FC 26 Players

FC 26 is about to receive a brand new version 1.6.2 update, which has garnered considerable attention in the player community. This new version represents a significant adjustment focused on optimizing multiple core modes, laying a more stable foundation for the long-term experience of each mode.

Besides fixing long-standing system bugs, EA FC 26 has also updated numerous real-world football-related assets, including jerseys, player faces, hairstyles, stadiums, boots, and club badges, further bringing the game closer to the real world of football in terms of visual presentation and licensing completeness.

More importantly, this update has comprehensive coverage, launching on all platforms including PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, ensuring a consistent experience for players on different devices. IGGM will now guide you through all the details of FC 26 Update v1.6.2.

The World's Game

Regarding The World's Game, the biggest highlight of FC 26 Update v1.6.2 is the completion of the match information display system. Previously, many FIFA 26 players complained that they couldn't view the full schedule and other teams' match results in the knockout stages, resulting in a lack of real-world match atmosphere in World's Game experience.

With the update, EA FC 26 has added a Tournament Tree widget to Office Hub of World's Game Tournament. You can see this widget after entering knockout stages.

This means you can not only track your own progression but also get real-time updates on other countries' match results and match progress, making FUT 26 The World's Game mode closer to the viewing experience of a real World Cup.

While this change may seem like just a UI optimization, it's actually one of the most practical additions to FIFA 26, The World's Game, since its launch, making each match more immersive.

Meanwhile, while participating in EA FC 26 The World's Game, you can directly access FC Hub from Tournament Hub to view current activity objectives and track progress. FC 26 Coins you earn after completing match objectives and other reward progress are also more intuitively displayed. See Tree Overview screen UI elements have also been updated and optimized.

Besides new features, EA has fixed several issues present in The World's Game. For example, issues such as incorrect score display after penalty shootouts in some matches, abnormal trophy display after winning a match, and incorrect text arrangement will all be resolved in Update v1.6.2.

Clubs

Clubs mode has also received fixes. Previously, some FUT 26 players encountered the error Failed to create your Virtual Pro when creating a new Goalkeeper Clubs Pro, and Clubs AI Facility boosts sometimes incorrectly affected player-controlled Pros. These issues disrupted gameplay and affected the player experience.

EA FC 26 Update v1.6.2 addresses these issues, ensuring greater stability in Clubs mode. IGGM believes that while these updates may seem insignificant, they are crucial for a long-term mode like Clubs.

Career Mode

Compared to Clubs, FC 26 Career Mode offers a more comprehensive set of fixes, most notably for Manager Career.

Manager Career

First, national team selection has been re-enabled for Manager Career Live Start Points that occurred in May 2026, meaning you can once again experience full national team coaching content.

Furthermore, several long-standing issues in FUT 26 Manager Career have been fixed. The issue where selecting International Cup final from the calendar could incorrectly display the third-place match, resulting in the finals tag being missing from the standings, has been fixed.

The department filter in FIFA 26 scouting instructions resetting incorrectly and certain positions disappearing from the attacking player department list has also been fixed. This significantly reduces repetitive actions in the game, making squad planning smoother and avoiding the frustration of unexpectedly resetting filter conditions.

Incorrect display of Youth Academy scouting reports and incorrect display of jerseys in social media posts are also on the fix list. Incorrect player data display in Men's International Cup is also nearing completion. While these typical data presentation errors don't affect the actual game, they do impact the gameplay experience, and it's great to see they've been fixed.

Presentation

However, for most FUT 26 players, the most anticipated update in Update v1.6.2 remains general audio and visual updates. EA FC 26 has confirmed that version 1.6.2 will update some jerseys, Star Heads' realistic faces, hairstyles, 2D avatars, club crests, stadiums, boots, TIFOs, and commentary text.

This means that missing national team jerseys in Career Mode are expected to be added, and some teams' latest season jerseys may also be added to FIFA 26. Some players will receive new realistically scanned faces, and currently problematic player models will be fixed.

The hairstyle and 2D avatar updates will further improve the completeness of the player database, while the stadium, boot, and club crest updates mean that the latest licensed content from the real-world football world will be gradually synchronized to the game. For many players who value realism, this is undoubtedly the most anticipated part of Update v1.6.2.

In addition, Update v1.6.2 also fixes several in-game issues in FUT 26, including the inability to properly restore default values ​​in display settings, abnormal switching of competition mode settings after the start of a match, and text display errors in some locations, further improving the overall stability of FIFA 26.

While version 1.6.2 doesn't make major changes to the gameplay of EA FC 26, it represents a significant upgrade for players. EA is using the final stage of FC 26's lifecycle to refine the game details, preparing for the upcoming FC 27. If no new major bugs appear, this is likely to be one of the last major updates with substantial content value for FC 26.

When EA released the World Cup update for EA SPORTS FC 26 at the last minute in late May, many players thought the football game giant, long criticized for its lackluster performance, was finally going to redeem itself with its national team content.

However, when players actually entered this supposedly significantly expanded version, they were greeted not with the expected World Cup excitement, but with a complete disaster, from chaotic lineups to numerous bugs.

Severe Licensing Gap

Although the number of national teams in FIFA 26 World Cup has increased significantly, many of the newly added national teams have licensing issues.

Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and several other Middle Eastern countries lack both official team crests and authentic World Cup jerseys. Japan cannot use its official jerseys and crest because another company holds the license; only other teams have complete licenses.

The lack of these licenses makes FC 26 World Cup update feel like a hastily produced, unfinished game.

Forced Internet Connection

The most perplexing design flaw in this FC 26 World Cup update is that even in the purely offline Tournament mode, players must maintain a constant internet connection and be linked to EA's servers to access and play.

If a player loses internet access or the servers crash, the game displays an error message, fails to load any World Cup content, and may even crash, resulting in a garbled interface when returning to the main menu.

This means that two or three years after FC 26's release, if EA shuts down the game's servers, players will permanently lose access to any mode of 2026 World Cup, completely eliminating the possibility of saving the game or replaying it for nostalgia.

Function Missing and Incorrect Lineups

If players want to experience the World Cup in FUT 26 through Career Mode, they must choose Manager Live Challenges or Live Start Points, but this requires a constant internet connection.

Furthermore, players cannot manage a national team independently; they must first bind to a club before jumping directly from the end of the season to the summer when the World Cup begins. Regarding the rosters, the official claim is that they used the final rosters announced by each team, but in reality, many players are missing.

Furthermore, players have virtually no control over their national team call-ups. In Live Start Points or Tournament modes, team rosters are completely locked; you cannot replace players as you would in the main game settings, or even remove obviously unsuitable players and add real stars.

Tournament Mode is Unrealistic

First of all, EA FC 26 did not even follow the most basic, realistic World Cup schedule.

The real-life opening match is Mexico vs. South Africa, but in the game it's Mexico vs. South Korea.

Regarding stadiums, no real World Cup stadiums are included; Estadio Azteca stadium, which appeared in FIFA 22, is not included.

The match ball, trophy, and scoreboard are all generic, poorly designed purple models, lacking any of the solemnity and atmosphere expected of the World Cup.

Even without official authorization, FC 26 development team could have easily compensated by creating more refined graphics, but they didn't even make that effort.

Fatal Bugs

EA FC 26 World Cup also suffers from a series of unbearable bugs.

Once the knockout stage begins, all World Cup group stage statistics in the game are completely erased. You can't review points, goals scored, goal difference, or any other information from each group; only a single knockout stage tree remains.

The most serious bug in the knockout stage is the incorrect penalty shootout ruling. If you win a match in a penalty shootout, the game system might register it as a loss, resulting in your elimination.

This bug has existed in Career Mode and Tournament Mode for years and remains unfixed, directly causing players to be inexplicably eliminated in crucial matches.

Even if you eventually win World Cup, the celebration scenes are exactly the same as in any other game like Community Shield, offering nothing new. There are no unique World Cup victory animations or award ceremonies, no post-match awards, and no social media or news recaps.

After choosing to end Tournament, players simply exited, as if nothing had happened.

National Team Coaches Not Updated

This 2026 World Cup update added almost no new national team coach faces.

Carlo Ancelotti of Brazil was absent, as was Mauricio Pochettino of United States and Jesse Marsch of Canada. The Italian coach, on the other hand, had a strangely shaped, patchwork-like face.

Furthermore, many newly added national teams still use generic coach assets from ten years ago, with serious errors in coach allocation and a lack of updates.

From this perspective, we can see that FC 26's World Cup is almost entirely devoid of sincerity.

A Few Remaining Advantages

Of course, this FUT 26 World Cup update isn't all bad.

Players can replace or randomize the entire World Cup participating teams, such as manually getting Italy into the finals or randomly generating entirely new group stage draws, providing some customization and endless simulation possibilities.

Some players also have exclusive 2D avatars and faces in World Cup mode, adding subtle detail.

In addition, FIFA 26 development team fixed a bug in previous versions where the national anthems played before matches; now both teams can play their respective national anthems completely.

However, these minor improvements cannot compensate for the numerous systemic flaws, bugs, licensing issues, and perfunctory attitudes mentioned above.

Overall, this FC 26 World Cup update is a belated gift for console players eagerly awaiting World Cup content. Hopefully, the development team can gradually resolve the various problems exposed, making The World's Game truly worthy of its name.