Foreigners at Welsh clubs in England

This has been bugging me for a few seasons now, and it's reached the point where I have to comment on it. As you can see, I'm in 2016.

Colwyn Bay have been rising up the leagues in tandem with me, and I'm inundated with messages about all the players they sign - either on trial or for free. These are kids that are released from clubs like Benfica, Porto, Galatasaray etc. The ones on trial refuse to discuss a contract with me. When I played Newport Country (also promoted to L2) I noticed that they also had a predominantly foreign team. I had a look at the other Welsh team in League 2, and you guessed it, full of foreigners. I'm not the only player to have experienced this, and in Trent's 2075 save, all three of these teams are established Premiership clubs.

I will provide statistics and screenshots to explain and discover as much as I can about this - as it's really weird.

Firstly, the three squads in question.

You'll see that in a squad of 23, Colwyn Bay have 19 nationalities - and there is only 1 English player.

In a squad of 23, Newport Country have 14 nationalities - 3 British players, none of which is English.

In Wrexham's 23 man squad, there are 16 nationalities, 4 British of which 2 are English.

I come to my second point. The rules of League Two. The game stipulates; "The match squad must have at least six players trained by a club in England."

Colwyn Bay have 2 HG players. Newport have 8 and Wrexham 5. Yet in my most recent game against Newport only 5 of them were in the match squad, and they had a full bench...

Now for my third point. On the facts screen for each 3 clubs, it says that they all have 100% Domestic Bias. Screenshots are here -> Colwyn - Newport - Wrexham. I shan't clog up the screen with them. On its own, I wouldn't be bothered about this - but the fact that it ties into such clearly odd behaviour worries me. For the record, the facts page for my own clubs correctly displays 37%.

What I'd like to know is how these three clubs;

1) Manage to find such brilliant players.

2) Why no other club in the English Leagues try and sign them.

3) Why they are seemingly able to get away with not having enough HG players.

4) How they are able to scout these players in order to find out they are better than what they have.

Any input you have is very welcome. I'm not annoyed by it, I just find it utterly surreal and bemusing.

Definitely a weird one - needs looking into. Regarding, 1, 2 and 4 - no idea!

Regarding 3, this affects my save and I need clarification. I've created a club and put it in the BSN. It is geographically in Scotland and thus produces Scottish academy kids, and my scouts find predominantly Scottish players, so the situation is analogous to these Welsh clubs playing in the English system.

Does the 'system' (i.e. Football League, UEFA) see them as English clubs for player registration purposes? i.e. without this 'bug' you've uncovered, if Colwyn Bay had 90% Welsh players, would they be okay for those League Two rules? If Welsh (in my case Scottish) youth players come up through the ranks (0-15), (16-21) and have been at the club for 4+ years, do they have HG status for Europe?

I managed Wrexham at the start of my 2012 save and I was never able to get past the HG quota. I always had to have X# of players trained at a club in England as with any other club in the English leagues. In my case, it was my youth prospects who were all welsh because unlike the club, the town of Wrexham is located in Wales in the FM database. But because they'd been reared by Wrexham, an 'english' club, they were acceptable for the quota.

Couldn't tell you how the AI gets away with it.

What about Cardiff & Swansea?

In my case, it was my youth prospects who were all welsh because unlike the club, the town of Wrexham is located in Wales in the FM database. But because they'd been reared by Wrexham, an 'english' club, they were acceptable for the quota.

I've entered my club as in the nation of England, with the 'city' and the stadium in Scotland. My academy regens came from the 'cities' of the club and stadium, i.e. all Scottish.

Therefore, by analogy with your Wrexham, they should all be deemed HG and fine for Football League and European competition. Fingers crossed!

Just checked Swansea and Cardiff in the editor - same thing: the clubs are 'England' with the cities 'Wales'. All should be fine.

Same with Colwyn Bay. However, looking at their squad, 3 are Welsh and the rest English. Newport has 4 Welsh and mostly English players. Presumably they are real players. Wrexham is about 50/50.

Doesn't explain the preponderance of non-British players in the OP, mind. Impale, you're in 2016 and these foreign players are 21/22 - i.e. probably first batch regens. Can you check the clubs transfer centres and see if they were produced by the Welsh clubs' academies or whether they were scouted and brought in. Looks to me like there's something kooky with the academy intakes.

Right, I'm in pre-season 2012-13. Just checked Colwyn Bay and Newport Co. Senior squads mainly English. however in both cases their entire U18 squads are Welsh. I'm now thinking you've installed an edited league file that has distorted your game. Even in 2075, i would never expect all 3 clubs to be in the Premier League without tampering. Right or not?

It's a 'Dafuges Challenge' save - the only extra stuff in my game are logos and kits. None of them are from the clubs academy, the youth players for all 3 clubs are entirely Welsh. These are players who are released from their clubs in Europe and are picked up by the Welsh clubs. Someone on the challenge thread spoke about 'Colwyn Bay and their army of foreigners'.

I reported this a while ago in the bugs forum, you might want to copy your OP/screenshots into there.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/281392-Colwyn-Bay

Yes, it's clearly a bug and as that thread shows is being experienced by a few people. Not me though. Now I only have English and Scottish leagues loaded. Impale - okay no external leagues in your game, so which SI FM database leagues do you have loaded? That appears to be what activates this bug.

Not only are there hardly any English players at those three clubs, there are hardly any Welsh ones either.

Tbh, Colwyn Bay have barely any Welsh players anyway. Most of the players the sign are Scousers. So either ex Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere players.

What about Cardiff & Swansea?

To bump myself, what do the squads of Cardiff and Swansea look like?

Tbh, Colwyn Bay have barely any Welsh players anyway. Most of the players the sign are Scousers. So either ex Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere players.

There were also Wrexham and Newport County posted.