http://www.sportsgamer.com/content/1...cer-interview/
Sounds like the refs and the discipline system has been revamped!
1. In FIFA 08, it seemed that too many gamers relied on fouling their opponent as legitimate strategy. The problem was too often bad challenges went unpunished, or potentially only a yellow card. For instance, when one player is on an attack, opponents would often slide tackle players away from the ball to take passing options away. In a real game, this would be an immediate red card. However, in FIFA 08 the referee would call for advantage and let the play continue. However, there really wasn’t an advantage because attackers are losing supporting players. How has the foul system been changed since FIFA 08?
Rutter: The team realized there was an issue with this online so there are three things we have done. First, we have introduced a new match-making system meaning that if you spot players who are doing this habitually you will be able to flag them so you will know you will not want to play against them again. Other people will be able to look at this feedback to decide if they want to play them. The second part is that the team has actively looked at this referees and the discipline system in the game and we have revamped it. We think gamers will be very pleased with this now. And third, we have really been working on player attributes and the physical side of the game. So you will see when tackles go in they are far more realistic. Not all tackles result in the player falling over as before, now, rather than the player going down if the challenge simply clips the player’s non-standing leg, they will be able to skip out of it and continue running. As a result, we have made it more difficult to bring players down 100% of the time when tackled. Those dastardly gamers who exploited the system before may be in for a shock when either their player is sent off or their willfully underhand tactics only result in leaving a player to run-in on goal. The new animations make these new variations on the gameplay look and feel exceptional.