Five E3 FIFA 15 rumours I wish actually existed


With details on FIFA 15 scarce, here’s my (optimistic) rundown of what I’d love to see announced at E3 2014

E3 2014 is less than a week away, but among all the talk of Halo 5 and Call of Duty, there’s one thing missing: FIFA 15.

We don’t even know if it’s going to be announced at all next week, never mind what the game might look like, so I thought I’d make a list of features that I wished everyone was saying were going to be announced at E3 this year. Because it’s fun to make believe when you’ve got nothing else to go on.


Wouldn't it be cool to know who your most prolific youth player was?

Wouldn’t it be cool to know who your most prolific youth player was?

1. There will be a more in-depth youth academy

Every year EA add slightly to the youth academy in their FIFA titles, but the system is still very one dimensional. You scout players, they get put in the academy to twiddle their thumbs for 364 days of the year, then on 1 May they take a ton of steroids and suddenly grow 12 OVR points. That’s how it works in the real world, right?

What I want to see is a far more absorbing youth academy. I want to have randomly-generated youth players already there when I join a team, and have these players compete in a youth league. I don’t want to actually play the youth games, but just having a weekly report where my head youth coach tells me what the score was, what the player ratings were and who might be ready for promotion would be a giant leap towards realism for the academy. I know it’s optimistic, but this is the number one thing I would love to see announced for FIFA 15 at E3.


I'm pretty sure there are more countries in Africa than that

I’m pretty sure there are more countries in Africa than that

2. More countries will be available to scout

I find it baffling that you can scout Saudi Arabia but not Wales. I know there’s probably some legal or licensing issue behind it, but surely a company of EA’s gargantuan stature can navigate its way around these obstacles? The nations available for scouting has been largely the same for a while now, and it’s like my scout can only get hold of plane tickets to these nations. He should really find a better travel agent.

Instead, wouldn’t it be awesome if EA came out at E3 and said you can scout anywhere you choose? True scouting freedom (except maybe North Korea) would bring back that sense of discovery that gets lost after a few years of scouting the same countries. If lowly ES Troyes can get a regen from Madagascar, then dammit I want to scout there too!


Is he actually first team quality? Who knows...

Is he actually first team quality? Who knows…

3. The Global Transfer Network will be fixed

Don’t get me wrong, I like the GTN – in principle. I think it’s a good idea that we scout a player before deciding whether to buy them as it’s more realistic. When Ryan Giggs was discovered, the scout who found him didn’t watch him play and exclaim to himself: “Wow! This Ryan Giggs is rated 75 already! He must have potential to be special.”

But the problem is… the GTN doesn’t really work, does it? You take a team up from League 2 to the Premiership, ask your GTN scout to find first team quality strikers, and he comes back with a player you later find out is rated 57. The fact that the GTN doesn’t even give a rough outline of OVR or potential (as you get with youth players) means buying players is a total gamble, and once you get a few years in and all the young players in the game are regens, you really are in trouble. So an announcement at E3 that the GTN has been revamped (or even just made optional) would go a long way to improving the game.


He was one of the lucky few

He was one of the lucky few

4. Loans will be made easier

I’m sure everyone’s experienced the frustration that is involved in trying to loan players out. The more we scout, the more players we need to send out to get first team experience, yet we may only get loan offers for half of them before the window shuts. Those players we can’t loan out are left to twiddle their thumbs as they did in the academy, only they don’t get their shot of steroids on 1 May this time. Bummer.

In reality, loanees are in high demand. If our scout is churning out top class young talent left, right and centre, clubs should be lining up to take our players on loan. At the moment it feels like my players must be carrying the bubonic plague, it’s that hard to get teams to take them. I know it’s unlikely, but any news at E3 about fixing the bloody loan system would be heavenly. We can dream, right?


"Please don't go! Or at least please don't go to my domestic rivals when you said you were homesick!"

“Please don’t go! Or at least, please don’t go to my domestic rivals when you said you were homesick!”

5. Player messages will be sorted once and for all

Imagine the scene. You’re the boss of a Premiership team, you’ve just sent your GTN scout off and he’s discovered the next Messi at Brisbane Roar. You sign the player and he quickly becomes one of your most crucial players, decimating the opposition and winning the Golden Boot two years running. Then, out of the blue, he tells you he’s homesick and wants to leave – it sucks, but these things happen. Then the board zooms in and sells him to… Arsenal.

I get it, I get it – players get homesick and want to move on. Fine. But as it stands this just looks like another good idea that didn’t work out, like the Power Glove or Andreas Cornelius. OK, it wouldn’t be the most exciting announcement at E3, but think how many smashed controllers it would save.


So those are my ideas, but what changes do you want to see in FIFA 15? Do you think any big FIFA 15 news will be announced at E3 2014? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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