the group, crossed two-legged semi-finals, two-legged final; a relegation quadrangular of the bottom 2 of each group from zero, the last 2 down.
  • Paranaense: two groups of 6 against each other; quarter-finals and semi-finals inside the group, final, all two legs; relegation play-offs 5A v 6B and 6A v 5B.
  • Catarinense: two groups of 6 against each other; quarter-finals inside the group, crossed semi-finals and final, all two legs; the Quadrangular do Descenso of the bottom 2 of each group, only its winner stays up.
  • Goiano: three blocks of 4, each club against the other 8, one table; quarter-finals 1v8, 4v5, 2v7, 3v6, semi-finals and final over two legs; 11th and 12th down, 10th v 11th play-off when within 6 points.
  • Paraense: two blocks of 6 against each other, one table; single quarter- and semi-finals, two-legged final.
  • Baiano (10) and Alagoano (8): single round robin, semi-finals 1v4 and 2v3, final.
  • Cearense: two groups of 5, the top 3 of each to a second phase, crossed two-legged semi-finals and final; the Quadrangular da Permanencia of the bottom 2 of each group.
  • Pernambucano (8) and Mato-Grossense (10): single round robin, 1st and 2nd straight into the semi-finals, quarter-finals 3v6 and 4v5, then semi-finals and final.
• Hosts and ties as in the regulations: every knockout tie at the better placed club of the first stage (single matches at its ground, two-legged ties with the second leg there); level ties go straight to penalties, no extra time, no away goals.
• Real relegations: each state relegates its real number of clubs through its real phase (bottom places, play-offs, quadrangulars); the relegated state-only clubs are replaced by real clubs of the state's second division (Serie A2) with their squads; a national-league club relegated from its state leaves the state contest.
• The states you don't play are simulated at the season end with their real format: first stage, knockout to a champion and relegation phase, the results by the clubs' strength.
• Declared: the Paulista's round order is rebuilt (real pairings and home sides, the dates aren't published); the Carioca and Mineiro finals are at the first finalist's ground (real: a neutral ground); in the state you play, equal points are split by goal difference (real: wins first; the simulated states use the real order); the Cearense's six qualifiers are drawn into two groups of three that play each other (real: each group's clubs play the other group's); the Catarinense semi-final crossing is assumed; the Pernambucano's second division clubs are those of 2025; the side trophies (Taca Rio, Taca Farroupilha, Trofeu Inconfidencia, Campeao do Interior) are not played.

At least everything the original game had

• Never fewer leagues or divisions than SWOS 96/97: England's four divisions, with League Two and its 4th-7th play-offs; Argentina's Primera Nacional in two zones of 18; Mexico's Liga de Expansion, closed like the Liga MX; Uruguay's Segunda with three promotions; Japan's J2 with the 3rd-6th play-offs; New Zealand's National League with the Northern, Central and Southern Leagues; Australia's A-League with the NPL of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, closed as in reality; El Salvador's Primera, Segunda in two zones and Tercera; and Suriname, Taiwan, India and Ghana, back with their real leagues and cups.

European cups (UEFA 2026-27)

• The current official names: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, on every screen.
• The league phase's competition info (STAT > INFO): one table of 36, top 8 to the round of 16, 9th-24th to the play-offs.
• No away goals in 2026-27 (UEFA abolished them in 2021-22; every federation's two-legged rounds followed): a level aggregate goes to extra time and penalties, or straight to penalties where the regulation says so (Copa do Brasil rounds 5-8, EFL Cup semi-finals, the Chilean Copa de la Liga semi-finals), in played and simulated ties alike. The historic worlds (1984-85) keep the away-goals rule, as it was then.
• Every round under its real name, in every language: league phase, knockout play-offs, round of 16 (then quarter-finals, semi-finals, final), the qualifying play-off round; also the Serie B play-off's preliminary round and the national cups' round of 16, except the cups whose federations number their rounds: the FA Cup and the Scottish Cup (fifth round), the Welsh, Irish, FAI, Finnish, Maltese, Montenegrin, Uruguayan and New Zealand cups, the EFL Cup and the Scottish League Cup keep their numbered rounds.
• League phase of 36 in the Champions League and the Europa League: 4 pots of 9, 8 matches against 2 opponents from each pot, one at home and one away; never a club of its own country, at most 2 opponents from one country; the draw is made by the game every season with these constraints.
• Conference League: 36 clubs, 6 matches, 6 pots of 6, one opponent per pot, 3 at home and 3 away.
• One table of 36, with all ten UEFA 2026-27 tie-breakers (art. 18.01) in order: points, goal difference, goals, away goals, wins, away wins, then the opponents' points, goal difference and goals, disciplinary points (yellow 1, red or second yellow 3) and the club coefficient (5 seasons, with UEFA's 20% association floor); matchdays 1-7 use the first five, then alphabetical order. The game gives no cards in simulated matches, so these get yellow and red cards at the real Champions League rates (2025-26: 1.90 yellows and 0.12 dismissals per club per match). Places 1-8 straight to the round of 16, 9-24 to the knockout play-offs (9/10 v 23/24, 11/12 v 21/22, 13/14 v 19/20, 15/16 v 17/18, seeded club at home in the 2nd leg), 25-36 out.
• Round of 16 on the fixed seeded bracket (1/2 against the winners of 15/16 v 17/18, and so on), then fixed quarter- and semi-finals, single-match final.
• Qualifying rounds as in the 2026-27 access list: Champions Path and League Path, first qualifying round to play-off, the losers dropping into the Europa League and Conference League rounds as the regulations say; title-holder rebalancing, 2 European Performance Spots, Russia suspended. Your club plays every one of its qualifying ties in July and August, with the real round names.
• Holders as in reality: the Champions League holder and the Europa League winner enter the Champions League, the Conference League winner the Europa League.
• First season = the real 2026-27 entrants, in their real pots.

UEFA coefficients (simulated from season 2)

• Association and club coefficients over 5 seasons, seeded with the real values up to 2025-26.
• Points as UEFA counts them: win 2, draw 1; league-phase participation and ranking bonus (CL / EL 0.25 a place from 24th, UECL 0.125 then 0.25); a bonus for each knockout round reached; qualifying matches at half points (1.5 / 0.5 a tie); clubs knocked out in qualifying count in their association's divisor; a club's coefficient never below 20% of its association's.
• Places per association, entry rounds and pots follow the simulated ranking every season, a year old as in UEFA's access list: the 2027/28 places come from the 2026 ranking, the season just played counts from the following one; the clubs' coefficients for the seeding include the season just finished.

Italian football

• Serie B: 1st and 2nd promoted directly; the 3rd is promoted directly if it finishes more than 14 points ahead of the 4th, otherwise the play-off among the 3rd-8th decides the third promoted club.
• Serie B play-off, preliminary round: 5th v 8th and 6th v 7th, single match at the better placed club's ground; a draw goes to extra time, still level -> the better placed club goes through (no penalties).
• Serie B play-off semi-finals: 3rd v the winner of 6th-7th, 4th v the winner of 5th-8th, two legs, return at the 3rd's / 4th's; level on points and goal difference -> the better placed club (no extra time).
• Serie B play-off final: two legs, return at the better placed club's; level -> the better placed club, except clubs level on league points: extra time and penalties in the return.
• Serie B relegation: 18th-20th down; the 17th goes down directly if the 16th finishes more than 4 points ahead, otherwise the play-out 16th v 17th, two legs, first leg at the 17th's; level -> the 16th stays up, except clubs level on league points: extra time and penalties.
• Played by your club: when the career club takes part, it plays its Serie B play-off or play-out ties itself (the 6-club bracket with the 3rd and 4th waiting for the semi-finals; the play-out 17th v 16th), under exactly these rules.
• Serie C in three groups of 20 (A North, B Centre, C South): the three group winners are promoted; the clubs relegated from Serie B go into the group of their region, balanced to 20 per group, as the real 2026-27 groups are drawn.
• Serie C relegates for real: the 20th of each group and the two play-out losers (16th v 19th, 17th v 18th; no play-out when 8+ points apart) go down to the Serie D, and its nine group winners come up, each into the group of its area.
• Serie D 2026-27, the real one: the real 9 groups (Girone A-I), each club in its real group (156 of the real 162, see the Mod rules).
  • Each group winner is promoted to Serie C (9 clubs).
  • Play-offs: 2nd v 5th and 3rd v 4th in each group, single match at the better placed club's ground; a draw goes to extra time, then the better placed club goes through; the final between the two winners the same way. As in reality they promote nobody: they rank the repechage list.
  • Play-outs: 13th v 16th and 14th v 15th (in the 17-club groups 12th v 15th and 13th v 14th), single match at the better placed club's ground; a draw goes to extra time, then the better placed club stays up; not played when the two clubs are 8 or more points apart (the lower one goes down). The two losers go down.
  • Relegation: the last two of each group go down directly; with the play-out losers, 4 per group, 36 in all, go down to the Eccellenza, and 36 clubs come up from it each season, as in reality.
  • Poule Scudetto (title "Campione d'Italia Dilettanti", the 2025-26 rules, as the 2026-27 text isn't out): the 9 group winners in 3 triangulars by group (A-B-C, D-E-F, G-H-I), single round robin; the 3 triangular winners and the best runner-up in drawn two-legged semi-finals (points, then goals, no away goals, then penalties, no extra time); the final a single match at a neutral ground, no extra time, penalties.
  • Played by your club: the play-offs, the play-outs and the Poule Scudetto when you win your group; the winner's season record shows ITALIAN AMATEUR CHAMPIONS.
• Serie C play-off of 28 clubs (2nd-10th of each group + the Coppa Italia Serie C winner) for the fourth promotion:
  • group phase, round 1: 5th v 10th, 6th v 9th, 7th v 8th, single match at the better placed's, a draw -> the better placed; round 2: the three winners + the 4th, best v worst and the other two, same rules;
  • national phase, round 1: the 6 group-phase winners + the three 3rd-placed clubs + the Coppa Italia Serie C winner; seeds = the 3rd-placed clubs, the cup winner and the best-placed group-phase qualifier; seeded draw, two legs, return at the seed's, level -> the seed; round 2: the 5 winners + the three 2nd-placed clubs, seeds = the 2nd-placed and the best-placed round-1 winner, same rules;
  • Final Four: free draw, semi-finals and final over two legs, level -> extra time and penalties; the winner goes up to Serie B;
  • 'better placed' between clubs of different groups: league position, then points, wins, goals scored, drawing of lots.
• The Serie C play-off is played by your club too: group phase, national phase and Final Four under exactly these rules; while you play it the other two groups are already over (simulated when your group ends), and the season end keeps their results.
• Coppa Italia Serie D 2026-27, on its real bracket: every Serie D club, the real pairings of the turno preliminare (34 ties) and the primo turno (64), and the real paths through the sedicesimi, ottavi and quarti; ties already played in reality keep their real winners in the first season.
  • Each round on its real date (23 Aug, 30 Aug, 7 Oct, 28 Oct, 18 Nov, 9 Dec; semi-finals 20 Jan / 3 Feb; final 17 Feb / 3 Mar). No extra time anywhere (LND official notice no. 1): a single match level after 90 minutes goes straight to penalties; two-legged ties (semi-finals, final) level on aggregate also go straight to penalties, and away goals do not count double.
  • Hosts drawn up to the trentaduesimi; from the sedicesimi, the club that played away in its previous tie hosts (both home or both away: drawn). The semi-final pairs are drawn when the semi-finals are reached; the final is over two legs.
  • From the second season (LND art. 1-2), the clubs new to the Serie D (relegated from Serie C, promoted from the Eccellenza) play the preliminary round, filled up with the lowest-placed clubs of each group; the others enter at the primo turno.
  • Played by your club, with the real round names (TURNO PRELIMINARE, PRIMO TURNO, TRENTADUESIMI ... FINALE).
  • The ties your club does not play are decided by the clubs' strength (their best 11, as every other simulated result), home advantage included.

National cups 2026-27

• Every club still in when the data was taken (October 2026), each from its real round: clubs entering later have first-round byes (Coppa Italia from its real round of 16, the Copa del Rey with 10 ties and 22 byes ...); the ties already drawn are played as drawn, the rounds not drawn yet are drawn by the mod (fixed for the first season); group stages count as group stages (a defeat there is no exit).
• No national cup where none is played in 2026-27 (Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama: league only); Peru's cup is its real Copa de la Liga 2026.

League tables in colour

• Every league table shows its end-of-season zones, as on TV: Champions League (or the European Cup) and direct promotion light blue; Europa League (or the UEFA Cup), promotion and European play-offs green; Conference League dark blue; play-out orange; relegation gray. The places follow the real rules: the UEFA 2026/27 access list by association rank (qualifying rounds included), and each league's own promotions, relegations and play-offs (Serie B 3rd-8th and 16th-17th, the Serie C groups 2nd-10th). A legend on the header line names the colours each table uses. In the Europe 1984-85 world too. In the World 2026-27 the European places in every season come from the engine's own UEFA ranking (the one a year old, as UEFA's access list uses) and the real 2026/27 access list; the European Performance Spots and the title holders' rebalancing are decided at the season end and are not coloured in advance.
• Continental places outside Europe: the top flights of the other confederations colour their real club-cup places: light blue for the first cup (Copa Libertadores, Concacaf Champions Cup, AFC Champions League Elite, CAF Champions League, OFC Champions League), green for the second (Copa Sudamericana, AFC Champions League Two, CAF Confederation Cup), following each association's real routes (Libertadores / Sudamericana 2026, ACL Elite / Two 2026-27, Concacaf Champions Cup 2027, CAF's allocation, New Zealand's 2 OFC places), with a legend and a line on the FORMAT page that also names the national cup winner's place. Declared: where the real places are not table positions (the Apertura / Clausura champions and the annual table in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico; a final or play-offs in Uruguay, Venezuela, Australia, the USA, Canada and New Zealand) the game colours its own season table and the FORMAT page states the real rule; Ghana, Iran and India follow the general rule (no list of qualified clubs published); Central America and Suriname (qualified through the Central American and Caribbean Cups) and Taiwan (AFC Challenge League) have no colours; the holders' extra places and places passed down are decided by the cups and not coloured.

Leagues, calendars and clubs

• Every league, national cup and league cup under its real 2026-27 name, without title sponsors: COPPA ITALIA, FA CUP, EFL CUP, DFB-POKAL, TURKIYE KUPASI, KING'S CUP, EMPEROR'S CUP, PARVA PROFESIONALNA LIGA for the efbet Liga ...; Latin-script countries in their own language (BEKER VAN BELGIE, DBU POKALEN, CUPA ROMANIEI), the others under the official English name (GREEK CUP, RUSSIAN CUP).
• Belgium 2026-27: 18 clubs, 34 matchdays, no play-offs, the new format; calendar-year leagues (Brazil, Argentina, the MLS, Korea, China, the Nordic countries ...) play their 2026 season, Japan already its first August-May season, 2026-27.
• Clubs in the order of their 2025-26 final table; squads at the end of the summer 2026 window; real shirt numbers, coaches, kits (stripes and hoops, purple where worn).
• Fixed squad numbers, as today: every player keeps his own number all season, on the bench too (the original game renumbers the bench 12-16 and swaps numbers with the places); new signings, reserves and trial players take a free number, never a duplicate. The computer's clubs too.
• Faces: skin by nationality, blond hair from the players' official EA SPORTS FC portraits (and black skin with blond hair, as Osimhen), plus a hand list.
• Foreign market of 2026-27: 900 real players of the tiers just below the world's divisions.
• Simulated matches: real draw rates and scorelines. The original game's simulation never let the stronger side lose and ended ~45% of matches level. In this world the scores come from a table built on real football: ~27% draws, ~2.7 goals per match, upsets possible, and each strength gap gives the same points advantage as before.
• Strength: each club's skills are built from its real squad; checked against the real 2025-26 tables (mean rank correlation 0.93 over 104 divisions) and in simulated seasons (top flights 0.70-0.94).

What is in the world

• Countries and leagues: all 54 playing UEFA associations, each a real country (Liechtenstein, which has no league of its own, plays a mini league of its 6 first teams), and Russia (league only: no European places while suspended); England on 4 levels (League Two included), Scotland on 4, Italy with Serie A, B and the three Serie C groups, the second tiers of Spain, Germany (and 3. Liga), France, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey; Brazil Serie A and B, the full MLS, Canada, Mexico, Central America, every CONMEBOL country, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Iran, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, South Africa, New Zealand, Suriname, Taiwan, India, Ghana, and every league and division of the original game (see the Mod rules). Calendar-year leagues play their 2026 season (Japan already its first August-May season, 2026-27).
• Real names: every league and cup under its official 2026-27 name, without title sponsors, as the original game did (SERIE A, LALIGA, FA CUP, EFL CUP, DFB-POKAL, TURKIYE KUPASI, KING'S CUP, EMPEROR'S CUP ...): the country's own language where it is written in the Latin alphabet, the official English name otherwise.
• League formats: every league in its real 2026-27 format: Scotland's split after 33 matchdays and its play-offs, Austria's championship and qualification groups (points no longer halved), Switzerland's split, Denmark's and Greece's groups, Argentina's Apertura and Clausura, the Italian, English, Dutch and Brazilian play-offs and the others listed in 'Rebuilt exactly'.
• Club order: each division in the order of its 2025-26 final table (2025 for calendar-year leagues): the clubs that stayed by final position, then the relegated, then the promoted; promoted clubs from a tier the world does not hold come last, by squad value.
• Squads: Transfermarkt squads, 16 per club in the team files. The club you manage has 25: when you start a career or take a new job, its 16 are joined by 9 real reserves (the club's next players on Transfermarkt) instead of the 10 reserves the game invents for a new club; the 25 are saved with the career. The 9 are paid like the game's reserves (66% of a regular wage) but stay regular players: they never leave by themselves. They cost more than the 10 almost free reserves the game invents: about 12% more on the wage bill (Randers: 7,243 against 6,458). As in the original game, trial players may still join during the season while the squad is under 30. Computer clubs always play with their 16. Real shirt numbers, nationality (the game's closest nation where the game has none: Kosovo -> Albania, Montenegro / Serbia -> Yugoslavia, Kazakhstan -> Russia ...). Coaches from Transfermarkt.
• Skills: each player's level comes from his market value (corrected for age) mapped onto the original game's own distribution of player prices, blended with his EA SPORTS FC overall rating where he exists in EA's ratings; the 7 skills follow his EA attributes (passing, shooting, heading, tackling, ball control, speed, finishing; the 2 best are the key skills) or, for players not in EA, the profile of his position. The clubs of a division are then moved toward the strength their 2025-26 final position suggests, so a simulated season resembles the real table.
• Faces: skin dark or light by nationality (dark when any of the player's nationalities is in the game's list of dark-face nations); blond hair from the players' official EA SPORTS FC portraits (the game's fair-haired face, and black skin with blond hair for players like Osimhen), plus a hand-made correction list (Haaland, De Bruyne, Neuer, Odegaard ...). Transfermarkt and EA's public ratings have no skin or hair field.
• Kits: from the Wikipedia infobox of each club (home and away colours; stripes and hoops read from the kit pattern images; purple where the club wears it).
• National cups 2026-27: where the cup has already started, the clubs already knocked out in reality stay out and the real drawn ties are kept in the first round, the clubs that enter later have a first-round bye; the rounds not drawn yet are drawn by the mod (see the rules below). Cups not started yet (FA Cup proper, among others) are drawn by the mod from the league clubs. Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama have no national cup in 2026-27, so they play their league only; Peru's cup is its real Copa de la Liga 2026. The round of 16 is called ROUND OF 16 (OTTAVI DI FINALE ...), except where the federation numbers it (FA Cup fifth round, Scottish Cup, Irish Cup, Chatham Cup and 6 more).
• League cups 2026-27: the EFL Cup from its real fourth round, the Coppa Italia Serie C from its real round of 16 (its winner into the Serie C play-off), the Scottish League Cup, the Taca da Liga in its real 8-club format, the J.League Cup, the Irish League Cup and the league cups of Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Wales, South Africa, Iceland, Finland and Chile, each in its real format.
• European cups: the first season's Champions League, Europa League and Conference League are the real 2026-27 league phases (36 clubs each). The format is UEFA's since 2024-25:
  • League phase: one table of 36. The draw is made by the game at the start of every season, in four pots by club coefficient (the Champions League holder first): two opponents from each pot, one at home and one away, never a club of the same association and at most two of one association. 8 matchdays; table order by points, goal difference, goals, away goals, wins, away wins, then the opponents' points, goal difference and goals (UEFA's rules, all ten criteria: the disciplinary points and the club coefficient included). Places 1-8 go to the round of 16, 9-24 play the knockout play-offs (two legs, 9-16 seeded), 25-36 are out; the round of 16 and the bracket to the final follow UEFA's fixed shape.
  • Qualifying rounds (from the second season): the real access list of 2024-27 (as for 2026-27) for all three competitions: first to fourth qualifying round of the Champions League (champions and league paths), Europa League and Conference League (with its champions path), the losers dropping into the next competition as in reality. Draws seeded by club coefficient, never two clubs of one association; two-leg ties. Your club plays its own ties (PRELIM. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, rounds named first to fourth); the other ties are decided by the strength of the squads.
  • Simulated UEFA coefficients: they start from the real association coefficients (5 seasons, 2021-22 .. 2025-26) and the real club coefficients at the 2025-26 draws; then every season adds the points of the world's own European results (league phase: a win 2, a draw 1; Champions League participation 6; the league-phase place bonus; each knockout round reached; a knockout tie gives its winner 3 and its loser 1, a qualifying tie half of that). An association's season = its clubs' points / its clubs (those out in the qualifying included); a club's coefficient = its 5 seasons, at least 20% of its association's. Both rankings set the next season's pots and seeds.
  • Places by association rank: each season the access list is filled by the simulated association ranking (places per rank as in 2024-27), plus the 2 European Performance Spots (the 2 best associations of the season).
  • Holders: the Champions League holder and the Europa League winner enter the Champions League league phase, the Conference League winner the Europa League league phase; when a holder already qualifies through its league, the access list is rebalanced as UEFA does.
• Foreign market: real players of clubs outside the world (the tiers just below its divisions: Primera Federacion, FNL, Challenger Pro League, NordicBet Liga, OBOS-ligaen, Superettan, Challenge League, National, League Two ...), 900 of them, instead of the game's 1996 players.
• Two historic career worlds in one game: Europe 1984-85 and World 2026-27 sit side by side under CLASSIC CAREERS. Each world has its own countries, leagues and cups, so neither takes anything from the other.
• World 2026-27 has its own team files, DATA/TMW5.nnn (players, kits, squads). The 1984-85 world keeps its DATA/TEAM.nnn files unchanged.
• Saves: a career save knows its world and reopens it. 1984-85 careers saved with earlier versions load and play as before. You can switch between the two worlds' careers in the same session.
• Other game modes (friendlies, seasons, tourneys, the 1996-97 career) are unchanged.

Mod rules of this world

• The two Milan clubs are called INTER and MILAN (the game had INTER MILAN and AC MILAN), also in the Europe 1984-85 world (its INTERNAZIONALE) and in the transfer pool. A career saved with an earlier version keeps the names it was saved with.
• Extras of the managed club (25-man squads): each of the 9 reserves keeps his real name, role, nationality and face, but his skill total is at most the weakest of the club's 16 (outfield vs outfield, keeper vs keeper) and his price = his skill total, so no extra is better than the weakest of the club's 16 and the club's best 11 do not change. The bench is a little deeper than the game's own invented reserves (Randers: 12.3 against 8.8 per player on average): a deliberate choice, real players instead of invented ones.
• National cups: every club still in at the snapshot plays (no club cut, none of those already out brought back), each entering in its real round: round 1 holds the real drawn ties, the clubs that enter later (the top divisions' clubs, as in Italy's round of 16 or Spain's round of 32) have a first-round bye and join the round-1 winners in round 2. Round 2 must be a power of two (the game halves every round): when the real round's numbers do not give one, the mod adds round-1 ties among the clubs already in, lower divisions and weaker squads first (and a real tie is left undrawn only when there are more of them than the round can hold); a club drawn against a club outside the world goes through. A cup already down to its last rounds (the quarter-finals or later have been played) restarts from its last round of 8 or more world clubs, with that round's real ties; a cup not started yet is drawn by the mod (the weakest clubs play round 1, the others a bye). A cup's group stage is not a knockout: while it is played all its clubs are still in, once it is over only the clubs that reached the knockout are. At most 64 clubs per cup (the engine's limit): the FA Cup leaves out its 4 weakest clubs. The mod draws the rounds not drawn yet. Every match is played by the game, so the real results of the rounds already played are not imposed.
• Serie C: the three groups (A North, B Centre, C South) are the real 2026-27 ones; from season 2 every club that comes down to Serie C joins the group of its region (a fixed geography table: Lombardy, Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia -> A; Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Sardinia -> B; Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily -> C; Serie C clubs keep their own group), then the groups are balanced to 20 clubs each. The Serie B and Serie C play-offs and the Serie B play-out are playable (see the engine notes).
• Serie C relegates as in reality: in each group the 20th goes down and the 16th-19th play the play-out (16th v 19th, 17th v 18th, two legs, the return leg at the better placed club; level on aggregate: the better placed stays; no play-out when the two clubs are 8 or more points apart: the worse placed goes down). The 9 relegated clubs go down to the Serie D and the 9 Serie D group winners come up into the group of their area.
• Serie D, 156 of 162: Italy's team file holds 256 clubs (20 + 20 + 60 + 156), so 6 of the real 162 Serie D clubs wait outside: the weakest newly promoted squads (Lascaris, Pavonese, Virtus Bolzano, Grassina, Citta di Anagni, Melfi). They are the first clubs of the Eccellenza pool and come up to the Serie D at the first season end. In 4.1: all 162.
• The Eccellenza pool: 42 real clubs outside the team file, with real squads (the 6 above, then the 36 relegated from the Serie D in 2025-26, in order of their finish). Each season the 36 clubs relegated from the Serie D leave the world into the pool and the next 36 of the pool come up in their place, each into the Serie D group of its area (the groups keep their sizes); the pool turns over, so a relegated club can come back later. Each season the Serie D groups are re-formed by area, as in reality, so a club can move to a neighbouring group.
• Your club relegated from the Serie D to the Eccellenza is sacked (job offers).
• Nobody goes down from a country's lowest division in the world (except the Serie D, relegated to the Eccellenza pool), and play-offs against a tier outside the world are not played: e.g. Switzerland's 11th does not meet the Challenge League's 2nd, Korea's 10th and 11th play no K League 2 club.
• Second teams (Juventus Next Gen, Atalanta U23, Inter U23, Real Sociedad B, Stuttgart II, Hoffenheim II, the Jong / U21 teams of PSV, Ajax, AZ and Utrecht, Benfica B, Porto B, Sporting B) follow their countries' rules: never promoted into or above their first team's division, the promotion or play-off place passing to the next club; Italy's U23 teams may go up to Serie B and play the Serie C play-offs; a first team relegated into its second team's division sends the second team down. They play no national cup. New Zealand's Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix reserves play their regional leagues.
• Players without a Transfermarkt value get an estimate (from their club's and division's values); in the lowest divisions (Scotland's League One and Two) the squads are so close that a simulated season does not follow the real table closely.
• Hair: blond hair is read from the official portraits where a player has one (about two of every three blonds are recognised, and never a dark-haired player made blond, measured on 200 portraits); the others keep dark hair unless they are on the hand list. The list is open: Davide or testers (credited by first name) can report more blonds. The portraits are only read while the world is built: they are not part of the mod.
• No national cup where there is none in 2026-27: Mexico (the Copa MX was last played in 2019-20), Honduras (Copa Presidente, last 2017-18), Guatemala and Panama play their league only. Peru's only cup for its Liga 1 clubs, the Copa de la Liga, takes the national cup's place. South Africa's Nedbank Cup and Carling Knockout keep their sponsors' names (no other name is in use).
• Formats from the last documented season, where no 2026-27 source exists (an approximation; these are one-division countries in the world, so only the format counts):
  • Korea: the split after 33 matchdays as in 2025.
  • Czech Republic: the 7th-10th placement knockout of single matches, as in 2025-26.
  • Bolivia: one double round-robin of 30 matchdays, as in 2025-26.
  • Serbia: the top and bottom halves in single round-robins with points kept, as in 2025-26.
  • Bulgaria: the three 2026-27 groups with the 2025-26 rules (points kept).
  • Albania: the Final Four of the top 4 with halved points, as in 2025-26.
  • Kazakhstan: one double round-robin of 30 matchdays, as in 2025.
  • Moldova: phase II of the top 6 from their halved head-to-head points, as in 2025-26.
  • Andorra: a triple round-robin, as in 2025-26.
  • San Marino: one table of 30 matchdays and the Conference play-off of 2nd-11th, as in 2025-26.
• Every league and division of the original SWOS 96/97 is in the world (Davide): England's League Two, Argentina's Primera Nacional (two zones), Mexico's Liga de Expansion, Uruguay's Segunda, Japan's J2, New Zealand's Northern / Central / Southern Leagues, Australia's NPL New South Wales / Victoria / Queensland, El Salvador's Segunda and Tercera, and Suriname, Taiwan (two tiers), India (two tiers) and Ghana. Where Transfermarkt has no squads (El Salvador's Segunda and Tercera, Suriname, NPL Queensland) the squads are generated: real club names, players' names drawn from the world's players of that nationality, strength on the level's scale. El Salvador's 2026-27 Tercera is not published yet: its clubs are the 2025-26 Tercera clubs not promoted to the 2026-27 Segunda, in two zones. Mexico's and Australia's leagues are closed (no promotion or relegation), as in reality. Promotion and relegation keep every level's size:
  • England: League One relegates 4, as in reality: League Two's 3 direct places + its play-off winner.
  • El Salvador: the two Segunda zone winners play a single final at a neutral venue for the one place in the Primera. Each Segunda zone sends its last club down, each Tercera zone its winner up. In the zones' new line-ups from season 2, a club goes to its own area (A = Centro Occidente, B = Centro Oriente; Primera clubs by their department).
  • New Zealand: the season is, for now, its three regional leagues at their real sizes (Northern 12, Central 10, Southern 10; no moves between them). The National League Championship that their top clubs and the A-League reserves play after them (September-December) comes as a second competition of the season, with Brazil's state championships.
• Leagues with an odd number of clubs keep their real size, one club resting each matchday: Gibraltar 11, India's Super League 13 and Football League 11, Taiwan's Division 2 7, El Salvador's Tercera occidente 9.
• Argentina: the Primera Nacional's reducido pairs its first round across the two zones by place (2nd A v 8th B ... 8th A v 2nd B) and a level two-legged tie goes to the better placed club; the zone winners' final at a neutral ground has extra time and penalties; the Liga Profesional's matchdays are weekly from 22 January (Apertura) and 18 July (Clausura): the regulation published none of these details.

Known limits

• A career saved with one language's executable and loaded with another keeps the first language's competition titles, and its league tables show no zone colours and no FORMAT page: continue a career with the language you started it in.
• EA's public ratings still held FC 26-era rosters when this world was built (2026-10-16): attributes are matched by player (name and birth date), not by club, so they are a year old; they will be refreshed when EA publishes FC 27.
• About a third of the players are in EA's ratings (most of the big leagues, few of the small ones).
• Squads (engine): at most 32 players in the managed club (25 + up to 7 purchases or trial players; at 32 pending purchases are cancelled), 5 substitutes on the bench, 16 per computer club. When you leave a club, it keeps the first 16 of your squad order (as in the original game) and the others are dropped; if you come back later, its 9 reserves join again, also any you had sold, and a reserve you had moved into the first 16 can then appear twice.
• Team cache (engine): the game keeps at most 100 different clubs in memory during a season; a career in this world uses a bigger cache of 160 (an English lower-division club in a European league phase needs about 130). Other careers and modes keep the game's own.
• European results that the game does not play match by match (the computer's knockout ties, the qualifying ties between computer clubs) count for the coefficients as whole ties (winner 3 / loser 1, qualifying half of that).