Super Bladesman's Alternate English League Structure - FM11

So I couldn't keep away from the editor for very long... with my Level 11 file now safely under development by RTC, milco et al., I started to ponder what I might get up to next.

I clearly don't have the time for anything deep and meaningful, but I thought I could do something smaller, fun and low key this year. So I decided to re-make the English league system with an alternate structure...

The basic premise: the year is 2010, this much we know. UEFA have finally managed to force through their directives forcing the English Premier League to downsize to 18 teams. The English FA have taken the opportunity to sieze back control of the national game and have completely restructured English football. No longer will Plymouth fans face the long slog to Carlisle; with this edit file, the English league has been broken down into 6 divisions over 4 tiers - Leagues 1 and 2 have been split into north and south regional divisions, and the Championship has been rebranded as the Premier League Division 2. All four tiers involve 18-team divisions:

Premier League Division 1: 18 teams (3 relegated)

Premier League Division 2: 18 teams (2 promoted + 1 via playoffs; 4 relegated)

National League Division 3 (North): 18 teams (2 promoted; 3 relegated)

National League Division 3 (South): 18 teams (2 promoted; 3 relegated)

National League Division 4 (North): 18 teams (2 promoted + 1 via playoffs; 2 relegated)

National League Division 4 (South): 18 teams (2 promoted + 1 via playoffs; 2 relegated)

Of course, this has also involved a complete restructuring of the non-league setup as well, with a much shorter pyramid system now in place. Level 5 is still level 5 - but instead of a single Conference Premier Division, we now have 4 regional divisions for the north east, north west, south east and south west of England. Each feeds into the league system appropriately. Below this at Level 6 we have 8 regional divisions (formed from the remnants of the Isthmian, Southern and Northern Premier Leagues, plus the Midland Alliance). Feeding in to those from Level 7 are the remaining top-level County Leagues. The big news is that the regional aspect of promotions and relegations seems to be working really nicely.

The cups have also not emerged unscathed. The FA Cup features all the teams from the new levels 1 to 6, plus more than half of the level 7 sides. There is a League Cup again for levels 1-4, and also a Champions League style tournament called the Elite Cup (currently) for the top 32 teams in the Premier Divisions. The Johnstone's Paint Trophy is of course retained and expanded, and there will be cups for each non-league level, as well as an FA Vase. I'm also considering adding regional cups - so all the teams in Yorkshire would get entered in to a Yorkshire Cup, for example. Still thinking about that one. I'm looking to promote more matches against your rivals rather than meaningless dead rubbers against some team from the other end of the country that you don't really care about...

So this is very much a work in progress. I still have some competitions to add - I really want to do something a bit different with this file - and I've still to sort out prize money for all the competitions and check the scheduling for any horrendous clashes. The download link will be here when it's ready.

Sound fun? Let me know what you think.

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DOWNLOAD LINK (Third beta version, 23/11/2010)

I assume that you will have to load all leagues down to the county level for the cups to work right. I will do a 'Lite' version for the full release.

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Activation

1. Copy the file to the Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2011\editor data folder in your My Documents folder.

2. Load FM2011

3. Select ‘Preferences’ and go to the ‘Display/Sound’ tab. UNTICK use skin cache. TICK ‘Always Reload Skin on Confirm’

4. When completed, leave preferences and ‘Start A New Game’

5. In the dialog window that pops up, TICK the change box.

6. Select the LATEST file in the list, if not already. Deselect ALL OLD VERSIONS!

7. Start a new game as normal, selecting the lowest level that you want to have active.

If you have any issues, make sure you've read the http://community.sigames.com/showthr...r-Features-FAQ.

When starting a new game, it's recommended you tick 'Add key staff'. That way the players generated in the bottom tiers will be a mixture of ages, rather than all being 16 or so You should also make sure you run all available levels in your chosen file - i.e. if you only want to run to level 8, you MUST use the Level 8 file AND enable all leagues to level 8 when you start your new game.

I was thinking about doing something like this for myself. Not quite the same structure but you've saved me a job nonetheless.

Will definitely download when it's ready.

great stuff mate

Sounds like a fabtacular idea. One I will play and enjoy.

Brilliant idea. I cant wait for this.

will definatly give this a shot!

Have implemented the Yorkshire Trophy now as a testbed... have to say, I quite like it. Just looking at the last season in my current test save, and it saw two giantkillings in the second round - with Parkgate knocking out Sheffield Wednesday on penalties after a 2-2 draw, and Hull City going down 2-1 to FC Halifax. The biggest win in the seasons to date has been a 7-0 mauling by Middlesbrough over Armthorpe. Still getting used to Middlesbrough being in North Yorkshire, allegedly, according to Wikipedia...

I just need to implement some more prize and TV monies and I should be ready to put something out, possibly even later today.

Oh - the other shock was seeing Wigan in League 4 North I bet their fans are awaiting their ties against Fleetwood with eagerness.

Good to see you back SB

Really nice project

I've now implemented some test prize money figures - with the aim of 'closing the gap' I've kept the Premiership as it is, possibly with slightly less TV money (need to check right amount in game), and then pretty halved this for each subsequent division. This means that all the lower leagues get considerably more prize money in this edit than they do in real life. I'm not intending crazy amounts - I just want to get a bit more movement, mix things up slightly more (and perhaps actually more realistically) than in default FM11 currently.

I'll need to judge the balance in testing - I don't want non-league teams taking over the world (not too easily anyway ). At the same time, in the overnight test I just ran, I didn't spot ANY current league teams in the non-league divisions. That needs to change. Clearly until now, without prize money, whoever was going down was coming back up. That's no fun...

The other thing I might change is to set up promotion/relegation in the non-leagues individually for each division/league. The 'minor' problem is that there are more leagues in the south, and particularly the south-east, than in the north. This means inevitably that some teams (I've spotted Cambridge sides, for example) end up being moved to the more northerly leagues. It's doing it fairly sensibly, most of the time, but I have the tools there to help it out a little more....

Opening post updated with a link for my first beta file. Let me know what you think, what you like or don't like, what you'd like to see me consider adding. Could also do with feedback on whether the transfer windows are working correctly - can you loan players out of window, for example?

This has been tested to 2016 in holiday mode, and I've only added minor tweaks since then.

For the next version, I should have a small issue with the playoffs fixed

Testing overnight...

Will you do a Midlands cup with the likes of Villa, Blues, Albion, Wolves, Leicester, Stoke, Notts Forest etc

Aye, if people like the general idea - one for each local region. You know how I like my cups...

Have implemented the Yorkshire Trophy now as a testbed... have to say, I quite like it. Just looking at the last season in my current test save, and it saw two giantkillings in the second round - with Parkgate knocking out Sheffield Wednesday on penalties after a 2-2 draw, and Hull City going down 2-1 to FC Halifax. The biggest win in the seasons to date has been a 7-0 mauling by Middlesbrough over Armthorpe. Still getting used to Middlesbrough being in North Yorkshire, allegedly, according to Wikipedia...

I just need to implement some more prize and TV monies and I should be ready to put something out, possibly even later today.

Oh - the other shock was seeing Wigan in League 4 North I bet their fans are awaiting their ties against Fleetwood with eagerness.

Please please please include Leigh Genesis. :beg:

Aye, if people like the general idea - one for each local region. You know how I like my cups...

Yes please !

Please please please include Leigh Genesis. :beg:

Leigh should be in there somewhere... of course, they'd go in a Greater Manchester or Lancashire Cup

Leigh should be in there somewhere... of course, they'd go in a Greater Manchester or Lancashire Cup

Thank you. I really loved your fantastic work in FM2010. Its one reason why I cant bring myself to delete FM2010.

New file uploaded - just fixed playoffs, added regional competition preference settings for league division 1-3 sides and tweaked prize money some more. Too many of the teams promoted from non-league are still going straight back down. I've got a bit more mixing happening... but not enough for my liking yet

For the next build, I've already added regional cups for Nottinghamshire, Merseyside and Essex. Really want to add Somerset, Greater Manchester and/or Lancashire, London and West Midlands next, but can't find a good resource listing all the clubs (including non-league) within specific areas...

I will post up a west mids list later

Great - cheers. Was hoping someone would say that

I won't be editing again until Monday, so no rush.

This looks great, and I will give it a test perhaps over the weekend. Once you've gotten it all straightened out and to your liking (mixing it all up a bit is never a bad thing), it should be awesome.

I had toyed with the idea of doing one of these myself on FM10, but never really found the time. I have to admit, the English league structure gets pretty boring, and I've always wanted to play a game with radically different English set-up.

What I'd really love to see is relegation playoffs!

Relegation playoffs have never really been my cup of tea, but actually would make things a bit more interesting in some of the divisions in this - I might have to experiment...

My next idea for a file is one where I merge all the English teams in to one per city, retaining the best players at each and moving to a more US style setup. That has always been at the back of my mind. 'Sheffield City'...

Relegation playoffs have never really been my cup of tea, but actually would make things a bit more interesting in some of the divisions in this - I might have to experiment...

My next idea for a file is one where I merge all the English teams in to one per city, retaining the best players at each and moving to a more US style setup. That has always been at the back of my mind. 'Sheffield City'...

Yeah, I think relegation playoffs could spice things up a bit. Worth an experiment I suppose.

What about a promotion playoff where one team from each of two regional divisions end up facing each other to decide a 3rd promotion place? That's something quite different!

Loving the idea of merged city teams though.

A relegation play-off between the non-league Div 2's and the county leagues would make sense as those established teams wouldn't want to drop back into the relative obscurity of the county leagues and it perhaps would be nice to have a promotion play-off for the last place into PL2, although I don't know if FM could handle that

West Midlands cup

Professional Teams

Aston Villa

West Brom

Blues

Wolves

Walsall

Solihull Moors

Kidderminister Harriers

Sutton Coldfield Town

Romulus

Not many..... perhaps it should merge with the East

Love. Will have to download that beta and give it a test.

West Midlands cup

Professional Teams

Aston Villa

West Brom

Blues

Wolves

Walsall

Solihull Moors

Kidderminister Harriers

Sutton Coldfield Town

Romulus

Not many..... perhaps it should merge with the East

Maybe Shrewsbury Town and AFC Telford too?

Yes.... and Hereford

Have you thought about going very symmetrical with a true pyramid? 16 teams in every league. EPL fed by a north and south 2nd level. 4 leagues at the 3rd level and 8 at the 4th. 4 down 2 up per feeder. With individual league cups thrown in per tier.

My next idea for a file is one where I merge all the English teams in to one per city, retaining the best players at each and moving to a more US style setup. That has always been at the back of my mind. 'Sheffield City'...

You'd have to resurrect the old Fairs Cup, then.

I enjoyed making my FM10 British league with a ten-level pyramid system.

I have maybe nailed the 'mixing things up' thing - ran a test over the weekend which got to 2034... and while the top 6 in the Premiership were entirely predictable, Southend finished 8th Peterborough avoided relegation too.

Dover came 3rd in the 2nd flight. FC United and Eastwood battled it out against Stoke, Wigan and Blackpool in the D3N, while Portsmouth and Cardiff were promoted in the D3S, leaving West Ham, Eastbourne Boro and Salisbury in their wake. Solihull Moors and Sunderland RCA just missed promotion from the D4N; it was a good year for the West Country with Bristol Rovers and Bath both promoted out of D4S.

Also of note: Three Bridges were relegated from one of the Non-League Division 1s... They've come a long way from the Sussex county league. A long way indeed, as they were put in the North West division... Might need to take a look at that

Biggest losers? Maybe it's Kidderminster - 5th in Non-League Division 2 (Central/West). That said, I sincerely doubt Bury are enjoying their 7th successive season in county football though... (4th in the North West Counties Premier Division)

Downloading this now, looks very impressive!

This looks fantastic. Will definitely give this a go once the next patch is released.

West Midlands cup

Professional Teams

Aston Villa

West Brom

Blues

Wolves

Walsall

Solihull Moors

Kidderminister Harriers

Sutton Coldfield Town

Romulus

Not many..... perhaps it should merge with the East

Depending on whether you're looking at the West Midlands as a county or a geographical area, this is a little bit short. A good start would be looking at which teams participate in the Birmingham Senior Cup, which would give you:

Aston Villa

Birmingham

WBA

Wolves

Coventry

Walsall

Burton

Kidderminster

Tamworth

Solihull Moors

Worcester

Redditch

Nuneaton

Hednesford

Halesowen

Stourbridge

Leamington

Banbury

Rugby

Sutton Coldfield

Atherstone

Romulus

Rushall

Stratford

Coleshill

Coventry Sphinx

Willenhall

Atherstone

Highgate

Studley

Causeway United

Even then there's probably some missing. Stafford Rangers, Hinckley United, Telford United and Shrewsbury Town could probably be comfortably accomodated.

Edit: Even then I managed to forget Bedworth, Alvechurch, Tipton and Boldmere St. Michael's

Cheers gents - will get that lot added in next week when I get back to the file.

Don't forge4t Chasetown!

Depending on whether you're looking at the West Midlands as a county or a geographical area, this is a little bit short. A good start would be looking at which teams participate in the Birmingham Senior Cup, which would give you:

Aston Villa

Birmingham

WBA

Wolves

Coventry

Walsall

Burton

Kidderminster

Tamworth

Solihull Moors

Worcester

Redditch

Nuneaton

Hednesford

Halesowen

Stourbridge

Leamington

Banbury

Rugby

Sutton Coldfield

Atherstone

Romulus

Rushall

Stratford

Coleshill

Coventry Sphinx

Willenhall

Atherstone

Highgate

Studley

Causeway United

Even then there's probably some missing. Stafford Rangers, Hinckley United, Telford United and Shrewsbury Town could probably be comfortably accomodated.

Edit: Even then I managed to forget Bedworth, Alvechurch, Tipton and Boldmere St. Michael's

I have maybe nailed the 'mixing things up' thing - ran a test over the weekend which got to 2034... and while the top 6 in the Premiership were entirely predictable, Southend finished 8th Peterborough avoided relegation too.

Dover came 3rd in the 2nd flight. FC United and Eastwood battled it out against Stoke, Wigan and Blackpool in the D3N, while Portsmouth and Cardiff were promoted in the D3S, leaving West Ham, Eastbourne Boro and Salisbury in their wake. Solihull Moors and Sunderland RCA just missed promotion from the D4N; it was a good year for the West Country with Bristol Rovers and Bath both promoted out of D4S.

Also of note: Three Bridges were relegated from one of the Non-League Division 1s... They've come a long way from the Sussex county league. A long way indeed, as they were put in the North West division... Might need to take a look at that

Biggest losers? Maybe it's Kidderminster - 5th in Non-League Division 2 (Central/West). That said, I sincerely doubt Bury are enjoying their 7th successive season in county football though... (4th in the North West Counties Premier Division)

I will definitely be downloading this now!!!

I've added that cup in as requested, and have renamed the Championship's awards to suit the new division name. At some point I need to recreate all the awards for all the other playable divisions... :S

I'm about to start testing a new beta build - I've now also added all the awards necessary for the four divisions across the north and south in Division 3 and 4.

Just to add my two cents, I think the Prize Money for the lower division is a bit excessive. I know you were trying to bridge the game between the FL and the Prem, but I reckon it'd be better to lower the Premier League's Prize Money instead, otherwise it may be a bit easier to build a lower league squad on foreign talent with the inflated finances.

If I do that, the Premier League sides get trounced in Europe every year... Actually, I think I have significantly reduced the TV money at the top level, anyway.

There's a new build in the opening post.

Hi Super Bladesman,

I guess you made a complete new set of english rules. right? -Awesome work!

Does your system match the "real" rules? Im thinking about everything (except of course from league structure and cups).

- prize money - foreigner rules - squad registration rules - number of subs - maximum loans - discipline rules (bans) ?

and so on... Any rules you have left out from your national structure?

- David

I can't promise that it does, but it's on my to do list - it will, as far as possible.

Part of the difficulty is simply researching what all of those rules are!

I can't promise that it does, but it's on my to do list - it will, as far as possible.

Part of the difficulty is simply researching what all of those rules are!

Making up your own rules could be quite fun actually, especially when it comes to number of foreigners in squads, number of subs, transfer window and what not. Let your imagination run wild with those!

I can't promise that it does, but it's on my to do list - it will, as far as possible.

Part of the difficulty is simply researching what all of those rules are!

Yes, I totally agree your last point. Its a huge regret you cant read about the rules for default tournaments in the editor...

I very much support the Ideer to make rules nearly as in 'real life'. If that is the basic file, people can later tweak to what they like -in opposition to many things before the national structure were edited...(!)

My real agenda is to make EPD with 24 teams. But I asume I can have a huge benefit from your work.

So, Keep up the good work :-)

How is this coming along?