Best Leagues to start with and ones to avoid

Hello all

Planning to get FM12 soon - and I'm wondering what game set-up to have as I do like long career games. What leagues do people fine the most enjoyable to include? I tend to go for the main leagues from Europe, few from South America and some random ones here and there. But some I've added in the past have turned out to be pretty pointless in terms of sources to scout - i.e. China and South Korea. Never really tried African Teams - or any custom selection forcing the game to pick top players from certain areas.

Obviously with the new add/remove function, it is less important to get it 'right' at the start - but for those who like to play lower league teams, or European 'minnows', I'd be interested to see what countries you always select and find worth scouting. What are the best African teams? What custom set-up do you use to get the best game experience? I'd like to load as many leagues as I can and to find unknown talent to develop/exploit!

Looking forward to your suggestions.. And tips on what leagues you tend to avoid and why.

Cheers

I find weak leagues enjoyable since playing in good leagues (Such as English / German / Spain / Italy) gets boring in about 5 seasons.

Try Sweden / Norway / Denmark / Portugal <- When you play with one of them, breaking into UEFA europa / champion is hard as hell.

Try Sweden / Norway / Denmark / Portugal <- When you play with one of them, breaking into UEFA europa / champion is hard as hell.

On the other hand once you manage lo work your way into Champions League Group Stage once, the prize money will grant you an enormous advantage over the rest of the domestic competition, thus allowing you to coast to back-to-back titles...

On the other hand once you manage lo work your way into Champions League Group Stage once, the prize money will grant you an enormous advantage over the rest of the domestic competition, thus allowing you to coast to back-to-back titles...

Yes, it allows domestic dominance. In my 12 season Sweden game, I dominated the league and I didn't care about the domestic league. It was there to generate basic income for my club. I still only managed to advance into first knockout stage of UCL in my whole game. The club still pays me only 3000 euro / wk and cannot afford to pay more.

I am currently trying out a Norway club right now where money is a lot easier to come. I am thinking of going back to Sweden again. I generally like Sweden and Norway's season time table.

I'm currently managing Ards in my save in Northern Ireland. Doing a UK save, starting with all the UK countries and all the leagues in these countries, now removed Scottish lowest division from my game along with the Welsh division and I'm in the top division in Northern Ireland. Hopefully win the NI league, then move onto Ireland, then Scotland, then finally England.

I just select the big European Leagues and add Brazil and Argentina as well.

For long career games, the lower you start the better. On the 'disc' England has 6 levels if you load up BSS/BSN which is more than any other nation. What's more, you can pop to the Editor's forum and download files that add levels down to 8, 10 or even a 14th level one due out at Christmas. Can't beat that!

league 1 england, you got some strong guys in there and some minnows

My FM10 save was with Histon - I'm the worlds biggest team now. But what I found frustrating is that my players were nearly always German, French, Spanish, English and Brazilian. It was quite rare to find a player from another country who would be good enough. So I was interested to see what other 'lesser' footballing countries people had fun in raiding...

I do recall a good save a long time ago in Sweden, so like the sound of that. I guess that will help balance out my first paragraph, in that until the leagues reputation grows, the standard of player I can attract may mean that other smaller countries will be worth scouting.

What Africa countries do people load? I hear gems are available, but I never seem to find them...

On the flip side, what country do you never run because you never find any good regens there? I mentioned China was a waste for me - what ones do you avoid?

Cheers

On the other hand once you manage lo work your way into Champions League Group Stage once, the prize money will grant you an enormous advantage over the rest of the domestic competition, thus allowing you to coast to back-to-back titles...

This is basically where my club is at at the moment (in Northern Ireland). It is quite odd going on long unbeaten runs in the league then getting hammered in Europe.

This is basically where my club is at at the moment (in Northern Ireland). It is quite odd going on long unbeaten runs in the league then getting hammered in Europe.

Is Linfield not giving your team a good challenge to the league? They're the most dominant team in Northern Ireland football and in my game have won the league 2/3 times (Crusaders won it once) and look like they're going to win it this season again.

Usually there's a gap between us and Linfield and then another gap to the rest of the teams, here's the league table last season. We are quite a bit better than the other teams but always seem to slip up when the fixtures pile up and the squad has to be rotated.

Usually there's a gap between us and Linfield and then another gap to the rest of the teams, here's the league table last season. We are quite a bit better than the other teams but always seem to slip up when the fixtures pile up and the squad has to be rotated.

Hi Dafuge

I'm reading your NI story with interest - and your T&M game inspired me to take one small team and build them up. Have previously managed three teams at one time in different countries for the variety, but clearly didn't get too far into the game! But taking Histon to world domination and getting my first 80,000 seater stadium was great fun (although I did add myself as Dumbarton manager later on to re-live the days of hand to mouth existence!)

It's games like this where I ponder ages before even starting what leagues or custom information I should use to get the best regens come through. The idea of struggling to take a 'minnow' to greatness and finding obscure talents appeals greatly. So I like looking at threads like yours and Heaths as before I have never spent too long worrying about countries/leagues to add in the past, I just wanted to dive in! Now I want to plan ahead to get the fullest game experience I can.

Surprised to see Crusaders so far down, thought they'd be able to stay top half at least. Did you find it very hard in your first season in the top division? It's my first season with Ards, we've played 14 games, won 0, draw 5, lost 9, 4 points behind Coleraine who are in 11th place and 9 points behind Portadown who are in 10th place.

League Table

League Positions Graph

We started badly but got on a good run of form towards the end of the season.

Hi Dafuge

I'm reading your NI story with interest - and your T&M game inspired me to take one small team and build them up. Have previously managed three teams at one time in different countries for the variety, but clearly didn't get too far into the game! But taking Histon to world domination and getting my first 80,000 seater stadium was great fun (although I did add myself as Dumbarton manager later on to re-live the days of hand to mouth existence!)

It's games like this where I ponder ages before even starting what leagues or custom information I should use to get the best regens come through. The idea of struggling to take a 'minnow' to greatness and finding obscure talents appeals greatly. So I like looking at threads like yours and Heaths as before I have never spent too long worrying about countries/leagues to add in the past, I just wanted to dive in! Now I want to plan ahead to get the fullest game experience I can.

I know exactly what you mean, getting the database right at the start of the game can make a huge difference.

Last year I tried loading England, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Wales, South Korea and Brazil. While it was nice to move around a lot, the databse felt really unbalanaced with the large number of players from those countries. This year I have just loaded the NI league, but I've added loads of players from around the world. So far it feels much better, there is much more variety in the nationalities of the players I'm coming across.

League TableLeague Positions Graph

We started badly but got on a good run of form towards the end of the season.

I'm fighting for survival, just started searching for foreign players on Player Search, found a few players who look decent (can't see all the attributes) so I'm bringing them in for a trial, hopefully a few of them will be really good. What was your finances like for the first season? I'm -£42k atm, wage budget is £3,700 spending £3k atm.

I struggled at first, my balance for the first three years was -£116k, -£231k and -£185k. Once we made it into Europe properly, the finances just rocketed.

Trialling foreign players was good, but the best players I found were English free transfers.

Think my best signings so far have been: Nathaniel Jarvis, Johnny Gorman, Joe Gormly

Was trying to get Liam Boyce earlier in the season having just been released by Werder Bremen. Atm he's currently attracting interest from Hearts and Linfield, but I'm gonna try again to get him on trial and after that, hopefully sign him up.

I'm currently managing Ards in my save in Northern Ireland. Doing a UK save, starting with all the UK countries and all the leagues in these countries, now removed Scottish lowest division from my game along with the Welsh division and I'm in the top division in Northern Ireland. Hopefully win the NI league, then move onto Ireland, then Scotland, then finally England.

On behalf of all the Irish people here, I must point out that Ireland is not in the UK!

Loving my save in Trinidad and Tobago atm, I find it amusing being in charge of Economy Strikers

On behalf of all the Irish people here, I must point out that Ireland is not in the UK!

Resigned as manager of Ards in Jan, still hadn't had a win, so I thought it'd be best I left.

I always avoid the Spanish leagues, they are too restrictive; number of players allowed in squad, at least three GK's, etc.

I always avoid the Spanish leagues, they are too restrictive; number of players allowed in squad, at least three GK's, etc.