Online Seasons - Matchmaking and the "Restrictive" Setting Not Working (FC 26)

Problem in FC26:

Online Seasons - Matchmaking and the "Restrictive" Setting Not Working (FC 26)

For over three months since the release of EA SPORTS FC 26, Online Seasons has been seriously broken in matchmaking.

The problem is that:

the matchmaking setting: Restrictive vs. has no effect,

the star filter is broken,

the game regularly matches teams 4.5–5★ against teams 3★,

always restarting, closing from game time, or shutting down.

I've tested:

various other (3★–5★),

restrictive and restrictive matchmaking,

different times,

restart the game, console, and connection,

different networks.

This is not a NAT, internet, or soft-ban issue. It appears to be a bug on EA's servers, where the team filter is bypassed and matchmaking matches "any" opponent simply to shorten the search time. This issue is being massively developed by the community and hasn't been fixed in the new update, even though it's already 2026, more than three months after the game's release.

Greetings and Happy New Year