rocheyb

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View attachment 387553

I don't know how to create custom leagues - I know you do it in the Editor programme - and I'm not asking anyone to create this for me. But I would like to know if this is possible in FM14 (...and presumably, then, in FM15) so I can have a go at doing myself when FM15 comes out.

The attached image shows how I wish the English league system was really organised, with a smaller Premier League and regional divisions from the third tier down. It's senseless to me that clubs of such limited resources as Portsmouth and Torquay United have to travel to play away matches against the likes of Hartlepool and Carlisle, and vice-versa. I'd much rather see regular games between Portsmouth and Salisbury City or Havant & Waterlooville, where there would be much greater local interest.

Also, by pulling a large number of existing football clubs up through the pyramid and increasing the number of professional clubs, it would create more job opportunities for managers, coaches and players within the professional and semi-professional ranks, so fewer would get lost to the game after being released by bigger clubs. Those players who are a bit later to reach their potential would have a better chance of making it in the game at the second attempt. Initially, there would be a drop in the quality of lower league football, but it would even out within a couple of seasons as clubs and players find their feet.

Promotion play-off matches are one match, one tie only (finals only, no semi-finals), played at the larger capacity grounds within each region.

The regional splits from the third tier down are purely geographical, based on the map co-ordinates of each team's home stadium. This will mean that teams from the middle of the country could swap between the North and South sections depending on the geography of teams coming up or down into their division. So, having finished 12th in League One North in one season, Coventry City could find themselves competing in League One South the following season, due to a bias of Northern teams dropping out of the Championship. Which provokes the question:

Does FM have the capability of calculating lists based on geographical location, re-calibrating divisional lists accordingly and switching individual teams where necessary?

I don't like the idea of Premier League B teams playing in the lower leagues, but I am in favour of limited term feeder club agreements such as that entered into by Tottenham and Swindon recently, which FM already allows.

I would like to see youth academies run and organised under the auspices of the FA's St. George's Park, with these eight teams spread across the divisions at Tiers 6 & 7:

St. George's North East Seniors
St. George's North East Juniors

St. George's North West Seniors
St. George's North West Juniors

St. George's South East Seniors
St. George's South East Juniors

St. George's South West Seniors
St. George's South West Juniors

These eight teams would each be placed in the corresponding division at Tiers 6 & 7 (shown in light blue in the diagram). They would participate in the league campaign but they can't be promoted and they can't be relegated. The Junior teams contain players aged 16-19 at the season's kick-off and the Senior teams players aged 20-22 - so they graduate from the Juniors to the Seniors when they are 20.

But, just to make it extra specially complicated, all eight St. George's teams must put their entire 25-man squad up for an NFL style draft every summer, so that professional clubs can take them for nominal transfer fees; draft picks ordered by last season's league position (promoted clubs ranked higher than relegated clubs) starting from the Premier League Champions down to all League Two clubs, including those promoted from and relegated into the Conference (who are encouraged to maintain their professional status).

The maths fans among you will already know that there will be a maximum of 146 clubs selecting from a group of 200 draftees (minus the long-term injured). All 146 clubs get one pick each, and the remaining 54 picks are allocated to League Two clubs and those relegated to the Conference, as "second picks". Clubs have the option to "pass" on their pick if they don't want to sign anyone; supposing Charlton Athletic passed on pick no.28, it would go to (for example) Millwall as the next highest team in the Championship. If they passed too, then it would go to the next team - say, Yeovil Town - and so on, throughout the professional tiers of the league system. If enough Premier League and Championship teams pass, then League One clubs can also get a second pick. All clubs are limited to a maximum of five picks per club.

Draft picks can also be traded as makeweights in other player transfers; theoretically, then, Arsenal could sign Will Hughes from Derby County for cash plus the fourth draft pick, so Derby would hold the fourth pick on draft day, as well as whatever pick they had already earned as a result of their league finish.

Players can refuse to go to the club that has drafted them, but he becomes registered to them anyway until another club pays a higher nominal transfer fee to obtain that player's registration.

So, FM would have to be able to accommodate all of the draft "passes" and move the pick to the next team based on the previous season's league finish. It would also have to be dynamic enough to allow draft pick trading and multiple picks up to a maximum of five per team - and for the possibility that some of the 200 draftees on offer would not be chosen at all, so they would either stay with their respective St. George's team, graduate from the Juniors to the Seniors or, at age 23, be released on a free transfer.

The St. George's teams would re-populate their squads from new intake and free transfers from players released by higher division clubs, maintaining their self-imposed age group restrictions (16-19 for Juniors and 20-22 for Seniors). All eight St. George's teams will have top youth recruitment and training facilities etc.

Is this possible?
 
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With time and patience the pyramid structure is possible.

If you set regional limits to the individual leagues, the game will shuffle teams around to fit within them (where possible).

The draft idea isn't possible. As far as i know the MLS draft is hard-coded into the game and not something you can edit, or create from scratch.
 
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