Gundo's FM11 Challenge™ - Bonus Leagues Edition, sponsored by Quackje

Welcome to Gundo's Challenge - Bonus Leagues Edition, sponsored by Quackje. With the ability to add custom leagues to the game there are many more small European nations that can be taken to European glory and this is the place to do it.

The Aim

To take a small club who where previously unplayable* in the game from the lower leagues to their Domestic League Title and Champions League crown (doesn't have to be in the same season). I realise it's not an easy challenge, but should be a lot of fun trying.

*In leagues with relegation from the bottom tier.

The Set-up

The Eligible leagues are shown below, those in bold are for this thread and require downloading, for other nations see Gundo's Challenge thread.

Country     Reputation
Greece           142
Netherlands      140
Ukraine          135
Belgium          130
Switzerland      122
Romania          120
Austria          120
Israel           115
Denmark          115
Serbia           114
Norway           110
Poland           110
Czech Republic   105
Croatia          105
Slovenia         100
Slovakia         100
Hungary          100
[b]Cyprus           100[/b]
Sweden           100
Finland          98
Belarus          92
[b]Latvia           91[/b]
Iceland          90
[b]Montenegro       88
Lithuania        86
Bosnia           85
Estonia          85[/b]
Bulgaria         85
[b]FYR Macedonia    78
Albania          78
Kazakhstan       72
Georgia          70
Moldova          70
Azerbaijan       65[/b]
Ireland          60
[b]Armenia          57[/b]
N. Ireland       50
[b]Malta            43[/b]
Wales            35
[b]Luxembourg       30
Andorra          28
Faroe Islands    20
San Marino       5[/b]

Getting started

Download the leagues. Place them in My Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2011/editor data when you click new game it should give you the option to select these to use. It is very important that you use the leagues provided and not other versions for this challenge, they have been checked and balanced to make sure it is a fair challenge.

Load a game with all the available divisions within the nation you have selected; only one nation is allowed.

You are free to use a Large, Medium or Small a database and you are permitted to load all players from your chosen nation (Recommended), However, No additional players from any other nation should be loaded.

Attribute masking should be enabled.

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 (First Name Last Name); the details are not important at all.

Then go on holiday until the new seasons teams are generated (each country will be different). For summer leagues the date will be in June, for winter leagues in January. I advise you save the game before this so you can reload over the date when you found it until you get the team you want.

Notes, there are a number of leagues in this challenge that do not have relegation from the lowest division, in Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro and San Marino you must take over the team that finished bottom among non-reserves teams in the lowest division.

San Marino, there is an issue that you cannot see the first stage of the competition from the previous year so either check who finished bottom of each half during the season or check through team history to find this information.

Malta, you must choose one of the teams that finished bottom of the Bank of Valletta third division Not the Gozo leagues as these are seperate entities and Gozo teams cannot get into Europe, you don't have to load the Gozo leagues if you don't want to.

Then retire your original manager profile.

Add a new manager, the options/details are up to you but 'past experience' must be set as 'Sunday League Footballer' or if that reputation isn't available then you must then select 'Automatic'.

I understand that choosing your nationality may have an effect later on, but I trust people will be sensible with this, I would expect people to use their own nationalities/second nationalities.

Take over one of the newly promoted/bottom of the league in previous year clubs to the lowest playable division within your selected nation. If you are not sure about which clubs have been promoted simply check last seasons league table and the new clubs will obviously be the clubs not in it. To make completely sure that the club is eligible, check the club's history of league positions, it should be blank for the previous season.

It is completely up to you which club you choose, although please appreciate that some clubs may be easier to manage than others. example; Some clubs will have a full squad of players and staff, while others won't. Also some will have higher reputations than others making it easier to sign players etc... So choose wisely. The nation you've chosen to manage in will affect difficulty too.

It is now up to you to manage your chosen club to their domestic title and to win the UEFA Champions League.

You are not permitted to move between clubs unless you are sacked; whereby then you can either take over a newly promoted club to the lowest playable division next time the reset date comes round or simply quit your current save and start over.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

There are no restrictions on assigning feeder/parent clubs.

Scouting Guidelines

You can only sign players that you are able to scout or trial at the club first, so in short the player must have the 'Get scout report' button on his profile screen. Exceptions to this, when staff/players recommend signings or if an agent offers you a player, it is ok to sign the player.

No external utilities such as FMScout should be used and the database should be un-edited except those additions by the official version of the custom leagues. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed. New versions of the official challenge leagues may be needed after a new patch.

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 in-game are encouraged, as are youtube clips of matches ect. I will advise you to put video clips as links only though and not as a direct click and play type. This will keep the thread fairly clutter free and make browsing it quicker.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's Personal screen on the date you take control at your new club.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread. We want to hear the story of your club all the way through (success or failure). So 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 the minimum of a screenshot of the league table. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier for others to pick out.

How to Post a Screenshot

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

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

3. Save the file as a JPEG

4. Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack

5. Post the direct url to the image here.

Many thanks to Zdravkovic, BurnCm4X, Hershie, Herter and Mons for allowing me to modify their leagues for use in this challenge.

Good luck on your European Adventure!

Challengers:

Winners!!

User        | Nation        | Club                 | Year  | Domestic    | CL       | EL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Hawker | Faroe Islands | Fótbóltsfelagið Giza | 2023  | 10x Winners | WINNERS  | Groups

Challenging!

User        | Nation        | Club                 | Year  | Domestic    | CL       | EL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quackje     | Faroe Islands | Bóltfelagið Royn     | 2015  | 2x Winners  | 3rd Qlfy | 4th Qlfy
berty1978   | San Marino    | San Giovanni         | 11/12 | 5th         | N/A      | N/A
5ergio      | San Marino    | Folgore              | 11/12 | 2nd         | N/A      | N/A
Mafino      | Malta         | Kalkara United       | 11/12 | 4th Tier^^  | N/A      | N/A
ToMexico!!  | Georgia       | Ameri Tbilisi        | 11/12 | 3rd Tier^^  | N/A      | N/A

Retired saves

User        | Nation        | Club                 | Year  | Domestic    | CL       | EL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sheeshy     | Faroe Islands | Bóltfelagið Royn     | 2016  | 4x Winners  | Groups   | Groups
Mr_Demus    | Faroe Islands | Bóltfelagið Royn     | 2013  | 2nd Tier    | N/A      | N/A

New people will be added after their first full season report.

Bóltfelagið Royn

Needless to say, I'm going to be playing in the challenge and have gone for the Faroe Islands.

Profile

Bóltfelagið Royn

We are based in Hvalba, the 17th biggest town in the Faroes in the north of island of Suðuroy home to 615 people. My "stadium" and entire town can be seen in this picture.

Hvalba

Look carefully, its that patch of flat land on the left in front of the houses.

I'll obviously be doing this and ironically I'm holidaying in the Faroe Islands, so i'll try to get a different team promoted to make it a bit less league repetitive

EDIT: whens the reset date for Faroe Islands?

Not 100% sure but I think it was January 2-5th ish, theres only a few teams in the database from 3. deild so if you don't take Royn I guess you'll end up with Giza.

Think I might start with Luxembourg as it seems to be the lowest rep league where you can get dual nationality (apart from 25 years in Andorra!!!!)

Thinking of starting this in Lithuania. It's hard to keep interest in my regular Gundo game, so it might be a good idea, to have a game to switch to

The Baltic leagues have a sort of bonus competition attached to them just amongst themselves so its something a bit more to win before you can beat the real big clubs of Europe.

In other news, my team have missed the last 3 penalties they've been awarded, this is annoying.

I just loaded a game without the baltic league, because I thought I was supposed to. Can I play without it, or do I need to restart?

Oops, I forgot to say about that, I included the versions without the Baltic league too. Its probably best if you use the version with the Baltic league, just for the fun of it, when you start a new game just hit change on the thing that asks about custom leagues and select the normal one not the one that says without baltic league.

Btw..there's some errors with the Lithuanian league: 1) In game the A league has 11 teams. IRL it's only 10 2) They play eachother 3 times IRL. Only 2 in the DB. 3) The second league teams play each other 3 times IRL. In the DB it is only 2

1) Is that for next season too, it started with 11 teams in real life this year.

2) I'll take a look at it.

1) Is that for next season too, it started with 11 teams in real life this year.

2) I'll take a look at it.

1) My mistake. Didn't look properly

2) Lithuanian 2. tier Standings

I've Started as Fótbóltsfelagið Giza in the Faroese 2. delid

Info Fótbóltsfelagið Giza is a Faroese football club based in the capital Tórshavn. The team plays its matches in Argir Stadium.

The club was founded 1 January 1968 as Nólsoyar Ítróttarfelag - often abbreviated to NÍF - representing the isle of Nólsoy, even though the team played its matches in Tórshavn. The club changed their name to FF Giza on 1 January 2010. Their hometown was also changed from Nólsoy to Tórshavn.

Manager Profile

Fótbóltsfelagið Giza

and a picture of them playing and the background (I think )

Giza at home with houses and countryside background

Ok thanks, Fixed. That version they play 3 times.

Ok thanks, Fixed. That version they play 3 times.

Awesome...Loading up again I guess

Excellent Quackje, good work.

I'll hopefully get round to have a go in Faroe Islands at some point on FM11.

Bóltfelagið Royn 2011

I had a bit of a headstart on the challenge and its a short season in the Faroes so anyway I started off with a pretty terrible team but realised everyone else was rubbish too. Just the slightest thing can make a player worth having in this league. Overall things started pretty average but by late in the season we were real contenders for promotion and it all came down to the last game of the season against Miðvágs Bóltfelag with us holding a 2 point lead at the top of the table over them. The match couldn't have started any worse but we got the equaliser in the second half with the match ending 1-1 resulting in Royn being crowned CHAMPIONS!

Squad: Winners

Top Scorer: Rógvi Poulsen

Best Player: Mortan Joensen, Rógvi is better but this is next best, my assman thinks he is rubbish but hes quick

Goal of the season:

Comedy goal of the season:

Next season: Who knows? I have no idea how much better the 1. deild is.

Year | League  | Position | Løgmanssteypið | Europe
---------------------------------------------------
2011 | 2.Deild | Winners  | Quarters       | N/A

Started as Utenis Utena in Lithuania Profile. They are a Semi-Pro club, and as far as I can tell, this the highest they have ever been in the league system. We are predicted as number 8 of 10, so just outside relegation.

Here we go

Just checked out the San Marino league, reset date is the 16th July. Humming and harring as to whether to start a game, it will be either San Giovanni or Fiorentino, who each finished bottom of their respective groups.

Good luck to everyone in the challenge, and Quackje, that location is stunning, I'd love to go to the Faroes, although a new proper stadium would somewhat spoil the setting, maybe build it underground.

Lithuania didn't quite catch me, so I decided to restart this. Now in Cyprus...You start in the 4th tier, so there's a long way to the top. Up and at them! Orfeas Nicosia Manager

Fótbóltsfelagið Giza - 2011 - 2.Deild

League Table

This was an outstandingly easy season, we won the league with 3 games to go, the team gelled and we scored....alot but we didn't let many in what so ever.

Squad

The squad is good, but i will be looking to improve everywhere

Key Player/s

Frooi Sorensen - Top Scorer with 16 goals in 18 apps

Samal Olsen - Top Rated player, avg 7.53 in 20 apps

Year  League   Position  Løgmanssteypið  Europe
---------------------------------------------------------------
2011  2.Deild  Winners   2nd Round        N/A

Missed getting pictures but I have finished the 2nd season, our parent club is HB and all of our good players were from them on loan so we had 8 loanees in our team, the league was tight but we won it on the last day so next year we are in the PREMIER LEAGUE!!! of the Faroe Islands....

Year  League   Position  Løgmanssteypið  Europe
---------------------------------------------------------------
2011  2.Deild  Winners   2nd Round        N/A
2012  1.Deild  Winners   2nd Round        N/A

I knew pretty soon someone would be tempted by the ineptness of San Marino berty1978.

Good luck in Cyprus, Mr_Demus, its a real high quality league by this challenges standards and theres a lot of depth in the version of the league I have.

The 2.Deild and 1.Deild don't seem such a hard leagues Tony Hawker, not sure how you kept it tight at the back, my team were so full of horrendous mistakes we would practically score more against ourselves than that. I got to say, record time, 3 hours it took you for that season

My key to defence are actually my 2 youth players who are D(L) & D ®

Trondur Danielsen D(L) - CA - Good for most Vodafonedeildin sides PA - Leading star for most Vodafonedildin sides

Tummas Rasmussen D® - CA - Decent for most Vodafonedeildin sides PA - Good right-back for Vodafonedeildin Sides

Our youth and training facilities are basic and recruitment is minimal

EDIT: Preseason odds and we are the 2000-1 outsiders

Stormed the first 2 seasons Tony, well done.

Ok, giving this a go just for a laugh and see how much i get thumped by if I get into Europe.

San Giovanni appoint Berty Bassett as their new manager after finishing rock bottom of Group A last season. All teams in San Marino are amateur so no problems getting rid of deadwood, got a new staff team. Managed to get Robert Prosinecki as a coach, on no wages btw, result. Also strengthining my team is a tad easy really, signed last seasons top scorer and player of the season from Tre Penne, Alex Olivieri.

We're predicted to finish last but with a few new signings I have higher hopes, we'll see.

This is one of the things with San Marino berty1978, I feel its the kind of league that is very easy to get to the top of domestically but where you go from there could take a long time.

Is anyone else having this problem? I signed some players that the game generated to get enough players I guess. Most of them was 25-30 years old. When I signed them, they were rated 4-5 stars, but suddenly they all dropped in quality to ½ star. It's rather annoying, and suddenly I don't have a team at all, beacause all of my players suck

At the level you're managing at the moment I wouldn't worry about the stars, theres so little really between them.

This is one of the things with San Marino berty1978, I feel its the kind of league that is very easy to get to the top of domestically but where you go from there could take a long time.

That's definately the impression I get so far, though with my lack of tactical knowledge I'm not guaranteed to even challenge domestically. Maybe this game will help me in that department a little bit, problem is of course if I'm stuck at amateur or do we change up a status if we get enough cash, I'll wait and see.

I have scouted San Marino and signed everyone I can that he recommends however I now realise that players under a certain age I will have to pay compensation which isn't possible with no budget, so there's the first stumbling block. Now scouting Italy.

Thats the beauty of being amateur, you can have as big a squad as you like, no risk signings. I would expect once you get some money, Europe would be the only place for this, you can start to go semi-pro and then pro.

Fótbóltsfelagið Giza - 2013 - Vodafonedeildin

We were struggling for the first part of the season and we sat in last place a couple of times, our form picked up around April and we finished the season in fourth which means we enter the Euro Cup 1st Qualifying round next season, our link with HB was cut at the start of the season so we had no loanees to help us.

League Table

Sorry that I'm not going into detail, it's not what i tend to do, I want to spend as much time playing the game but I may go into more detail after a few seasons

Year League            Position          Løgmanssteypið    Europe
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2011  2.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A
2012  1.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A
2013  Vodafonedeildin    4th              Quarter Finals     N/A

Oooh European expedition for you, now you're in that stage I'd expect some more detail of your (probably very brief) adventure.

Malta - I have updated the download link, it now contains leagues for Malta. It is a very high quality update featuring many additional clubs and real players made by Mons, well worth waiting for. Important, you must choose a team in the Bank of Valletta third division, not in the Gozo leagues as only teams in the league system of Malta can qualify for Europe, those in the Gozo leagues cannot so you don't have to load them if you don't want to.

Fótbóltsfelagið Giza - 2014 - Vodafonedeildin

We started the season well but then we had a blip of 7 straight losses which cost us the Løgmanssteypið and the EURO Cup after the straight losses we picked up the form again with only 2 more losses in the season and we won the league in the final day

League Table

Squad - I got rid of deadwood (over 20 players) and i now have an almost barebones squad

Transfers - brought in a few got rid of ALOT but i brought the wage down over £3,000

EURO Cup - Nothing to write home about, lost 2-0 away won 3-2 at home, lost 4-3 on agg

Also my 1 of my youth players is looking really good Trondur Danielsen D(L) - 20 apps this year, 1 goal so fine for a D(L) look forward too his future

Season    Club          Division   Appearances  Goals  Assists   MOTM  AV.R
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012      Giza        1.Deild          9          0       0       1     7.06
2013      Giza        Vodafonedeildin  20         1       1       2     7.16
2014      Giza        Vodafonedeildin  20         0       0       2     7.11
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                  49         1       1       5     7.09

Year League            Position          Løgmanssteypið    Europe
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2011  2.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A
2012  1.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A
2013  Vodafonedeildin    4th              Quarter Finals     N/A
2014  Vodafonedeildin    1st              Semi Finals        1st Qualifier

I've decided for an exotic adventure in what is - let's be honest - a European league in name only.

I've settled in with Jastar Oral in Kazakhstan! They were rock bottom of the Kazakh Second League Group 2 last season, and, besides which, who wouldn't want to manage a club called Oral?

This is my profile. Apparently, English Sunday footballers have a national reputation in Kazakhstan.

Normally I change my surname and nationality depending on which nation I manage in. Had I decided to pose as a Kazakh national, then there is only one name that Butler was being translated to...

Had simmed all the way and picked a team yesterday with San Marino, but today i had a change of heart. Andorra seems more to my taste, so i'm simming a year there.

A quick question to clear this up: Do I have to choose all the leagues after the change screen has passed or only the league that I'll play is enough? For ex, I'll try San Marino, do I need to load all the changed files from the editor or only San Marino league is enough? (I do know that I'll only load San Marino league when I'm loading up the game. It's the part with the editor files I'm asking.)

At that stage it doesn't make any difference if you load the lot or just the one you're going to play in. So long as when you actually set up the new game you just pick San Marino league as playable in this case then its fine.

Fótbóltsfelagið Giza - 2014 - Vodafonedeildin

We started the season badly but as normal we hit form mid season and worked our way to the top again

League Table

Squad - No transfers so squad pretty much the same as last year

European Champions Cup - We managed to win 4-2 on agg against Sheriff but weren't strong enough to progress any further after that

Youth:

Trondur Danielsen - Good Season for him and only 19

Season    Club          Division   Appearances  Goals  Assists   MOTM  AV.R
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012      Giza        1.Deild          9          0       0       1     7.06
2013      Giza        Vodafonedeildin  20         1       1       2     7.16
2014      Giza        Vodafonedeildin  20         0       0       2     7.11
2015      Giza        Vodafonedeildin  26         1       3       4     7.20
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                  75         2       4       9     7.15

Year League            Position          Løgmanssteypið    European Champions Cup        EURO Cup
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011  2.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A                         N/A
2012  1.Deild            1st              2nd Round          N/A                         N/A
2013  Vodafonedeildin    4th              Quarter Finals     N/A                         N/A
2014  Vodafonedeildin    1st              Semi Finals        N/A                      1st Qualifier
2015  Vodafonedeildin    1st              2nd Round         3rd Qualifier             4th Qualifier  

I have also opted for Bóltfelagið Royn - Wish me luck!

So here we go now. The reset date on San Marino is 15th July in the latest file fyi. Now, I present you the almighty:

Found in 1972, Folgore Falciano is competing in Campionato Sammarinese Group A.The team finished at the bottom of the group last season despite the bottom teams having few points seperating them.

Campionato Sammarinese 2010-2011

Let's continue with general info. ---> Folgore Falciano<---

The club can be considered lucky relatively. Owning it's own stadium named after the village Falciano, a 750 capacity with only 150 seats for the lucky people. 65 ticket holders definitely get to sit on some of those. Facilites are basic in terms of training and minimal when it comes to youth. But, Folgore Falciano owns it's own youth academy which will provide some decent youngesters for the future.

After all this introduction of the little San Marinese club, here is who will take this little village club to the dizzy hights of Europe. --->Sercan Cali<---

Appearantly sunday league footballers are known nation-wide in San Marino This 25 year old lad is highly determined to over-achieve with his ambitious team. We'll all see together what the future holds for us.

P.S: Here's a tip when you try to see the last team after holidaying. Click on any team in the league and have a look at their fixtures. You can then see the group they played, taking you to the competition table before Champions Playoff.

Thats a rather sharp logo they have there too 5ergio, like some sort of combat electricians or something.

Yeah We are going to STORM the league, if you believe that Gotta love amateur clubs though, players come and go like seconds!

Bóltfelagið Royn 2012

The 1. Deild is a bit trickier and we had a rocky start to the season finally getting things going with a big win over Skála who proved to be my main rivals for 2nd place most the season. KÍ ran away into the distance and we managed to stave off the Skála charge to finish in 2nd place setting up a playoff with TB. They were given two penalties during the match but my best player managed to steal it in the 93rd minute and so we are PROMOTED!!

Squad: Promoted

Top Scorer: Jón Pétur Indriðason

Best Player: Jón Pétur Indriðason

Best Faroese: Arnold Berg

First International: Eli Kruse, Ok was only U-19 and he didn't actually play but still.

Next season: Why not hope for Europe!!

Year | League  | Position | Løgmanssteypið | Europe
---------------------------------------------------
2011 | 2.Deild | Winners  | Quarters       | N/A
2012 | 1.Deild | 2nd ^^   | 2nd Round      | N/A

Bóltfelagið Royn - Season 1 - 2011 - Promotion from 2. Deild

Transfers - Just picked up anyone who had, eh "decent" stats

League - Promotion confirmed, with room to spare.

Fixtures - Once I got my tactics sorted, very easy to power over all teams.

Squad - to be chopped and changed for next season.

Cup not worth mentioning.

I am quite taken with this save, even at this early stage, and I want to make the Bóltfelagið Royn the greatest club the world has ever seen, and the Faroe Islands the number 1 footballing nation in the world, best team, highest rated league etc.

It's going to be a long one, I understand.

It sure is the long term, only now I am thinking my players are sort of resembling footballers. Good season

It sure is the long term, only now I am thinking my players are sort of resembling footballers. Good season

Thanks! Very simple, once I got used to the (awful) style of play. Hoping next season will be the same, and then I can move on to cementing a place in Europes 132nd best competition

Bóltfelagið Royn - Season 2 - 2012 - Promotion from 1. Deild

Transfers - Sensible building on last year.

League - Promotion confirmed, with loads of room to spare this time. Proper walk in the (frozen) park.

Squad - Still some decent players at Royn, that can make the grade next season

Cup not worth mentioning again, 2nd round exit to higher opposition.

Onwards and upwards!

Quackje Whats the code for the season by season updates, in that little table?

Arnold Berg is a great player

I Just write <code></code> but with square brackets, prepare it in notepad or something that have equal spacing for letters first so its nice and lined up.