For the last week I have taken a bit of a break from FC Jerusalem, hoping a break will inspire me. I am still enjoying the save, but with limited time and resources I can only really progress with one project at a time and currently I am deep in editor mode! cant remember why I started with this but here I am trying to implement a new version of World Football.
I have dabbled in the editor to varying degrees of success on several previous editions of FM. The usual mods people will do. Adding myself in the game, (and obviously being the greatest player in the world!) changing club reputations, finances, league standings (e.g. Rangers and Celtic in the Premier League) etc. For a few versions I crated a World Club Cup where a club from every nation had a representative. In one edition I ended up creating a league structure in Scotland where every country in the world had a club side in the league. And of course the obligatory World League has been created. which is where we find ourselves now.
Throughout this time I have regularly had an idea for recreating the footballing world with super leagues. So this is what I have taken upon myself this time around! For what it’s worth I will give a quick rundown of the plans and problems encountered. The grand plan it to split the world into 3 areas. And for each of these to have their own league and cup structure. With a World Club Cup that will encompass all three. I would like to keep all the existing competitions running concurrently too.
I’ve split the world into three. There is Europe, The Americas (North America and South America combined) and The Rest of the World (Asia, Africa, Oceania). I have selected teams based, mainly, on reputation and along the lines of continental coefficients. There has been some individual tinkering to get certain teams (Newcastle in particular) into the structure. This means that there are some big teams missing, mainly European ones. I didn’t want to just overload the leagues with teams from the same nation. Countries like Spain, Brazil, and Japan have had teams overlooked whereas some of the smaller nations Slovenia, Costa Rica, and Libya have teams in the league structure. The largest team to miss out (based on reputation) is Valencia, whilst the lowest reputation team in the leagues is Al-Ittihad from Libya. I could easily have overloaded the leagues with the big nations, Maribor are the lowest ranked European team, and reputation wise they would have sat in the top league in the Rest of the World (ROW). But since football is global I wanted the leagues to have representation from a wide ranging choice of nations.
In terms of structure, each league has 16 teams. Europe has 4 leagues, The Americas and ROW have three each. For those who haven’t done the quick maths – this gives a total of 160 teams, from 72 different countries. England has the most teams with 8, Brazil and Mexico have 7. Italy, Argentina and USA have 5. That is a bit of a discrepancy in terms of balance between Europe and the Americas but there is quite a drop off after Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and USA in that region, while Europe has more strength in depth. Although ROW covers a large number of nations, not that many have teams with high reputations in comparison to Europe and the Americas, so the teams are spread out a bit more in these leagues. 3 is the most from a single country. I have also used a bit of football geo-political license and added Astana of Kazakhstan to the Rest of the World. Even though they play in UEFA, geographically they are much more Asian.
Within the three super league structures I have added a cup for all the teams in the respective pyramid and a similar cup for under 21s only. Tying all the competitions together will be a World Super League Cup. With all the teams entering at various points. Getting the ranking and seeding of the teams entering at the correct times has been a sticking point but I think I have eventually sorted this out. Currently it is just a straight knockout tournament, I might end up tweaking and adding a group stage. So from a regional Super League stand point I am reasonable happy with the structures and the way they work. The next development is with transfer windows and finances. The leagues still have a fair amount of money coming in. £100M TV money and £5M for a win in the Premier League. The top 100 in world finance list are all from the created super leagues. Reputation is a bit different as other teams are winning the Champions League I have upped the league and country reputations of the created leagues – Liechtenstein, Cayman Islands and Macau.
A few test run through of several seasons has seen some odd results. Barcelona have been relegated, Man City seem to win more often than not. In the current test the transfers have seen lower leading transfers and the players involved aren’t the usual ones. The teams buying are the ones you would expect to see, but slightly more varied. And the selling clubs are more varied. Mbappe is still most valuable player, but he is still at PSG. Declan Rice is the highest transfer fee, moving to Barcelona for £81M.
All of the existing leagues and competitions are still active, I have repopulated the playable leagues for FM, and so the English league system will still be playable for example. This might give some teams other than the big six a chance to win some silverware. Although in the current test it is only Leicester and Wolves that are winning! Although Brighton, Bournemouth and Middlesbrough have had top three finishes, in one test Bournemouth were actually runners up in the 20/21 season!
As well as the existing league structures the continental cups are still in place e.g. UEFA Champions League. My current editing issue is with trying to prevent Super League teams from entering, as most of the tests ran have seen them win. The plan is to create a rival European Cup that will incorporate the super league teams and those outside the super league. Or if I can, which might be a better option, increase the number of teams from the super league structure entering the Champions League. Although I am still searching how to edit the continental rules for the Champions League and qualification instructions. if anyone has any experience with this please comment below or message on Twitter @fmriosantos. I believe I have overcome the issue of super league teams starting the game in the current CL by removing them from the registered teams, and changing the current winners to Valencia meaning Bayern don’t enter as champions. Since I have set up the European Super League in Liechtenstein the league winners do not enter the CL, so no team automatically qualifies from the nation. The issue now is that the Europa League winners get a spot in the CL and Europa Conference League winners get a spot in Europa League, and it looks as though the European Super League winners are getting a spot in the Europa Conference League. I’m not sure whether this is coded into the Europa Conference for Liechtenstein competitions winner to get a spot in this competition. If it is, I definitely need to get into those continental rules. Once I have sorted out what is going on in Europe I will take a look at the rest of the continental Champions Leagues.
I am happy with the way the build is going so far. There are tweaks and issues that need to be overcome, none are game breaking though so the structure can still be played. I haven’t had a go from the beginning yet. All in all I am going to carry on with the dream. No doubt it will evolve and get bigger and more convoluted but it has been a worthy distraction from the FC Jerusalem save. I might try to do a week of playing each database.
FM RioSantos 