JochP

I'm not really sure that this is the right place to post this kind of suggestion but it would be fun, however, to hear other people's opinion about it... Now to the topic:

When managing a nation, such as Jamaica, it's possible to view the players eligible to play for Jamaica in the "national pool", found under "player search" and "shortlist". In this pool you can find players that, for example, are English but of Jamaican heritage. Nothing strange with that but there are, however, more English players of Jamaican background in FM who haven't played for England and still they're not shown in this pool (and therefore they are not eligible to play for Jamaica according to FM)... Note that Jamaica is just an example, it's same with other national pools. I have found out, in the FM Editor, that if a certain player has dual nationality and is not eligible to play for the other country it's because a box called "attach to the first country" (or something like that) is ticked. This is probably done to create some reality in the game and prevent that players such as Tom Soares of Crystal Palace would turn out for Barbados in the game (he is still young and is probably dreaming of playing for England at senior national level in the future). I agree that this is a good way to prevent that game becomes unrealistic, but I have a suggestion on how to make this even more realistic and more interesting (also more fun when managing a national side): My suggestion for FM2009 is therefore to introduce the a new system for the players with dual nationality (and their dilemma of choosing which country to play for). My idea is that it should be a "probability ratio" in the FM Editor which would show the odds of a players choosing to play for one or the other of the two nations that the player is eligible to represent. Take my previous example: Tom Soares is of Barbadian heritage and has dual nationality (English and Barbadian). In FM he is "attached" to England but he has not played for England at senior level. Tom Soares has probably thought of the opportunity to play for Barbados in real life (his brother Louie Soares of Aldershot is playing for Barbados which makes it more likely), but Tom is probably waiting to see if he can make it to English national team which would be a greater experience for him (also, of course, because he is English from birth). But if he doesn't get the chance to play for England during the following years, wouldn't that make it more likely that he would turn up for Barbados. Of course we don't know the answer to that (only Tom know himself), but I'm sure that we could all agree on that it would be more likely when he is older than younger. Another scenario that would make it more likely is that if Barbados qualified for the World Cup. The probability of attracting more and better English players with Barbadian heritage would now be higher. What I'm trying to say is that the "probability ratio" in FM should have this kind of "events" as factors that could higher or lower the "probability ratio" in the game. Look at Jamaica in real life: When it became obvious that Jamaica had the chance of qualifying to the WC in 98, they managed to attract players like Robbie Earle and Deon Burton from England (both with Jamaican heritage). Therefore I think it would be more realistic in the game if there were such a "probability ratio" that would use factors like: age, success/reputation/development of the nation, relation with the country/current national manager/current players in the national squad; and media. The last couple of factors would be taken from reality in to the game under the subject "Relations" in the FM Editor.

So, enough said. I would be more than happy to here your comments! I think it would be much more enjoyable to manage smaller countries like Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Surinam, Grenada, Barbados...etc... if this kind of system was implemented into the game. I hope that maybe there are someone reading this that has some contact with the manufacturers/developers of the game that could suggest this for FM2009. I don't how much work it would take to create this kind of "probability ratio" but it would surely make the game more fun and more realistic. :thup:

Thank your reading!

Regards

/Paul