Open Qualifiers for the eFutisliiga Start in January and February!

The Veikkausliiga and the Finnish Football Association are once again hosting Finland’s official EA SPORTS FC™ eFootball tournament, the eFutisliiga. The fourth season of the tournament will take place on February 20–21, 2025, at the Winter Assembly event in Helsinki’s Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre.

The tournament winner will earn a spot in the prestigious eChampions League, scheduled to take place later this spring.

Now, all EA SPORTS FC players aged 16 or older have the chance to compete in this celebrated tournament! In collaboration with SportsGamer, the Finnish Football Association will organize open online qualifiers across two consecutive weekends at the turn of January and February. The top two players from each qualifier will secure their place in the eFutisliiga finals.

Qualifier Schedule

• Qualifier 1: January 26, 2025

• Qualifier 2: February 2, 2025

Key Details

• Players will compete using their own FUT teams with no rating restrictions. The only limitation is a maximum of two loan players.

• Platforms supported: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Registration Links

• Qualifier 1 (January 26):   Register here  

• Qualifier 2 (February 2): Register here

Registration closes at Friday midnight, one day before each qualifier day.

Detailed rules and instructions can be found  here (in Finnish) . The participation rules in these tournaments require that you live in Finland.

SportsGamer and the Football Association of Finland is organizing the 2023 FIFA 23 Finnish Championships! The Championships are kicking off with two Qualifiers, that will be played on January 5th and 6th, 2023.

Now is your chance to challenge for the throne and test your skills against all the best Finnish FIFA 23 players. Our National team has been taking great steps forward these recent years and you'll definitely be seeing several stars, such as Joona @Krompe Vaajala, Jeremias @jerkosz Kosamo, Anton @Anzinho8 Korvenaho and many more trying to go for the gold this year. This tournament will be played in the 1v1 FUT game mode and is open for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Stadia players. In addition to the Finnish Championship title, there is a prize pool of 2500€ up for grabs. The prize pool will be split between the Top 4 of the Championship.

Schedule
Sign-ups: 13.12.2022-3.1.2023
Qualifier 1: 5.1.2023
Qualifier 2: 6.1.2023
Group stage: 8.1.2023-12.1.2023
Playoffs (Top 16): 15.1.2023
Live Finals (Top 4): 4.2.2023

Find the full rulebook for the FIFA 23 Finnish Championships here.

The Top 4 Live Finals will be played live at a location that will be announced leading up to the event. The full Finals event will be streamed online.

What are you waiting for? Gather your FUT team and sign up now!

Sign up here!

SportsGamers,

FIFA 23 is already available for those who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition, or through EA Play Early Access and we've seen plenty of you get going with your FUT squads already. That's why we decided to try to help out some of you new gamers with this quick beginners guide to some of the cards you might want to keep your eyes peeled for when navigating through the packs or the transfer market.

As you'd imagine, the cards that will work well for you highly depend on your playstyle, and we'll try to focus on a few different options for you to choose from. In recent years, most players have definitely gravitated towards cards with high pace and dribbling, which makes these cards feel smooth in gameplay and often better than their overall would suggest. Regardless of what your personal preference is, you'll most likely need to have some pace in your own squad in order to counter some of your opponents speedsters.

In this article, we'll keep the focus on base cards, since obviously you'll see special editions and icons emerge later on in the FIFA 23 life cycle, but these are definitely some of the cards that you can go for right off the bat to make your team as competitive as possible.

90 OVR Club

This year, you've got ten players in that fabled 90 OVR Club right from the get-go, with a few minor changes from last season. Most of these players are definitely very usable cards, but some will be more overpowered than others. Poster boy Kylian Mbappé is a beast with his 97 pace and 92 dribbling, which puts him above the rest at the moment. This card will cost you around 1 800 000 coins though, so you better pray to the FUT gods that you're able to get some pack luck early on. Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski are more of those strong, target finishers who you won't rely on to lead your rush, but they might be able to overpower some defenders physically and will be able to put the ball in the net at a high percentage when given a bit of space. These are players that are a bit harder to master and definitely require a different approach to the game due to their lower pace, so they can't be recommended for everyone. Mohamed Salah is a great addition to the right wing for any team, with his 90 pace and 90 dribbling, and he is significantly more affordable than Mbappé, at only around 260 000 coins at the moment.

On defense, you won't need to look further than the physical presence of Virgil van Dijk, who at a price of around 200 000 coins will be an excellent backstopper for any team with his 91 defense, 86 physicality and a very decent 81 pace for the big man.

Here are all of your players in the 90 OVR Club:
Karim Benzema (91 OVR)
Robert Lewandowski (91 OVR)
Kylian Mbappe (91 OVR)
Kevin De Bruyne (91 OVR)
Lionel Messi (91 OVR)
Mohamed Salah (90 OVR)
Virgil van Dijk (90 OVR)
Cristiano Ronaldo (90 OVR)
Thibaut Courtois (90 OVR)
Manuel Neuer (90 OVR)

Now, this wouldn't be a beginners guide if we'd focus on only the top tier players, so that's why we'll continue by taking a look at some great budget options for your starting XI early on in your FUT squad building. Once you get further into the squad building process and get some more games under your belt, you'll find what kind of players work best for you. You'll also want to keep in mind that the five star weak foot and skill moves play a big role in how you can use the cards, so be on the lookout for that in any card you might want to go for!

Attackers

As already mentioned, the best of the best in this category is Kylian Mbappé at the moment, but at his very hefty price, he will me inaccessible for most players at the start. That's why we'll take a look at some of the more accessible and cheaper players. 

Speed is the common factor for all of the attackers that you should go for early on in your FUT squad building process. Some of the usual suspects in this budget category is Leicester City's Patson Daka with 90 pace at only 77 overall, but other Premier League players to be on the lookout for could be Conçalo Guedes with an 86 pace, 83 dribbling and 83 shooting. Also Liverpool's new wonderboy Darwin Núñez should be a player to keep on your shortlist with his 89 pace, 82 shooting and 86 physicality - a great overall player at a cheaper price point. Some affordable Premier League players to look for on the wing are Luis Sinisterra, Gabriel Martinelli and Christian Pulisic, all going for under 5 000 coins.

Playing for La Liga's Atletic Bilbao you'll find Iñaki Williams with an astonishing 94 pace at only 81 overall, which means this guy will give you great bang for your buck at a cheaper prize. In La Liga, though, the Argentine Angel Correa is the player to target, though. At a bit of a higher prize point around 25 000 coins, you'll be able to get a very well rounded striker that will last on your team for a longer time. Barcelona's Ansu Fati is a great option to go for if you're looking for a winger to add speed on the outside.

If you're looking to bring on an influx of speed at a reasonable prize, don't look any further than Union Berlin's Sheraldo Becker. At only 900 coins currently, the Surinamese striker is sporting a pace rating of 95.

Midfielders

Your chosen midfield players depend highly on your playstyle, but a minimum requirement should always be to have at least a bit of pace to match opposing counter attacks, while being physical enough to win ball battles. Your midfielders should be the most well rounded players on your squad and if you're playing with wide men on the side, you'll also want to add some speed on the outside.

Some of the speedsters to look out for in this category are definitely Fulham FC's Daniel James with 95 pace on the right wing, or FC Nantes' Moses Simon with 90 pace on the left.

To lock down the center lane, the main man to look for in an affodrable price range should be Athletic Bilbao's Muniain, who should be able to slot in at the CAM position for any team with an 87 dribbling and 82 passing. Another great option could be Roma's Lorenzo Pellegrini, who is also a more physical option if that is what you need.

Sergi Darder, the center midfielder for RCD Espanyol is an excellent choice for a balanced midfield, and so is Juventus' Weston McKennie or Athletic Bilbao's De Paul. All of them hold high ratings in dribbling and physicality, while also having decent pace and passing. 

If you're in need of a CDM, look no further than Napoli's Zambo Anguissa, who has good size and speed for a player that will cut down opposing attacks with his 84 physicality and 81 defense. 

Defenders

The traditional football manual calls for big, physical players on the inside with speed on the outside even at the back line, and that's what we'll try to find for you here. 

On the left side, one of your best bets will be Roma's Leonardo Spinazzola with his 91 pace, while simultaneously maintaining good enough defensive stats. He does go up in prize above the 10 000 coin threshold, so a more affordable similar option could be Real Betis left back Alex Moreno with 88 pace. The biggest sacrifice for the speed here is a loss in physicality, which Cádiz CF player Alfonso Espino has in abundance while being fast on the wing.

On the right, a well rounded option is Fulham FC's Kevin Mbabu with 83 pace, 81 physicality and decent enough defensive stats. Once again, if you want to go for speed, look for Valencia CF left back Thierry Correia with 90 pace.

At the center back position, you can't go wrong with Liverpool's towering Ibrahima Konaté. Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig will achieve similar results, albeit having to sacrifice a few inches of height. His teammate Lukas Klostermann is also a great, speedy option (86) pace for your center lane. By sacrificing a bit of speed, you could get Dortmund's Niklas Süle for your center back position, ensuring no header duels should be lost by one of the tallest and most physical players in the game. 

Goalkeepers

For goalkeepers, you'll want to obviously get a decent sized keeper, but your most important stats to keep an eye on are diving and reflexes first, handling and positioning second.

With this in mind, a great Premier League option is Everton's Jordan Pickford at a dirty cheap 600-800 coins. The Finnish favorite Lukáš Hrádecký or Wolfsburg's Koen Casteels is another excellent budget choice if you are to go for a Bundesliga side. 

To cap off, here's an example of what a budget starting squad might look like featuring some of the players we've highlighted. We're going with a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 formation to be able to stop quick counter attacks while simultaneously having enough men up front. This strategy sacrifices a bit on the wings and forces your full backs to jump in on the offense quite a bit, which is helped by their great pace. Most players in the squad are very affordable and can be found for below 5 000-6 000 coins at the market place, with Correa being the only exception and a card you'll want to splurge on in this lineup. 

What does your FUT team look like and what are some cards you are going to be on the lookout for in FIFA 23? Let us know in the comments section!

FIFA 23 brings TV screen sensation Ted Lasso to the virtual pitches, and adds AFC Richmond players together with their home stadium Nelson Road in a crossover fans of the show will love.

The Sandman, Lasso Special, Pepper Shakers and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, do these ring any bells? If not, you might have some catching up to do with Apple TV's hit show Ted Lasso, but if these names are familiar to you, you'll be pleased to hear that in FIFA 23, you'll be able to pull off these Ted Lasso trick plays with some of the AFC Richmond stars in virtual form. 

Take the pitch with AFC Richmond in their signature red and blue colors with the likes of Sam Obisanya, Roy Kent and Jamie Tartt in your starting eleven and create your own story in helping the troubled club flourish once again. In addition to the colors and players, also the club's home stadium, Nelson Road will be playable in FIFA 23. We'll only have to wait and see if also the signature Jamie Tartt and Roy Kent chants from the Richmond fans will make it to the game as well. 

According to EA Sports, you'll be able to select Ted Lasso himself as a playable character in your manager career mode, or swap the club AFC Richmond into your career mode in any league. Ted Lasso and Coach Beard will also be integrated into the FUT mode as character items, and some additional AFC Richmond banners and club customization items will also be available. The fictional players will most likely not make it into FUT as playable characters.

This means that now is your chance to go for one of Ted Lasso's signature unorthodox tactics, or perhaps you're going to take the role of Nathan Shelley, teaching the Americans about the nuances of the false 9 or what parking the bus means in a football setting, breaking it off with AFC Richmond in order to take on them in a brewing rivalry with West Ham United?

As a big fan of both the EA Sports FIFA series and the Ted Lasso series, this is a fun addition to the game that at the moment is in a good place in its development. What are your thoughts on the Ted Lasso integration?

In late July, EA Sports revealed their next iteration of the massively popular FIFA-series, resulting in lots of excitement, but also an uproar in the Pro Clubs community!

As expected, with a new iteration of the wildly popular title, the chart-topping football series will be seeing some changes once the game drops on September 30th, 2022. It has been confirmed that with the severance of their FIFA-relationship, FIFA 23 will be the last game in the series bearing the FIFA name, potentially also pointing to other changes in the future - but for that we'll just have to wait and see.

FIFA 23 will also, for the first time ever, include a female athlete on the cover of the game as Chelsea's Sam Kerr joins the cover with French speedster Kylian Mbappé.

Cross-play controversy

One of the first big announcements regarding FIFA 23 was the inclusion of cross-play, but this didn't come without some drawbacks. In their first announcement, it was mentioned that cross-play will only be featured in 1v1-game modes, meaning that the popular Pro Clubs mode would be left out. Naturally, the announcement spurred an uproar in the community and with the #SaveProClubs movement seeing so much support, EA Sports recently made the commitment to bring the heavily requested feature to their Pro Clubs and VOLTA game modes too, but it will not be making it for the launch of the game.

Richard Walz, Game Design Director for Pro Clubs and VOLTA Football at EA Sports recently followed up the backlash in a FIFA 23 Pitch Notes-article as follows: 

"With the scale of such an important feature, our goal is to bring you the best possible experiences. As we look at our cross-play future, we’re focused on matchmaking in Pro Clubs, VOLTA, and FUT Co-op, as well as cross-platform lobby invites and ultimately cross-platform Pro Clubs."

"We’re eager to provide updates in the future as the team continues to execute the plan for the future of cross-play. We love the passion of our community, and you help strengthen our resolve to push the mode forward and to bring quality changes for you to enjoy as players."

"We will provide an update regarding cross-play as soon as we can, we hear you."

The World's Game

New additions that will be obvious to players right from the start will be the inclusion of the FIFA World Cup, Women's World Cup and for the first time, women's club teams. It's a great step in promoting the game we all love - The World's Game, as they put it themselves.

When it comes to realistic gameplay, there's been a big push to further that cause even more and while we saw the Hypermotion technology in action already in FIFA 22, the new title brings out Hypermotion 2, promising double the amount of match data capture and over 6000 authentic animations mimicking real world footballers. With more data captured from more players than ever before in both men's and women's games makes EA Sports promise full team authentic motion when hopping on the thumbsticks this year.

Once you get to the gameplay, you'll notice some new features sprinkled here and there, such as the all new shooting mechanics emphasizing risk versus reward. You'll also want to know that set piece taking has seen an overhaul and will now allow for you to really let your creativity take control. Choose where to make contact with the ball to change trajectory and curl, while enjoying the new corner camera that better reflects the drama of dead ball situations. 

When you've decided if you're going to go for this years game or not, it all comes down to which edition you'll want to grab. Keep in mind there are some preorder perks to both editions.

Standard Edition

1 x TOTW Player Item
1 x 5-game Kylian Mbappé Loan Item
1 x 3-game FUT Ambassador Loan Player Pick
Career Mode Homegrown Talent (Local youth prospect with world-class potential)

Ultimate Edition

All Standard Edition perks
1 x Ones to Watch Player Item
1 x FIFA World Cup FUT Hero Item (If pre-ordered before August 21)
3 days Early Access, starting September 27
Dual Entitlement
4600 FIFA Points (Not exclusive to pre-orders)

Find even more details on the Official FIFA 23 page at EA Sports.

Last weekend, the Finnish FIFA national team participated in the FIFAe Nations Series Main Stage and managed to pave their way into the European Top 20 with a win over Belgium in the Knock-out stage.

The FIFAe Nations Series Main Stage was played during Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week, and after a successful run in the group stage on Thursday and Friday, Finland finished 3rd in their Group A, matching them against Group C 2nd seed Belgium in the Knock-out stage. Belgium is known as a great team and previous matches against them had been very tough, putting Finland in a small underdog position heading into the big double-header on Saturday. The eventual winner would be decided based on aggregate score from both matches. 

The Finnish team, consisting of Jesse @Kossu72 Kosamo, Jeremias @jerkosz Kosamo and Joona @Krompe Vaajala played well throughout the weekend and rotated playing turns regularly. Some consistency issues were evident especially early on both gamedays, but as the boys found their flow, they were tough to beat, manager Markus @MakezCR Moilanen was also very pleased with the performances of the weekend.

On Saturday evening agains Belgium, Finland had a great opportunity to reach the Top 20 by winning the double header. The first game started off a bit slow, but after the first ten minutes of play, Finland was able to generate the first dangerous chance of the game and against all expectations, Kossu managed to surprise the keeper with a shot inside the back post. After 15 minutes of play, Finland had taken the lead. After the first goal, Belgium upped the tempo and came at the Finns with high and intense pressure, but it didn't cause any trouble for the playing duo Krompe & Kossu. As the half-time whistle inched closer, Finland was yet again able to create an almost identical chance to their 1-0 goal, and a very accurate finish put the score at 2-0 to and the first half. The second half saw Finland hold possession and minimizing chances for Belgium, and they didn't get any closer than hitting the crossbar. At the very end of the game, the Finns managed to break down the Belgian defense with a beautiful passing play, cementing the end result of game one at 3-0.

The 3-0 Finnish lead heading into the second match put Belgium at a serious disadvantage and they needed to bring out their full arsenal in order to win. Once again, the hard pressure didn't yield any result and after 45 minutes of play, it was Finland who held the 1-0 lead after a cheeky lob finish by Kossu on a breakaway. The second half was a true scoring showdown. Belgium came out swinging and managed to score right out of the gate, and after that both teams traded chances and goals, seemingly on every attack. The second game finished at a 3-3 tie, meaning that Finland had won the matchup 6-3.

Finland has came a long road to the European Top 20 and the players recognize that there's still a lot of hard work ahead to reach the FIFAe Nations Series final tournament in Denmark at the end of July. The next stage is the European Playoffs between the 16th and 19th of June, out of which 11 European teams will advance to the Top 24 in the world.

"We're not done yet, now we're only one step closer to the goal we've set. Of course we're very satisfied with what we've done at the moment, but now we've got to start grinding again. We'll fix some small issues with our game and try to improve even more. If an when we get our bearings straight, we'll be able to take on anyone", Kossu summarizes.

SportsGamer and the Finnish Football Association hosted the Finnish MA eCup in two divisions over the course of the spring, and the Cup came to a close last Thursday, when LehPa was crowned the champions of the open division, and FF Jaro won the U16 division.

The best FIFA 22 players in Finland gathered on the premises of the Finnish Football Association last Thursday, on April 14th for the final event of the Finnish MA eCup 2022. The final event hosted the top two teams of the U16 division and the top 8 teams of the open division. There was certainly no lack of talent at the final event, featuring several players seen representing Finland at the national level before, such as Anton @Anzinho8 Korvenaho, Jesper @jjesu3 Hietarinne, Jesse @Kossu72 Kosamo and Erno @egoapina Parkkonen, who has led the national team in the FIFAe Nations Qualifiers over the past few months.

Thursday evening kicked off with the open division finals group stage, which was played in two groups of four teams. Two teams from each group would emerge into the eventual semifinals and those teams were HauPa, FC Kiffen, LehPa and SalPa with the pressure of the favorites resting heavily on the shoulders of FC Kiffen duo egoapina & Kossu72 and SalPa duo Anzinho & jjesu3. Before the open division semifinals, however, we saw some of the best young talent in the nation clash for the U16 championship, where FF Jaro's Robin @Soccernerd1 Forslund and Colin @colin_gaddnas123 Gäddnäs eventually managed to overcome KoiPS' duo Jere "ZerBa" Tiainen and Tommi @BasilikaJr Mönkkönen. Some of this young talent will definitely be seen on the bigger pitches in the future, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for them!

In the open division, the semifinals were a shocker, as both favorites FC Kiffen and SalPa were knocked out with relative ease by the eventual finalists HauPa and LehPa. To our surprise, that meant that all of the players that had represented the Finnish national team this season were knocked out at this stage, and it was time for new talent to shine. On the HauPa side, we saw the very experienced Joona @Krompe Vaajala team up with Jeremias @jerkosz Kosamo, and they'd face the Hänninen brothers Markus @Masatial and Eelis "penaa_14" for the ultimate glory and spots with the national team in the near future. 

Eventually, the finals didn't end up being the thriller we all had on order due to the very skilled play of LehPa duo Masatial and pelaa_14. The Hänninen brothers employed a heavy defensive pressure throughout and were lethal on their scoring chances, ultimately not even giving their opposition a chance to come close. At the end, it seemed like their brotherly chemistry and the experience of Masatial was enough to secure them the victory, and their record for the final weekend ended up being six wins, a draw and a loss, which was enough to hoist the Finnish MA eCup 2022.

"It feels really good. We really didn't have any expectations for the finals other than we'd play and see where that takes us, if it's a win, then good, if it's a loss we move on. We've got about 20 2v2 games under our belts and when we got on the train from Joensuu this morning our main objective was to move on from the group stage", the younger brother Eelis summarizes.

"As I said to Eelis during the games, no matter the score, the mentality should always be 0-0. I'm very proud of my brother, we've played together in the same house and always had some banter about when we'll hoist the cup. Well, now we will!", older brother Matias praises.

It'll remain to be seen when the brothers dress up for the national team for the first time, and if they'll be back to defend their title with LehPa next year. For now, stay tuned for more FIFA 22 content coming your way on SportsGamer in the future.