Optional Gender-Based Matchmaking in Ultimate Team – Give Players a Choice

First, I want to make something absolutely clear: this isn’t a post asking EA to remove women from Ultimate Team.

I actually think the inclusion of women’s football is a positive thing. Giving female footballers representation in one of the biggest football gaming franchises is something I can appreciate, even if women’s football isn’t something I personally follow.

However, I do have concerns about how EA has implemented it, and I’d genuinely like to know whether other players feel the same way.

I’ve been playing EA’s football games since FIFA 03. Ultimate Team has been a massive part of my gaming experience for years. I love building squads, discovering players, experimenting with tactics and taking my team into competitive matches.

I don’t mind losing. I don’t mind coming up against incredible players or opponents who are simply better than me. That’s football, and that’s part of the competitive experience.

What I struggle with is having no choice but to participate in a mixed-gender competitive environment when that’s not necessarily the experience I want.

I regularly come up against teams featuring female attackers I’ve never heard of, whose physical attributes and in-game effectiveness can sometimes be difficult for me to reconcile with the real-world differences between men’s and women’s professional football.

I understand that EA balances player ratings around gameplay, and I’m not suggesting that overall ratings are a scientific measurement of real-world ability. However, I do find it difficult to accept a shared rating system in which female players can be rated higher than some of the greatest male footballers of all time, including Icons such as Wayne Rooney.

I appreciate that this is a separate discussion in itself, but I think there’s a legitimate conversation to be had about realism, representation and what player ratings are actually supposed to communicate.

However, my biggest issue is actually much simpler:

Why can’t we choose who we play against?

I’d love EA to introduce optional matchmaking preferences:

• Men’s teams only.
• Women’s teams only.
• Mixed teams.
• No preference (the current unrestricted system).

I don’t see how offering these options would take anything away from anybody.

It wouldn’t remove anyone’s favourite players, prevent people from building mixed squads or stop anyone from enjoying the current matchmaking system.

It would simply give players more control over their own competitive experience.

In fact, I think it could encourage people like me to experiment with women’s players. Knowing I could return to a men’s-only competitive environment whenever I wanted would probably make me more open to trying something different.

I also appreciate that introducing separate matchmaking pools could potentially increase waiting times, particularly for less popular preferences. That’s a reasonable trade-off to discuss, but I don’t think it should automatically rule out giving players the option.

There’s also a personal reason why this matters to me.

Growing up, I struggled with bullying, making friends, autism and ADHD. Ultimate Team became an escape for me during some incredibly difficult years. It gave me something to enjoy, something to work towards and something that was mine.

I’ve been playing since FIFA 03, and I don’t want to see something I’ve loved for so long become an experience I no longer enjoy.

I’m not asking EA to take anything away from anyone. I’m asking EA to give players a choice.

I’d genuinely like to hear from both sides of this discussion:

Would you support optional gender-based matchmaking in Ultimate Team, even if it potentially meant longer matchmaking times?

And if you disagree, I’d genuinely like to understand why.

Let’s have a proper discussion about this without turning it into an argument about whether women belong in football games. That’s not what I’m asking.

I’m asking for choice, not exclusion.