Incredibly it appears that the The McDonalds/FIFA game, hereby known as McFIFA, has subjected its players to yet another major rule change – this time surrounding the transfer of players.
Having previously stated that unlimited transfers within your squad would be allowed prior to the start of the second round, this has now been changed to zero transfers. So while you can extend the quota of players from each nation to four, you will presumably be faced with spending points per transfer to do so.
What’s more remarkable about this move is that the organisers have so far failed formally announced the change on the game’s news page and yet the tweak comes with just over an hour of the deadline for transfers for Round 3. There’s no doubt that this change will affect strategies for this round of transfers with Fantasy Managers surely looking to target players prior to a price rise before the start of the knockout phase. Presumably thousands will miss this change and fully expect to be able to scrap their squad after round 3. They’re going to be in for a nasty shock.
It’s important to stress that we are as yet unable to confirm this rule change. We have contacted ISM games who contributed the game engine to FIFA. We await news from them but we suspect that FIFA themselves have made this change independent of ISM. We again, can only wait for confirmation of that…
The situation for McFIFA managers is once again uncertain then. As I see it, you may as well push through some transfers now and spend points in order to get the benefit for round 3. That will mean gambling on those players making it through to the last sixteen, plus of course you’re still limited to two players per nation, when, after this deadline, you will be able to “buy in” four players per nation. So do you gamble your points or, if you’ve yet to make your transfers, save them in order to make at least one or two free transfers for the knockout stage?
It’s yet more evidence that the game organisers presume that little strategy or planning goes into our Fantasy Football. If you make a game that includes complex bonus points and transfer allocations – why presume that you can tweak the rules mid-game without turning your audience against you?
I’ll keep you posted on this.
*Update* ISM have now confirmed that the rule change is an error and that the game is configured to allow unlimited transfers for the last 16.