Match Squad Rules Incorrect/Not Enforced?

I'm playing in the German 3.Bundesliga, and the rules screen says the following:

The match squad must have no more than 3 non-EU players.

The match squad must have at least 4 German under-23 players.

The match squad cannot have more than 3 players aged over 23.

So after making one aborted attempt at a saved game where I deleted it and started over after realizing that I couldn't meet the above rules, I started a new saved game.

But after playing three league games, I ran into a couple of injuries and decided to try putting more than 3 players aged over 23 in my match squad. I fully expected the game to stop me when I tried to submit my team for the match that day. Instead, the game allowed me to put 4 players over age 23 in the first 11 and another 2 players over 23 among my 7 substitutes.

I was quite shocked, so I checked the ages of the opposing players, and there were 6 players in the first 11 over 23 years of age! Plus there was 1 more on the bench.

I was able to break this same rule in the following match by having 3 players over 23 in the first 11 and 1 more on the bench.

What is going on here? I'm quite annoyed because I abandoned and deleted my previous saved game right before the start of the season because I hadn't checked the rules and then discovered that I couldn't field a squad with only 3 players over 23.

But it turns out that I shouldn't have abandoned that game because FM either has the wrong rules listed or doesn't enforce them. And now I've wasted several hours working on a new saved game where I had to release good players and bring in a bunch of youth in order to play by the rules.

Can anyone clear this up or is it simply a bug?

im no expert on rules.. but... only 3 over 23 players seems ridiculous to me.

edit: have found a pdf of the rules (in german) so ill have a look...

I'm just having a stab in the dark here, but how much older than 23 were the over age players?

I only ask this because in the case of the UEFA Under 21's tournaments, players can actually be up to 23 when the tournament finishes. For example, anyone born on or after 1st Jan 1988 can play in the 2011 tournament.

Were they over 23 when the squad was registered or the season began?

out of interest, which team are you managing ???

Sorry, I forgot to mention the ages of my players in question during my previous post. My players in the first 11 were 33, 32, 27, and 25 years old. My bench players were 28 and 27.

All were clearly well over 23 at the start of registration.

I'm managing Sachsen Leipzig, which was promoted into the 3.Bundesliga for the 2nd season of my saved game. I started unemployed, retired my original manager profile, then created a new one and took over Sachsen Leipzig. The club didn't really have enough players at 23 or younger to field a full side through injuries and all the rest. So I had to bring in quite a few younger players on transfers, free transfers, and loans.

Thanks in advance if Rinso can translate the real life rules for me, but I suspect that the rules won't explain why this has happened in FM.

Guessing they were 23 or under when the squad was registered?

Thanks in advance if Rinso can translate the real life rules for me, but I suspect that the rules won't explain why this has happened in FM.

i'll see what i can do, im a wee bit rusty though!!

didnt the rules change recently in the Bundesliga ??

This is the 3.Bundesliga ... in other words, the German Third Division.

If you could direct me to the rules PDF, maybe I could run it through an online translator.

i had to download the pdf, as it wouldnt open in web browser (prolly down to firefox) but i thinsk this was the link > http://www.dfb.de/uploads/media/OM-09-2006.pdf

i can find all sorts of stats n stuff, but nothin bout the specific player registration rules so far...

I'm not having much luck with the file. I looked for "alter" or "alt", which should refer to age, but nothing seemed to match the correct context.

I don't think the age restrictions are part of this document. Even if they were, then something still has to be wrong in FM, because if the 3.Bundesliga allows more players to be over 23, then the game is still showing a rule on the screen that doesn't really exist in the programming.

Random guess, but it wasn't a cup game/friendly instead of a league game was it?

Random guess, but it wasn't a cup game/friendly instead of a league game was it?

No, I can assure that these are 3.Bundesliga league games.

I've played nothing but league matches since the start of the season. This happens throughout the league. I've checked other matches from the league fixtures screen, and other clubs are likewise fielding far more than 3 players who are over 23 years of age. Vfl Osnabruck is fielding a starting 11 with only 1 player under 23! The cheating bastards! But they have some under-23 players on their bench, so they be observing the first under-23 rule.

My guess right now is that it's only that first under-23 restriction that is actually enforced. So the game may require that I field at least 4 under-23 German players, but it's not enforcing the additional rule that limits how many players I can have over the age of 23.

However, I don't have enough players over 23 to test whether the game would allow me to violate the first rule too. I only have 9 players at the club who are over 23, and that means that I would always have at least 4 German players under 23 in the match day squad.

It's dumb luck that I hadn't already released several more of my older players, otherwise I might have never discovered this. I was only keeping them around in case of injuries where I could rotate them into the squad.

Just checked on my game and can confirm that the rule isn't enforced.

Worth raising in the data forum so it doesn't get missed for FM10.

I found a single post in the bugs forum that mentioned this.

One poster said that the rule exists in real life, but it applies only to the Bundesliga reserve squads that play in the 3.Bundesliga. So the rule does not apply to the other clubs in the league.

But the same poster also said that this is a bug in the programming where the rule isn't enforced as it is stated. I think it's a cosmetic issue with the rules page. As near as I can tell, it looks like the Bundesliga reserve squads may be adhering to the rule, but there is only one such team in the 3.Bundesliga in my current game. So FM may be applying the real life rule correctly but causing mass confusion because the rules page is incorrect.

If someone else could check their saved games, that would help. Are the Bayern II or similar reserve squads abiding by the rule to include no more than 3 over-23 players in the match squad?

This of course ruins my new saved game because I gutted my new team in order to abide by a rule that doesn't actually apply!

I didn't start any german league career in fm2009 because I saw this rule...

I cannot confirm whether it's applied to reserve team as the 3 reserve team in 3rd liga in my save don't even have 3 over-23 players in there squad

I just got confirmation from the co-head researcher for Germany that this has been fixed in FM2010.

The rules screen will now say that the over-23 rule applies only to B teams. So I take it that it only applies to B teams in 2009, and it was just a cosmetic issue with the rules screen.

Imagine how many more people could be enjoying the 3.Bundesliga in the game, but they chose not to manage at that level because of an incorrect screen.