On top of BRAZIL

[Banashur]

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'Ello guys. So I decided to start a save, my first ever FM save outside Europe. I usually hate hectic schedules but this time I had to try sth different, another flavour.
And where else than in the home of beautiful football, the craziest fan bases, the most succesful nation in the World Cup, the land of samba and joga bonito, the league where you play 90 games a year?
That's right, its Brazil !
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Obviously I wanted to chose a team in the lowest echelon of Brazil so I started scrolling through the teams in Série C (3rd tier) and one team caught my attention 'cause of their fine badge and remote location in comparison to the other teams. That team is Amazonas.

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Now before we talk about the team, let's educate ourselves a bit about how the system works in Brazil. ( I myself wasn't too familiar with it)
In Brazil, football is played over a calendar year. Each teams plays in the State Championship they belong to from January to April then they play in the National Championship (1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier and so on) from May till late October/ November.

Squeezed in between these 2 championships is the Copa do Brasil who runs from February till September. In this time the 2 major South American tournaments also take place: the Copa Sudamericana ( Europa League of SA if you want) and of course, the ultimate prize, the Copa Libertadores.

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BACKGROUND

Back to the team in question now. Amazonas is an interesting little club and a growing one as well. Based in Manaus, state of Amazonas they were founded as recently as 2019 by a group of businessmen, and tasted succes just 6 months later, winning the 2nd division of the state of Amazonas. 2 years later, in 2021 they qualified for the state final thus qualifying for the 2022 Série D (4th tier national league) for the first time in their history.
But succes didn't stop here. After going as far as semi-finals in the 2022 Série D they earned the right to play in the 2023 Série C (3rd tier). 2023 was the most impressive year of all as they won both the State Championship "Amazonense" ( a first in the club's history) and the national title (another first not only for them but for a team from Amazonas) - Série C; and earned the right to play in the 2024 Série B .

Now I started this save early pre-season 2023 which in FM translates to December 2023. With the Série C finishing in late October in real life and FM being released around the same time their performance was not taken into account in the game so we'll try to replicate their succes in the 3rd division by winning the league.

Now some screens from the game.

Club profile and board expectations and facilities

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Not much to see here, pretty standard for this level. Board expects us to finish top-half; we're gonna try to win it.

Supporter profile and finances

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Can't cope with the season ticket holders as u can see. Balance will be in the red soon. Not much room left in the payroll budget either although compared to the other teams in our state the salary cap is way above. Should stroll this league.

Stadium and tactic

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According to FM we share the stadium with 3 other clubs from same area. Imagine the pitch at the end of the season...not ideal.

Schedule and dynamics

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As seen above, I've took the liberty of playing the first 2 games of the season. Hopefully that'll improve the abysmal team cohesion.
Impossible draw in the Copa do Brasil against Serie A team Internacional. We'll try not to get embarrased.

I'll be back later with updates!
Have a good one boys!