Choosing your own Feeder Club: An Investigation

Some of you will have noticed that i posted a topic a few weeks back asking if anyone had success with choosing their own club; not choosing a National or International Option, but choosing a specific club and managing to form an affiliate link with that club.

Some of the responses were similar to my own experiences within FM09; that it's difficult to form a link with a chosen club even if you think you have all the boxes ticked.

With this in mind i decided to do a little investigating to determine what factors specifically affect the process of forming links with a club and how far the boundaries of these factors can be stretched.

Background

I'm Barcelona in the Spanish top division with a league rating of 18 and a club reputation of 9624.

I chose 1 club, AIK from the Swedish top division with a league rating of 10, to see how the board would react to my request to form an affiliate link. Sweden is an Inactive league in my game, the league is not selected at the start of the game.

Using the FMRTE editor, i edited AIKs reputation and facilties by different amounts and then requested an affiliate link with them.

Results

Reputation (1-10000) / Training Facilities (1-20) / Youth Facilities (1-20) / Youth Academy (yes/no)

5792-----20-20-Y (Accepted)

10000----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

7200-----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

6500-----20-20-Y (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

6100-----20-20-Y (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

5900-----20-20-Y (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

5792-----10-10-N (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

5792-----10-10-N (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

5792-----20-20-Y (Accepted)

Analysis

The first attempt was successful, AIKs rating of 5792 and Excellent Facilities allowed a link to be formed. But was the link formed because AIKs reputation was acceptable, or because of their Youth Academy and Training Facilities?

I plodded on and raised their reputation to the max, a World Class team of 10,000. Not surprising what happened! The AIK board rejected the link. I then toned their rep down to 7200, still too high, AIK didn't want to accept being a Feeder Club.

I knew i was hitting the right area when i lowered their rep to 6500, my board rejected it as being 'detrimental' to Barcelona?!!. I persisted and lowered AIKs rep down further to 5900 and still my board thought the deal would have been detrimental to my club. Finally i lowered their rep to 5792, the rep before i began my investigation. Their facilties and youth academy would also remain unchanged at 10,10 and no academy. My board rejected the linkup once more, i presume because AIKs lack of facilities meant the deal would not be beneficial to Barcelona.

I again requested the same linkup with AIKs rating at 5792 and poor facilities and no academy, once more the linkup was rejected. Finally i edited AIK to replicate my initial success with a rep of 5792 and excellent facilities and a youth academy. Surprise surprise it was accepted.

Conclusions

The Youth Academy and Training Facilities are vital when selecting a club to form an affiliate link with. Especially with a world class club like Barcelona. The link was rejected with poor facilities and no academy, but accepted with excellent facilities and a youth academy.

Reputation plays a part too, a rep too high means the 2 clubs can't agree. It remains to be seen how important Active and Inactive leagues are and if they play a part in a successful linkup.

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Further Investigations

Armed with these facts, i decided to form a link with Bari sitting in Serie B in Italy. Bari's rep was 4200 with a league rating of 12. Italy is an active league in my game, so i wanted to compare inactive vs active leagues.

Reputation (1-10000) / Training Facilities (1-20) / Youth Facilities (1-20) / Youth Academy (yes/no)

4200----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

4000----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

5700----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

6200----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

6700----20-20-Y (Unable to reach agreement)

The 2 clubs couldn't reach any agreement, despite Bari not having any Parent Club. I then edited the Chairmans attributes, his Business attributes, his Interference etc. The same requests were denied on all occasions, despite me giving Bari excellent facilities, a generous Chairman and a reasonable reputation.

Slightly frustrated after spending over 4 hours loading up save games, i returned to an inactive league with Vasco da Gama in Brazil. Vasco's rep was 6498 with 16/17 for facilities and the important youth academy. This link was accepted by my board.

I decided to then try an Active club once more, i opted for FC Metz in French Lique 1. Metz had a reputation of 5314 with 12/18 for facilities and a youth academy. This was also accepted.

Final Conclusions

Bari was a puzzler, no matter what i edited, i just couldn't form a link with them. Metz accepted a link based on their medium rep and excellent youth facilities and this seems to be the key. AIK eventually accepted the link once i'd increased their youth facilities to acceptable levels. Vasco accepted, again good youth facilities and medium sized rep

A medium sized club, with excellent youth facilities should accept your affiliation offer! Hopefully you'll be successfull and won't have to wait another 4 months to re-apply for another affiliate club

Please feel free to post your own experiences!

In my experience whenever I pick my own club to form a link with its always fallen through. I play as Rushden and Diamonds in the Prem, currently in 2nd 10 points clear of 3rd, was an outside shot to win the league at 40-1 or something like that at the start of the season lol, but still any club my board find are useless for me, my players refuse to go there unless they're in my under-18's.

My team are pretty darn good.... I mean they're in 2nd for crying out loud lol, lost one game all season and all have over 20 international apps for their country, even my reserves are good, not great but could hold their own in League 1 perhaps lol. So they never had any intention on joining Luton or FC United.

In FM08 as Man Utd I got offered Motherwell, and it worked well, players went there, got Work Permits and grew as players winning things with them. My players helped them win 3 SPL titles before they got too good and cut the link, if I could find a club like that then I'd be chuffed but it won't happen automatically and as I said, I can never get a club to accept my own personal offer so where do I go? Ignore this useful feature or continue with a slither of hope that maybe one season my useless board will cough up a decent team or that one I pick will accept the offer?

In FM08 as Man Utd I got offered Motherwell, and it worked well, players went there, got Work Permits and grew as players winning things with them. My players helped them win 3 SPL titles before they got too good and cut the link, if I could find a club like that then I'd be chuffed but it won't happen automatically and as I said, I can never get a club to accept my own personal offer so where do I go? Ignore this useful feature or continue with a slither of hope that maybe one season my useless board will cough up a decent team or that one I pick will accept the offer?

I shared your frustration, but since i looked at the Feeder Clubs earlier today and tried different scenarios, im fairly confident i know what to look for now with regards to a suitable club.

If your Rushden side is as big as my Barcelona side (rep over 9000 etc) then you need to set your sights on a club that will be useful to Rushden. By 'useful' i assume the game refers to good-excellent Youth Facilities and a Youth Academy as i've found in my AIK tests and my success in choosing Metz and Vasco.

Try some teams in France, some of the teams like Metz, Sochaux, Nantes have reps around 5000 in the top league in France with good facilities that will be of use for Rushdens loan players and any youth prospects you wish to have first choice on.

That's providing they don't already have a Parent Club of course, and you don't already have a Feeder Club in France

Ahh right.... I'll have a look on the editor tonight and see if any of them have decent reps compared to my club. Bit of luck I might get some good ones! lol

Quick question- where do you see the numbers of your reputation level?

Quick question- where do you see the numbers of your reputation level?

Only by using the pre-game official editor, or by using the FMRTE save-game editor available in the Editors Hideaway thread

Only by using the pre-game official editor, or by using the FMRTE save-game editor available in the Editors Hideaway thread

sweet thanks

Quick question- where do you see the numbers of your reputation level?

sweet thanks

It's possible to edit Feeder/Parent clubs using the FMRTE editor anyway, but if i recall correctly, you can't add or delete them using it.

So it's not a great tool for editing Affiliate clubs as you have to edit an already existing affiliation, which causes problems because you have to edit the other clubs that you've changed

very intresting thread thanks when the board finally gives me the option i think ill be able to make use of it even though i havent in previous saves

I've only ever tried once it went straight through; I've got a Leicester team with rep over 9000, wanted an SPL feeder, checked for teams with no existing parent, specifically asked for Aberdeen and got them.

I've only once tried it having properly thought it through: as Southampton (towards the top of the Premier League) I asked for Sheffield United (mid-table Championship) and it worked.

I've had it work multiple times. I'm Tottenham, currently dominating Europe, and I got D.C. United, Bristol City, Corinthians (BRA), Almeria, Ba (Fiji), and Genk through specific requests.

Can you get American teams as feeder clubs? Didn't think the MLS would be best set up for that... kinda cool though lol.

Can you get American teams as feeder clubs? Didn't think the MLS would be best set up for that... kinda cool though lol.

Yes, with financial benefits for both teams. Your merchandise sales will increase

But you can't send your players out on loan

5792-----20-20-Y (Accepted)

v

5900-----20-20-Y (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

i'm not seeing why the latter would be detrimental to barca when compared to the first?

5792-----20-20-Y (Accepted)

v

5900-----20-20-Y (Initial agreement accepted, but deal would be detrimental to Barcelona)

i'm not seeing why the latter would be detrimental to barca when compared to the first?

Neither do i, obviously i can see why it was rejected, ie. AIK's rep was too high to reach an agreement, but a better descripton would have been better

Great effort Swisso

In my past experiences i have looked to see if the clubs already have a parent club.

If they have a parent club they are less likely to accept your offer as they already have a parent.

Look through the leagues eg. Championship, and there are a couple of clubs without parents, they are going to be your best bet to get accepted.

Hi, Swisso, you have done a MARVERLOUS JOB!

One question, you said that you can't have more than 1 feeder clubs in the same nation?

Like if I'm Man Utd, I already have a feeder club in Italy, so I can't have another one in Italy?

At the moment, I have 3 England clubs as my feeder team, is it only ok for more than 2 if you are in the same nation?

Hi, Swisso, you have done a MARVERLOUS JOB!

One question, you said that you can't have more than 1 feeder clubs in the same nation?

Like if I'm Man Utd, I already have a feeder club in Italy, so I can't have another one in Italy?

At the moment, I have 3 England clubs as my feeder team, is it only ok for more than 2 if you are in the same nation?

The game seems to allow more same-nation-as-you affiliates, especially if you already had several setup before you started the game. AC Milan, Roma and Juventus have lots! As Barcelona i have 4 in lower leagues.

I haven't tried to take 2 French clubs for example, or 2 German clubs. I'd summise that it would be rejected by the board even if my chosen club was ideal. But it's worth checking out

This seems an interesting article, unfortunatly I play lower league so some of this will not apply for my team for a long time.

Something i have discovered in lower leagues with chosing teams is to go local.

With my Blyth squad my board found me Newcastle Blue Star, in the English Northern leagues, after being refused by FC United i choose Eastbourne Boro in the BSP.

Now for some reason my players did not wish to go to Eastbourne but would join Newcastle regardless of their lessor stature.

Even my 17 year olds refused to go to Eastbourne.

My only conclusion was that by playing in Newcastle or London they prefered to live closer to home ?!

Or it may have just been another factor.

Anyways, this might be usefull to others in the lower leagues

This seems an interesting article, unfortunatly I play lower league so some of this will not apply for my team for a long time.

Something i have discovered in lower leagues with chosing teams is to go local.

With my Blyth squad my board found me Newcastle Blue Star, in the English Northern leagues, after being refused by FC United i choose Eastbourne Boro in the BSP.

Now for some reason my players did not wish to go to Eastbourne but would join Newcastle regardless of their lessor stature.

Even my 17 year olds refused to go to Eastbourne.

My only conclusion was that by playing in Newcastle or London they prefered to live closer to home ?!

Or it may have just been another factor.

Anyways, this might be usefull to others in the lower leagues

It does sound like a hidden factor that SI would include to mix things up and make it more interesting lol.

I am missing something here..... Can I please ask how you select your own feeder club?

I do not recall ever seeing the option.

LAM

i think you have to have been at the club for a long time to be given the option to find your own club

I am missing something here..... Can I please ask how you select your own feeder club?

I do not recall ever seeing the option.

LAM

After being at the club for a while, when you request a feeder club you board ask you what type of feeder club you would like.

National Loan/First Option

Internation Loan/Fist Option

Work Permit

Merchandising/Sales

And Choose Club

I am missing something here..... Can I please ask how you select your own feeder club?

I do not recall ever seeing the option.

LAM

You only get the option after you have been at your club for a while, much like the option to choose type of feeder club.

swisso > good post, had been wondering about this for a while, as its new to me. Very helpful

ta......................

Interesting read there.

Thanks for sharing your 4 hours work with us.

I always assumed it was reputation alone that was the deciding factor for having feeder clubs accepted.

Sadly I can't try myself as my chairman says I've already got 2 feeder clubs and won't approve another one.

Can we do the same Club choice in FM 2011 too....