And this reminds me of a project in my latest "Comprehensive World Tour Soccer 2003 Thread" in www.sportsreviewers.com. and how it could relate to Konami.
I created my own version of African World Cup Qualifying using the real life 25 teams from Final Round Qualifying 2002 and adding 7 for a total of 32. [The editor would not allow an exact requirement of 5 groups of 5 teams. Not enough detail! So my version of Africa Qualifying has 32 teams!]. I say this because the point is even with a decent editor in World Tour Soccer, its still imperfect in the area of exact stats.
For example I overwrote a Semipro Team with Benin using the team editor. I overwrote USA with Liberia. And so on. As I went along, I calibrated the teams so that they corresponded to the real life level of their talent. I of course put in the manager, uniforms, flags, real players when possible (using WTS 2003's Replace Player feature) or generic players w/edited appearances (overwriting; Benin have no pros in Europe). Notice I did not edit the stats in detail however. And in WTS or FIFA this wouldn't matter anyway. Remember Blublub's FIFA 2002 test?
In Konami footy games, since the stats are so true to life, any editing would have to be detailed & with great precision. You'd want to get the exact height, weight, response stat, mentality, etc. Detailed editing in WTS or FIFA would be a waste of time because of lack of info (Quick what's Hary of Madagascar's stats), time consumption (Took me several days to set up my Africa game) or lack of need (Make one team of midgets w/sucky stats vs a team of giants w/super stats. Play FIFA 2002. The Blublub Test "all teams play the same").
Konami knows this & so far they have modeled their game around the gameplay & the Master League concept & added detail to their selection of teams/players. Their best move was to team up w/the Champ Manager people to get their database. So they can make detailed graphics of the super players. And detailed stats of all players.
I guess I'm wondering can a game be made with all this detail by Konami? Graphics, Features, Gameplay, Animation, Fun Factor? The Total Package.