National Teams - The final decision, by FIDAdmin

So, it is decision time for us in the Admin team in order not to delay the National Team release any further. We have therefore had to take decisions on how to move forward with these issues that has been debated here and we have now come to a decision in all cases. We truly appreciate all the input in this thread and we have taken it all under consideration. Perhaps some of our decisions are not to everyone’s liking but in many cases we believe we have found a good compromise and in other cases we have had to take decisions based on other parameters that we believe to be for the good of the game and the development of the FID world. So here are the decisions taken:

1. Multiple characters in a National Team

The decision here is that there will only be one character per user in each national team. National Team competitions is about making 11 persons (that do not usually play with each other) play well together and at the same time allowing for as many users as possible to play in the National Team.
A suggestion that could influence the situation here a bit is our recent suggestion to open up a third tier for National Teams; an U25 tier. We hope that this can make the 3 tiers work as a “ladder” for smaller nations to work their way up. If they do not have old footballers that can be able to compete at the highest level they might do best to focus their efforts into the U25 tier and build for the future. This is however only a suggestion and no decision has yet been taken. We have therefore initiated a poll where we ask the community what you think about a U25 tier here:https://footballidentity.com/FIDA/International/MembersArea/IFIDAMembersArea.aspx?pollOid=127 

The idea is that the U25 tier MAY be closed in a few seasons when the new character development tweaks (which we are working on to make younger footballers develop faster) has taken effect within the world (and when the difference between a 25 year old and a 30 year old is no longer so big).

2. 2nd Nationality

This has been the most difficult thing to decide. At the same time that we do not want to lose the NATIONAL aspect of a National Team we also want to allow for ALL users to at least have the chance to play for a national team even if they are connected to a nation that may never have an active National Team. We also want to allow for users that may have a 2nd nationality in real life to have the option to play for the other nation. Therefore we have come up with the following solution:

All users will be allowed to have ONE 2nd Nationality. This will make it possible for a FIDA or National Team manager of that nation to also invite any character of that user to play in OR manage that national team.

There will however be one important restriction, one specific national team can only have a maximum of 3 characters in their squad (out of the total of 22) that have a 2nd nationality equal to the nationality of the national team.

Once a user accepts an invitation to become manager or to be part of the squad as a footballer that user will be attached to that nation (when it comes to National Team involvement) for all eternity. So for example; let’s say I am Swedish User with Finnish as 2nd Nationality. If I get invited to manage a national team in Finland and if I accept that invitation then none of my characters will ever be able to manager in or play for Sweden after that point.

There will be two ways of getting a 2nd nationality:

1. Purchase a 2nd Nationality for 5,000 FIDC in any nation

A user can only have ONE 2nd Nationality. The 2nd Nationality is active for all current and future characters of that user. The user will be able to purchase this from his user space.

2. User can apply for 2nd Nationality to International FIDA based on previous engagement in a nation

A user can only have ONE 2nd Nationality. The 2nd Nationality is active for all current and future characters of that user. A user can send a message to a responsible representative at IFIDA asking them to grant him or her a 2nd Nationality in a specific nation. IFIDA will evaluate each request based on a set framework (that we will work out later). If the user fulfills the requirements the IFIDA rep will inform the admin team who will allocate the 2nd Nationality to the user.

Here’s an example on how the framework could look:

- Basic requirement of matches played in a league of that specific nation: 150 matches
- Did not play in league for 3 last seasons = +30 (3x10) matches
- Has done a lot for that national community (been NFIDA rep for a certain amount of time) = -40 matches
- Was a manager for 2 full seasons in a league of that nation = -80 matches

End result = 150+30-40-80 = +60 matches

This means that if user has played 60 matches or more in a league of that nation that he is applying for he would be granted the 2nd Nationality of that nation.

This is just an example on how the framework could look. A standard framework would have to be worked out by IFIDA together with the NFIDAs.

3. Foreign managers

The national team system will not allow for foreign managers to manage (head manager and assistant manager) National Teams. However, as mentioned on point 2 above a user with a 2nd nationality in another nation can become a manager of a NT in that nation as long as he has not accepted any previous NT invitations from his “original nationality”. Once a user accepts a manager position (head manager or assistant manager) in a national team he will be tied up to that nation for all eternity, and none of his chars can later accept an invitation (footballer or manager) from another nation’s national team.