Using Football Manager to simulate an ULTIMATE WORLD CUP featuring every single country

Have you ever wondered what would happen if every single country in the world was thrown into one massive tournament? No? That’s because you’re a normal person who probably worries about things like whether your football team will win this weekend or, you know, the general state of the world.

Luckily for you, I’m not a well-adjusted human. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a World Cup featuring every single country. There are plenty of nations that never get the chance to compete on the biggest stage, and I wanted to see what happens if we give them that shot. Thanks to Football Manager 2024 mods, we can do just that.

Of course, there are a few minor logistical issues—like the fact that a 227-team World Cup is completely unfeasible. But that’s the beauty of Football Manager: it’s a sandbox where logic and realism take a backseat. So, how does the ULTIMATE World Cup work, and what happens when you simulate it? Let’s get into it.

(If you want to download the Ultimate World Cup from the Steam Workshop, you can do that here.)

How the Ultimate World Cup works

The Ultimate World Cup runs from March 2022 to December 2023, featuring 227 teams in a qualification-based format that allows players to return to their clubs between matches. If your team goes all the way, you’ll play a ridiculous 40 games—almost an entire club season on top of international duty.

The tournament structure is as follows:

• Preliminary round – Six teams (the lowest-ranked from CONCACAF) play two-legged ties.
• First phase – 224 teams in 16 groups of 14, each playing 13 matches. The top six teams from each group advance.
• Second phase – 96 teams in 16 groups of six, playing five matches each. The top four advance.
• Third phase – 64 teams in eight groups of eight, playing seven matches each. Again, the top four go through.
• Fourth phase – 32 teams in four groups of eight, playing seven matches each. The top four advance.
• Final stages – Knockout rounds played over two legs, leading up to the final.

So, yeah—this thing is huge. If you made it all the way to the final and lost? I wouldn’t blame you if you never played tournament football again.

Simulating the tournament

First round

Now that we’ve established the format, let’s get into the chaos. Every country was placed in a 14-team group, meaning 16 massive groups in total. Since there’s no way I can post all of them, here’s a taster of the final standings. (If you want the full list, check out the save file—linked at the start and end of this article.)

The worst teams in the group stages? Brunei, Laos, and Micronesia—all of whom finished with zero points and a shocking -52 goal difference. Imagine traveling all the way to Europe for this tournament just to get absolutely destroyed every single match. Brutal.

(Speaking of logistics, the entire tournament was hosted in Italy, which raises serious questions about how Serie A functioned while this madness was happening.)

Some rogue nations made it through to the next round—teams that usually wouldn’t qualify for the World Cup, like Uzbekistan, Swaziland, and Liechtenstein.

Second round

With 16 groups of six, only two teams were eliminated from each group at this stage.

Notable exits included Greece and Saudi Arabia, while Kyrgyzstan and Mali somehow made it through. Since only two teams per group were knocked out, this phase didn’t have too many surprises.

Third round

Now, we’re down to eight groups of eight. The top four from each group moved on.

At this stage, the tournament started to look more like a traditional World Cup—most of the smaller nations had been eliminated, but there were still some upsets. Russia, Israel, Morocco, Scotland, and Serbia all failed to make it through, while Honduras, Paraguay, and Peru punched their tickets to the next round. South America was looking very strong.

Knockout stages

A few more group rounds followed, but let’s skip to the knockout stages—where only the best teams remained.

By the fifth phase (the round before the quarter-finals), the tournament had mostly filtered out the underdogs, but there were still some unexpected survivors like Bosnia & Herzegovina and Paraguay. Some big names, like Switzerland, Denmark, and Japan, didn’t make it.

At this point, teams had played 34 games. Imagine the exhaustion. But we finally got the real elite nations battling it out:

🇩🇪 Germany
🏴 England
🇺🇾 Uruguay
🇫🇷 France

And just to add to the pain, these matches were played over two legs.

• England edged past Germany (finally breaking the curse).
• France absolutely obliterated Uruguay, likely because Uruguay’s squad depth was non-existent after 30+ matches.

The final

40 games. 20 months. One final. And England lost.

Honestly, this might be the most excruciating England loss in tournament history. Imagine playing for almost two years only to lose at the very end. The only silver lining? At least the final was played over two legs—because there’s no way you could decide this in a single match after a tournament this long.

Credit where it’s due, though—France’s players must be absolute machines. Balancing club football and a 40-match international tournament? I don’t even want to think about what their physio rooms looked like afterward.

Final thoughts

This was a fun simulation, but there’s no way I could play through it myself. 40 games for one tournament? That’s just brutal. Imagine losing after 38 matches—I’d uninstall the game on the spot.

The early group stages are also a bit pointless if you’re managing a top team—you’re not getting knocked out by Wallis & Futuna or Kiribati. But it’s still an incredibly fun database update for anyone looking to shake things up.