20 Years of Loyalty Rewarded with a Transfer Market Ban and Broken Gameplay

This company is honestly worth nothing at this point, and the only way people can actually affect them is by stopping buying their products altogether.

So on May 1st I received a completely undeserved transfer market ban without doing anything wrong. I played for another couple of days, but because of how disappointed I was with the gameplay, the ban itself, and especially how my appeal was handled, I uninstalled the game from my PS5.

Today I saw the free PS Plus Icon pack and thought, “why not give it another try?” I went in telling myself I’d just play casually and not get annoyed.

Of course, the problems somehow felt even worse.

I played 4 matches. Lost 2 despite leading in both, won 1, and then came the last match—the one that genuinely made me realize this game can always sink lower.

I entered the match and immediately something felt strange about how my players were positioned, but I ignored it. My opponent barely seemed to move. I scored quickly anyway, and right after the goal the opponent paused the game. It instantly showed that he resumed the match.

But then I got stuck watching the replay of my own goal infinitely. I couldn’t press anything, couldn’t skip, couldn’t move. While staring at the replay, I noticed the scoreboard suddenly showed 2–1 for my opponent in the 15th minute, even though for me the match had only reached the 3rd minute.

Then I received a warning saying I was inactive and would lose the match if I didn’t move.

I kept watching the scoreboard change in the background: 45th minute, now 3–1 for my opponent, while I was still trapped in the replay screen.

Eventually the game resumed and suddenly I could play again. Once again, my opponent wasn’t moving much, I equalized quickly, and immediately he paused again. Same thing happened: endless replay, frozen controls, scoreboard showing him taking the lead again while I couldn’t do anything.

No matter what I pressed, nothing worked. Eventually I got disconnected for inactivity and lost the match.

At that point it became obvious the opponent was using some kind of exploit or cheat.

So my question is: how much longer can EA keep disrespecting its players like this?

I’ve played this franchise for 20 years. I’ve invested money into it. I even still have a Season Pass I can’t properly use because of a completely unjustified transfer market ban, yet actual cheaters can apparently manipulate matches and nothing happens to them.

Trying to contact support is honestly one of the worst customer support experiences I’ve ever seen. There isn’t even a proper in-game reporting system for serious issues. But sure, if someone has an “offensive club name,” suddenly that’s the priority.

At this point the game feels abandoned, the support feels fake, and legitimate players are the ones paying the price.