"Madden Wii doesn't support the Wii friends system during online play. This is something we're still working on with Nintendo. For now our online play uses your EA Nation Persona to search and manage your EA Messenger account." - Damian Zerr, Associate Producer, EA
If this ends up being true this could be some of the greatest news for us Wii owners. This means that game companies can simply bypass the completely unnecessary Friend Code system whenever they want. If more developers choose to opt out of FC's maybe Nintendo will get the message that their convoluted protection system is not wanted and realize the error of their ways. We can only hope!