I've been juggling with this idea since early FM12 but never got it off the ground. I've recently posted my first database to the site and have decided to finally get this one to a point it can be released. There's a lot to go through so bare with me:
Format
The English league pyramid forms the backbone of the new combined league structure.
The 3 other national league exist as individual leagues (to the best of my ability...see below details), however the top team each year gains 'promotion' to a step in the English League. The game is currently limited to Step 6, however the leagues and teams for steps 7 and 8 and in place, just lacking any detailing so are set to inactive. Feel free to tinker around if you prefer playing at these low levels.
Premier League
Championship <-- Scottish champions enter here
League 1
League 2 <-- Northern Irish champions enter here
Conference National <-- Welsh champions enter here
Conference North/South
Entry steps were based on the highest national league reputation in the editor. For example, the SPL has a lower divisional reputation than the Championship, so it sits one place below in the pyramid. Don't hate me for not letting SPL teams dive straight into the EPL.
Regionalisation
The main struggle with the database has been keeping the teams within their respective systems. A mixture of tight regional boundaries and assigning regional divisions to individual teams has helped, however, do not expect miracles, teams may just start jumping around within their levels.
Cups
I have worked hard to preserve the individual association and league cups. Naturally, any clubs crossing borders due to promotions/relegations (or the game being lame and swapping randomly) will play in their ‘new’ national cups and not their actual national cups. This was to avoid the lengthy process of setting all cup competitions to pick up every individually entered team (750+ for the FA Cup!) and not just the few leagues they play in. Maybe one day!
A new cup was added which invites the 4 divisional winners (EPL, SPL, IFAP, WPL) in a single legged knock-out cup at Wembley to crown the UK Champion.
Changes and Alterations
This file uses a revised Scottish league system incorporating a 16/10/16 system and altered promotion/relegation rules. If you’re looking for the current 12/10/10/10 setup, I might get round to it, sorry if i don't.
Scottish relegation/promotion playoffs (1 from higher league + 3 from lower league) have been removed in favour of two-team same division playoffs. The 1+3 setup was giving me a head-ache so I dropped it.
A similar workaround was used in the Northern Irish leagues to counter errors with promotion/relegation.
The Scottish cups were altered to only include HFL, EoS, and SoS teams and does not call in Junior sides associated with the SFA anymore.
The Football League Trophy (Johnstone’s Paint) is a different format to the original one due to limitations in the editor to recreate its Northern and Southern branches. If anyone knows how to do this I’d really appreciate a bit of help. Otherwise, this will have to do for now.
Limitations
European qualification is an issue I'm still working on, maybe in a later version it will be solved. But for now prepare yourselves not to not play top European competitions when winning a national top league other than in England. I may tweak prize money for 1st place finishes to counter the lack of income from playing in Europe.
I did try to set specific leagues to promote and relegate to whilst editing but this caused conflicts which I as yet have been unable to fx (this version is fine, the errors sit in a 2nd version). That is why some teams have a habit of hopping from one league to another seemingly at random. Just think happy thoughts and carry on.
Whilst teams had to have their 'nation' set to English for the system to work, all Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish clubs have their Based and UEFA nations as normal. Regens will continue to pop up at their clubs of their correct nationalities.
The IFA Champions 2 is currently unplayable due to sitting in step 7. In time I'll tidy the next 2 steps up and it'll be there, in the meantime please accept my apologies.
Future Versions
Hopefully find a fix for regionalisation/European qualification issues.
Full expansion into levels 7 and 8 (English, Welsh and Northern Irish regional leagues) for cup competitions
To Finish
So that's pretty much it, hopefully you like the idea, I’m simming as I write this in the hopes the file is good enough for submission. Feel free to send me feedback and/or suggestions and I’ll update once it’s live.
EDIT: The file is in the moderation queue
Format
The English league pyramid forms the backbone of the new combined league structure.
The 3 other national league exist as individual leagues (to the best of my ability...see below details), however the top team each year gains 'promotion' to a step in the English League. The game is currently limited to Step 6, however the leagues and teams for steps 7 and 8 and in place, just lacking any detailing so are set to inactive. Feel free to tinker around if you prefer playing at these low levels.
Premier League
Championship <-- Scottish champions enter here
League 1
League 2 <-- Northern Irish champions enter here
Conference National <-- Welsh champions enter here
Conference North/South
Entry steps were based on the highest national league reputation in the editor. For example, the SPL has a lower divisional reputation than the Championship, so it sits one place below in the pyramid. Don't hate me for not letting SPL teams dive straight into the EPL.
Regionalisation
The main struggle with the database has been keeping the teams within their respective systems. A mixture of tight regional boundaries and assigning regional divisions to individual teams has helped, however, do not expect miracles, teams may just start jumping around within their levels.
Cups
I have worked hard to preserve the individual association and league cups. Naturally, any clubs crossing borders due to promotions/relegations (or the game being lame and swapping randomly) will play in their ‘new’ national cups and not their actual national cups. This was to avoid the lengthy process of setting all cup competitions to pick up every individually entered team (750+ for the FA Cup!) and not just the few leagues they play in. Maybe one day!
A new cup was added which invites the 4 divisional winners (EPL, SPL, IFAP, WPL) in a single legged knock-out cup at Wembley to crown the UK Champion.
Changes and Alterations
This file uses a revised Scottish league system incorporating a 16/10/16 system and altered promotion/relegation rules. If you’re looking for the current 12/10/10/10 setup, I might get round to it, sorry if i don't.
Scottish relegation/promotion playoffs (1 from higher league + 3 from lower league) have been removed in favour of two-team same division playoffs. The 1+3 setup was giving me a head-ache so I dropped it.
A similar workaround was used in the Northern Irish leagues to counter errors with promotion/relegation.
The Scottish cups were altered to only include HFL, EoS, and SoS teams and does not call in Junior sides associated with the SFA anymore.
The Football League Trophy (Johnstone’s Paint) is a different format to the original one due to limitations in the editor to recreate its Northern and Southern branches. If anyone knows how to do this I’d really appreciate a bit of help. Otherwise, this will have to do for now.
Limitations
European qualification is an issue I'm still working on, maybe in a later version it will be solved. But for now prepare yourselves not to not play top European competitions when winning a national top league other than in England. I may tweak prize money for 1st place finishes to counter the lack of income from playing in Europe.
I did try to set specific leagues to promote and relegate to whilst editing but this caused conflicts which I as yet have been unable to fx (this version is fine, the errors sit in a 2nd version). That is why some teams have a habit of hopping from one league to another seemingly at random. Just think happy thoughts and carry on.
Whilst teams had to have their 'nation' set to English for the system to work, all Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish clubs have their Based and UEFA nations as normal. Regens will continue to pop up at their clubs of their correct nationalities.
The IFA Champions 2 is currently unplayable due to sitting in step 7. In time I'll tidy the next 2 steps up and it'll be there, in the meantime please accept my apologies.
Future Versions
Hopefully find a fix for regionalisation/European qualification issues.
Full expansion into levels 7 and 8 (English, Welsh and Northern Irish regional leagues) for cup competitions
To Finish
So that's pretty much it, hopefully you like the idea, I’m simming as I write this in the hopes the file is good enough for submission. Feel free to send me feedback and/or suggestions and I’ll update once it’s live.
EDIT: The file is in the moderation queue
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