Clubs matchmaking issue

I’ve been facing a matchmaking/connection issue in EAFC 26 while playing Pro Clubs with my friends.

When my friends (around 10 players, all based in the UK) and I (based in Saudi Arabia) play together, the game consistently places us on Middle East servers. Even when the club search region is on British isle or Southern Europe 

This causes everyone in the UK to have high ping and lag, while I’m the only one with a smooth connection.

In previous EAFC titles, matchmaking seemed to prioritize the team’s majority region (UK/Europe). Back then, my friends had very good connection and I had only average ping, which made more sense.

Now, matchmaking appears to prioritize my location instead of the majority of the squad, resulting in a poor experience for everyone.

Additional issue: whenever I’m in a lobby with UK players and we start searching for a match, we immediately get an error message on the first attempt. Once we return to the lobby and search again, matchmaking proceeds normally. This seems relevant to the server selection issue.