SMSL's "National Pride Challenge" (small to big club)!

Sick to death of hearing about how crap the English National side is?

Not enough English players in the Premier League?

Not enough Italian players in Serie A?

!!!Then this challenge is for you!!!

National Pride 2008

The Aim

To take a small club from any BOTTOM LEAGUE who were previously unplayable in the game (using only players and staff with the same nationaility as the club) from the bottom to the top and Champions League glory. Followed by World Cup Glory for your national team.

The Rules

Load a game with as many leagues as you want but any league selected MUST contain the lowest possible division and the transfer box is ticked. No additional players from any nation should be loaded. You can use any size database.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed manager, the details are not important at all. I like to call mine 'THE LOSER'.

Go on holiday until the new teams enter the bottom league (19th June for England), this shouldn't take that long, perhaps about an hour. Saving the day before the update (18th June for England) may give you a better choice of teams by reloading the game then going on holiday for one day, I would strongly recommend trying this.

Retire your 'THE LOSER' manager.

Add a new manager, the options are up to you but 'past experience' must be set to the lowest possible which is 'Sunday league footballer'. I understand that choosing different nationalities may have an effect later on, but I trust people will be sensible with this. I would expect people to use their own true nationalities.

Take over one of the new clubs promoted to the bottom division in your country.

POSSIBLE ENGLISH TEAMS: -

The reputation should act as a difficulty level, the lower the reputation, the harder your game should be. Everybody knows that real men manage a club with a reputation less than 1000

Isthmian Premier

AFC Hornchurch 900

AFC Wimbledon 1350

Ashford Town (Middx) 650

Billericay Town 1100

Boreham Wood 950

Carshalton Athletic 900

Chelmsford City 1250

East Thurrock United 600

Folkestone Invicta 700

Harlow Town 600

Harrow Borough 750

Hastings United 600

Hendon 900

Heybridge Swifts 850

Horsham 800

Leyton 700

Maidstone United 800

Margate 1100

Ramsgate 850

Staines Town 800

Tonbridge Angels 850

Wealdstone 700

Northern Premier

Ashton United 750

Buxton 850

Eastwood Town 850

Fleetwood Town 1000

Frickley Athletic 850

Gateshead 1200

Guiseley 1200

Hednesford Town 1300

Ilkeston Town 1050

Kendal Town 900

Leek Town 900

Lincoln United 850

Marine 1250

Matlock Town 1150

North Ferriby United 950

Ossett Town 900

Prescot Cables 1000

Stamford 1000

Whitby Town 1100

Witton Albion 1250

Worksop Town 1200

Southern Premier

Banbury United 800

Bashley 600

Bedford Town 1000

Brackley Town 400

Bromsgrove Rovers 700

Cheshunt 600

Chippenham Town 900

Cirencester Town 750

Clevedon Town 750

Corby Town 650

Gloucester City 800

Halesowen Town 900

Hemel Hempstead Town 800

Hitchin Town 1000

King's Lynn 1100

Mangotsfield United 850

Merthyr Tydfil 1100

Rugby Town 600

Swindon Supermarine 450

Team Bath 552

Tiverton Town 1000

Yate Town 650

It is now up to you to manage this club all the way to the League title and Champions League crown.

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked.

If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that satisfies the original criteria (check the club's league history), or just start again.

You may take over your international team whenever you like however (and this is the good bit) once you do you can only call up players from YOUR team.

There are no restrictions on assigning feeder/parent clubs although they are not much good unless they are commercial or of the same nation as you.

No external utilities such as FMScout should be used and the database should be unedited. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed. It is advised that people should update using the latest patches as they are released.

Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Discussion on tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Screenshots for anything are encouraged.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the 19th June.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including at least a screenshot of a league table and the clubs transfer page. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier to pick out.

How to Post a Screenshot

While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).

Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image

Save the file as a JPEG

Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack. Always preferred photobucket myself as there are no silly ads.

Post the direct Url to the image here.

AS THE GAME GOES ON...

You're bound to get the occasional foreigner in your youth team. You cannot play him at all so sell him or sack him ASAP.

Players with dual nationaility are fine however, as soon as they are selected to play for a nation other than yours they are ineligible to play for you so sell them.

***As this is something I've just made up I reserve the right to update/change the rules.***/b]

INTERESTING PARTS OF THIS CHALLENGE

Being Athletic Bilbao and filling the Spanish team with Basque only players. I realise that Basques are called up to the Spanish squad anyway but it would be interesting. Basque's who play for any other nation i.e. France would obviously have to be sold.

Welsh teams in England can use EITHER Welsh or English way but NOT BOTH!

San Marino in the Italian League can only use players from San Marino not Italy.

Would be interesting however, to see if you can conquer the World with the smaller nations.

NB If anyone knows the reputation of teams (national or international) and leagues feel free to post them

Have you asked permission to use this? Just curious.

San Marino in the Italian League can only use players from San Marino not Italy.

***Actually I meant San Marino TEAMS in the Italian League can only use players from San Marino not Italy. Although thinking about it, its no different than Welsh teams in England, so they can be either Italian or San Marinese but NOT both!

MANAGER'S PROFILE

Well, here I go. Just been appointed the new manager at Maidstone United. It's going to be a rollercoaster ride with goals galore (trust me). For some reason after a couple of season teams regularly score 100 goals per season and judging from some threads I've seen it's the norm.

So, Dafuges challenge, but with any league and you have to win the World Cup?

Originally posted by PaulHartman71:

So, Dafuges challenge, but with any league and you have to win the World Cup?

Basically, yes, Except of course only using players/staff from your teams country who have not represented another country and winning the Champions League and World Cup with Northern Irish players is infinitely more impressive than doing it with English players playing for Maidstone.