[FM2010] England Levels 7 and 8 - Southern, Northern & Isthmian Leagues

This competition download expands English Football to make Levels 7 and 8 (non league Steps 3 and 4) playable, i.e Southern, Northern and Isthmian Leagues.

This data has been extensively tested until 2019, no crash dumps or league failures have occurred.

The league setup extends English non-league competitions below Conference (Blue Square) North and South and includes:

Leagues:

• Southern League - Premier League
  
• Northern Premier League - Premier League
  
• Isthmian League - Premier League
  
• Southern League - Division One Midlands
  
• Southern League - Division One South / West
  
• Northern Premier League - First Division North
  
• Northern Premier League - First Division South
  
• Isthmian League - Division One South
  
• Isthmian League - Division One North

Cups:

• Southern League Cup
  
• Isthmian League Cup
  
• Northern League Challenge Cup
  
• Northern League Chairmans Cup
  
• Northern League Presidents Cup
  
• FA Trophy - Expanded to include all rounds so all Level 7 and 8 teams are included
  

Competition histories:

• Southern League Cup
  
• Isthmian League Cup
  

Awards:

• Manager of the month for all divisions
  
• Player of the month for all divisions
  
• Manager of the season for all divisions
  
• Player of the season for all divisions
  
• Top goalscorer award for all divisions
  

All the league and cup dates are based on a realistic schedule to avoid fixture clashes.

A reasonable estimate of prize money is included for all competitions. Accurate prize money is included for the FA Trophy.

PLEASE NOTE: The geography of the regional divisions has been implemented as closely as possible and this is realistic after 10 years of the test. However please be aware that depending on the location of promoted / relegated teams in all divisions there is the possibility that some strange league sorting may occur. This is not an issue with this league structure, just the nature of the actual league system.

Some other minor edits have been made to update information, such as where clubs at these levels do not have any stadium set in the database. However please be aware this is NOT a data update, no players have been added or their stats amended and I have no intention of adding this information.

Any comments are welcome.

The editor is limited in what match and competition rules can be inputted. I have reviewed the Isthmian, Southern and Northern League Handbooks and Rules and I have devised a simple rule book for gamers to follow (if they wish) to help make playing these leagues more realistic. You can download the rulebook in a PDF from Here

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Downloads and Changelist

These files are not saved game compatible and require a new game to be started.

Football Manager 2010

Version 10.03.10 including Rule Book for 10.3 Database - Download Here

• Fixed Northern Premier League, Northern League Challenge Cup and FA Trophy following liquidation of King's Lynn
  
• Added 2 media sources for Non-League Football
  
• Added some missing competition histories
  
• Added 6 point deduction for Durham City
  

Version 10.02.07.14 including Rulebook for 10.2 Database - Download Here

• FA Trophy Semi-Final dates moved to Tuesday midweek as no non-league fixtures are scheduled for these weekends, thereby no fixtures are played for 3 weeks in March and can cause a fixture congestion
  
• Fixed name of Northern League Challenge Cup
  
• Fixed some preferred regional pathways for clubs following 10.2 data update
  
• Tweeked other preferred regional club pathways to help league sorting
  
• Regional boundaries revised for Levels 7, 8 and 9 to work with 10.2 patch and better reflect real sorting (with help from Pangaea)
  
• Added all missing city longitude and latitude co-ordinates
  
• Added all missing population data
  
• Added all missing city attraction data
  

Version 10.01.6b for Default Database ONLY - Download

• Added awards for all Level 7 and 8 leagues; including Manager of the Month, Manager of the Year, Player of the Month, Player of the Year & Top Goalscorer
  

10.01.5

• Fixed promotion / relegation between Levels 8 and 9 whereby only Northern League teams were promoted. Promotions are now spread nationally, however only 12 teams are promoted into Level 8 as per the relegation places, not all Level 9 division champions will be promoted as per real life.
  

10.01.4

• FA Trophy - added two leg semi-final
  
• Added relegation between Levels 8 and 9
  
• All Level 9 clubs now have prefered regional leagues set in the database
  
• Added all missing stadiums for Level 9 teams
  

10.01.3

• Improved geographical league sorting with ideal regional competition added to all clubs in England, i.e. should Manchester Utd get relegated into the non-league they will be placed in the Northern League system etc
  
• Amended competition levels to fix higher reputation attributed to some cups
  
• Updated FA Trophy prize money for 2009/2010 season
  

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Instructions

Extract the ZIP file to:

PC – My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > editor data

MAC – Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > editor data

Don't overwrite the config.xml file!

Open the game, when clicking 'New Game' inside FM, you will get a dialog box appear called Choose Database, choose the 10.3 database for my file 10.03.10. Notice in this box it will have section saying Editor Data Files and a 'Change' tick button. Clicking this button will allow you to select which of your files to load into your game, tick to load '10.03.10 England Levels 7 and 8'. You may load other DBC or XML files however no others which include changes to the English league structure.

For full advice on how to use the file and FAQs regarding editing leagues see - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=158985

NB - It 's not allowed to post this England Levels 7 and 8 DBC / XML file in any other forums or upload to hosting sites without my prior permission.

thanks man, loking forward to try this

The geography of the regional divisions has been implemented as closely as possible and this is realistic after 10 years of the test.

Can I ask what boundaries you set for step 3 leagues?

I've found a few problems with teams getting shifted around unusually between the different leagues. I will run a couple of seasons holiday with your data and report back.

Regards,

C.

Can I ask what boundaries you set for step 3 leagues?

I've found a few problems with teams getting shifted around unusually between the different leagues. I will run a couple of seasons holiday with your data and report back.

Regards,

C.

Have a look in the file. Some teams still move about depending on promotion and relegation, but its fairly in keeping with geographical spread of these leagues.

Just having a look at your file now.

Can I ask where you got the prize money values from? Educated guess, I take it?

C.

Oh, I see you've used the same boundaries as Super Bladesman.

See this thread for the testing I've done regarding promotions/relegations/movement between step 3 divisions: Unusual Movement in Step 3 - Isthmian, Southern, Northern Premier Divisions.

Regards,

C.

Hello, I would want you ask I have a problem. I and 2 pal would like to make the French DH thus 6th division and cfa2 also. But we have a problem, we all left by regions and everything but that we launch a party its load and everything but equipes is not in the good place!

If you could help us!

All prize money values for Levels 7 and 8 are an educated guess.

FA Trophy prize money received for winners was based on the 2008/2009 information on the FA Website, I have just noticed a minor error so I will amend and re-upload the file.

Oh, I see you've used the same boundaries as Super Bladesman.

See this thread for the testing I've done regarding promotions/relegations/movement between step 3 divisions: Unusual Movement in Step 3 - Isthmian, Southern, Northern Premier Divisions.

Regards,

C.

Yes I have but, I have analysed many saves and set some teams to play in certain divisions where this was not inputted by the researcher to stop them from popping up in the wrong division.

Uncle Ron - just replied to you on the other thread. Didn't realise that was the case.

Excellent work. Hopefully, that will solve my issues.

Cheers,

C.

Where do you put the file?

Where do you put the file?

See http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=158985

Ive downloaded the file but cant get it to work

You have to make sure you select it from your initial database settings. A small window pops up asking you which database you want to use. You can leave that at default, but then there is another tick box setting just below that in the same window. You have to tick that and then advance forward, and the game will allow you to choose which editor configuration files you'd like to load.

Additional instructions to help users in first post.

I expect to upload version 3 of the league file with improved geographical league sorting and other minor fixes later today.

Have transfers been done for teams in these leagues

No transfers, only creation of the league and cup structures.

Version 3 of the file is now uploaded, see original post.

Again, this has been tested for several seasons with no crashes or other issues apparent.

Uncle Ron, thanks for the brilliant work. Do you anticipate any further versions of the file?

Uncle Ron, thanks for the brilliant work. Do you anticipate any further versions of the file?

Cheers

I have identified some further changes. I expect to upload the fourth version towards the weekend. This will introduce relegation into and out of the 8th tier, but I have identified some problems with league sorting which need some time to sort out so I can avoid South Shields and others playing in the Southern League South / West!

Does level 8 not relegate at all currently?

Never mind, I loaded the editor data myself and saw that the relegation slots are set at zero. That doesn't make for much of a challenge in avoiding relegation, does it?

I guess I'll wait for the relegation version of the file before trying a saved game with this.

Also, I noticed that there are no match or squad rules set. Is this because the match and squad rules are already hard-coded in FM, or are there no such rules for these levels in England?

Never mind, I loaded the editor data myself and saw that the relegation slots are set at zero. That doesn't make for much of a challenge in avoiding relegation, does it?

I guess I'll wait for the relegation version of the file before trying a saved game with this.

Also, I noticed that there are no match or squad rules set. Is this because the match and squad rules are already hard-coded in FM, or are there no such rules for these levels in England?

You can add the relegation places yourself, add 12 teams are relegated from level 8 to level 9.

The next update will include this as well as correctly sorting teams that are promoted into the right leagues.

As far as I am aware there are no specific match or squad rules for these levels. If there is anything I have missed please let me know.

I'm away for a few days now so won't be posting again until Thursday evening.

Isn't this just duplicating what is being done by Super Bladesman? http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159082

Only my opinion but wouldn't it be more sensible if we all helped to get his update (which goes down to Level 10 and is already looking very good) to the best standard we can make it?

Isn't this just duplicating what is being done by Super Bladesman? http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159082

No. Super Bladesman has gone down to step 6 of the non-League system and added county cups etc.

Uncle Ron's update adds steps 3 & 4 plus associated cups. It also has quite a bit more work done on the regional competition settings.

Only my opinion but wouldn't it be more sensible if we all helped to get his update (which goes down to Level 10 and is already looking very good) to the best standard we can make it?

I disagree. There is certainly room for both.

Uncle Ron's update is a much lighter version for a start, focusing on those leagues which are researched by SI. His version is here for people who want to play in steps 3 to 4 immediately. The data there is already set and is realistic. Furthermore, the setup should work well on most people's machines.

Super Bladesman's version is really a long-term project. It will take a long time to get things working correctly. A lot of the data below step 4 is not researched properly. As a result of this, and of other factors, a lot of work is still to be done on SB's file. It is an excellent project, of course, but really one that will never be totally finished.

Uncle Ron's update is an excellent, quick update, concentrating on steps 3 & 4 and providing a 'light' setup which can be used pretty much straight away. For many people, who feel that step 1 to 4 leagues is more than enough, this will be the ideal update.

Hope that clears things up for you.

Keep up the good work Uncle Ron.

Regards,

C.

The point I was making Crouchaldinho is that somebody with such obvious knowledge of Steps 3 and 4 that Uncle Ron has would be very beneficial to the work being done by Super Bladesman.

I didn't actually notice when I was starting a new game but in SB's file there is still the option to have only Steps 3 and 4? Assuming that is the case (I don't know why it wouldn't be) then helping SB to make that file the very best it can be can only be a good thing.

As for timeliness I'm sure SB could have changes to Steps 3 and 4 done in double-quick time and available to go.

I wasn't trying to take away from Unle Ron's excellent looking file, I just think in the long-run it makes more sense to concentrate efforts into making a definitive file rather than lots of files which specialise in one part but are weaker in others.

The point I was making Crouchaldinho is that somebody with such obvious knowledge of Steps 3 and 4 that Uncle Ron has would be very beneficial to the work being done by Super Bladesman.

I couldn't say but I don't think that there is actually much to contribute at step 3 and 4 on SB's file. Seems to me that SB is mainly working on step 5 and 6 now where there is little or no research.

I didn't actually notice when I was starting a new game but in SB's file there is still the option to have only Steps 3 and 4? Assuming that is the case (I don't know why it wouldn't be) then helping SB to make that file the very best it can be can only be a good thing.

You would still, however, have all of the cups to contend with.

Also, some of the county cups don't even work properly without the relevant steps loaded.

SB's file really is an 'all or nothing' update in my view.

I wasn't trying to take away from Unle Ron's excellent looking file, I just think in the long-run it makes more sense to concentrate efforts into making a definitive file rather than lots of files which specialise in one part but are weaker in others.

As I said before, I think there is room for both.

This is an update for steps 3 and 4 with associated cups, which activates leagues with clubs that SI actually research.

SB's work, on the other hand, is a long-term project that, arguably, will never finish.

For some people, SB's work will simply be too much. They will be interested in adding steps 1 to 4 only.

Clearly, there is room for both.

Regards,

C.

Uncle Ron, are you back yet? Any news on the new update? KUTGW

Hi, I'm back.

Thanks to Crouchaldinho for the comments. I believe there is room for both this and SBs extensive English pyramid system. Many users, including myself, wish to just add down to step 4 of the non-league pyramid and I do not believe that the game allows for realistic creation of the leagues and system below this level.

A new update will be available this weekend at some point, I will be finalising the file today and testing.

Bang on,

Think this is the first time i've ever felt a smidgen of affection towards a Swindon fan! See you in two seasons time?!

Bang on,

Think this is the first time i've ever felt a smidgen of affection towards a Swindon fan! See you in two seasons time?!

I can't wait for another derby game against Oxford, much better than a game against a Bristol team. If you go up this year (looks highly likely) I wouldn't bet against the same next year, although we hopefully will be in the Championship by then

Hi Ron

Does your game have the big teams starting in the FA cup at the 3rd round stage? Also. do you think that any other updates you do will be save game compatible - (if you believe any more updates might be needed.) Sorry to waffle :-)

Hi Ron

Does your game have the big teams starting in the FA cup at the 3rd round stage? Also. do you think that any other updates you do will be save game compatible - (if you believe any more updates might be needed.) Sorry to waffle :-)

The FA Cup is as per the SI version. There are limitations with the editor which means that it is not possible to implement a realistic FA Cup structure. Unfortunately this means that a few Level 8 teams will not enter the competition. This is something I am working on.

Any competition alterations are not saved game compatible, they require a new save to take effect.

The FA Cup is as per the SI version. There are limitations with the editor which means that it is not possible to implement a realistic FA Cup structure. Unfortunately this means that a few Level 8 teams will not enter the competition. This is something I am working on.

Any competition alterations are not saved game compatible, they require a new save to take effect.

Thanks for the update Ron. LAST thing i want to do is sound ungrateful or like i'm trying to press you but when do you think you will get to a stage where you are producing the final update for this file & are happy with it?

Thanks for the update Ron. LAST thing i want to do is sound ungrateful or like i'm trying to press you but when do you think you will get to a stage where you are producing the final update for this file & are happy with it?

I'm running a test now on the four version, which hopefully is the last. I want to start my save too!

I'm running a test now on the four version, which hopefully is the last. I want to start my save too!

Good man Uncle Ron & bless you for this

I do not believe that the game allows for realistic creation of the leagues and system below this level.

I'd be very much inclined to agree with that.

The FA Cup is as per the SI version. There are limitations with the editor which means that it is not possible to implement a realistic FA Cup structure. Unfortunately this means that a few Level 8 teams will not enter the competition. This is something I am working on.

In addition to the qualifying rounds issue, which is what I imagine you are thinking of, there also needs to be the option in the data editor to regionalise the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup. This is something that might be worth reporting to SI actually.

Regards,

C.

Issues with the FA Cup are not recognising regions and not showing matches on TV (i.e. clubs loose out on TV income), so my file will not amend the FA Cup.

Version 5 of the Southern, Northern and Isthmian League structure has been uploaded after testing today.

See post no.1 for download details and changelist.

Please can you report any issues.

Downloading.

Will run a holiday test to start off with and let you know how it goes.

Great stuff. I'll be using this for now whilst the SB version continues to work out the issues with creating levels 9 & 10 and will move over to that once patch comes out in February probably.

By the sounds of it this sounds more polished to these levels as it's intended for Step 4 only. KuTGW everybody!

Uncle Ron - seems to be doing really well with promotions and relegations so far.

May I ask what you have done in this respect? Is it basically that you have set regional competition settings for every club?

Cheers,

C.

Uncle Ron - seems to be doing really well with promotions and relegations so far.

May I ask what you have done in this respect? Is it basically that you have set regional competition settings for every club?

Cheers,

C.

Yep... it took me bloody ages.... luckily I had this week off work!

I will add, every club in Levels 1 to 9 of England

Good Lord!

That's some work. It took me ages just to do steps 3 and 4 when I was running some tests previously.

What about clubs that could feasibly move between different leagues though? What did you do about them, out of interest?

Good Lord!

That's some work. It took me ages just to do steps 3 and 4 when I was running some tests previously.

What about clubs that could feasibly move between different leagues though? What did you do about them, out of interest?

Clubs do still move between divisions outside of the boundaries I have given, this all depends on other teams promoted / relegated. I assume this refers to the latitude / longitude of cities and the geographical positioning I have set for all the divisions based on what SB has used in his database.

Uncle Ron, thanks so much for posting this smaller expansion of levels in England. Staying as close to real life as possible is definitely a plus. Now I might finally start my first real saved game with FM2010.

Uncle Ron, thanks so much for posting this smaller expansion of levels in England. Staying as close to real life as possible is definitely a plus. Now I might finally start my first real saved game with FM2010.

Thanks I've started my save too as hopefully all issues are now addressed in this version.

Thanks I've started my save too as hopefully all issues are now addressed in this version.

is this version (5) the final version then?

thnx

I think Uncle Ron is hoping that it's the final version. But it probably depends on whether anyone finds any further issues with it.