Rising Through The Leagues (Scottish Sign-up)

I have a created a sign-up, though in some ways I suspect it resembles an experiment instead. As this is a first attempt at a sign-up I welcome feedback from veteran participants. I am going to limit this to 12 participants, myself included, in order to make it easier for me to manage.

The Details of the Situation

In order to rejuvenate the Scottish club game the SFA has introduced some radical changes. Gone is the distinction between senior and junior football and the old league structure. Though the new league system does not allow promotion and relegation to the lower leagues the SFA has relented and accepted 16 new clubs in to the new expanded league system.

The new set-up has the existing 42 clubs, 16 newly admitted sides plus the B sides of Celtic and Rangers, who can't be promoted from Division 2 South West. There are now just 3 tiers in the league all of which consist of leagues of 12 with each team playing each other twice. The leagues are as follows:

RBS Premier League (with 2 up, 2 down relegation to...)

RBS First Division (the bottom 3 sides relegated to…)

RBS Second Division (this is split in to 3 regions with each regional division sending 1 team up to the Second Division)

In addition the non-league game has been revamped to provide three pyramids that match up to the Second Division splits.

The cup formats have also been altered extensively. The SFA has made the FA Cup a straight knockout tournament for the 128 teams making up the football league and the top 2 levels of the non-league game (minus the Old Firm b-sides who are barred from entering). The League Cup is also a straight knockout tournament with two-legged ties for all football league clubs plus the the 4 best non-league sides. Finally the Challenge Cup remains pretty much as it was…a knockout tournament for all non-Premier League clubs (again minus the Old Firm b-sides).

(Incidentally this is the first time I have ever created new competitions so they are quite basic. I did them to give me an interesting management career originally but never got my career started. If anybody wants to download the file and play about with it to improve it they are more than welcome. As it is I saw a sign-up as the best way to use this file for something.)

So the bit that everybody wants to know…How does this relate to me?

I want 12 people to become chairmen of clubs new to the league. I want to see who has the most glory with their club over a 20 year period. Will anybody be able to match the fabulous real-life achievements of the likes of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and, more recently, Ross County in playing top-flight football? As a control the other 4 new clubs will be left untouched to see if they have as much success without the interference of a human hand.

In order to have an influence as a chairman there will be a few things you will be able to affect at your club in order to try and gain success. You will be able to give your club a boost in a number of ways. You will be able to select 2 of the following as a way of improving the chances of success…

* boost your club's 'Training' attribute to 20

* boost your club's 'Youth Coaching' attribute to 20

* boost your club's 'Youth Facilities' attribute to 20

* boost your club's 'Youth Recruitment' attribute to 20

* double the reputation of your club

* add £750,000 to your club's bank account

* hire a top player as your club's player manager (see note below for details)

In addition you will be able to alter the tactical preferences of your club if you wish. The preferred formations of your club can be set to any default tactic though there will be no other manipulating of the players or the club so picking an unusual formation for Scotland may be a gamble.

How Do I Win At This Sign-Up?

The short answer is by doing better than the other new clubs over the next 20 seasons.

Every year clubs will be awarded points dependent on where they finish in the league. If you were to win the SPL you would receive 1 point (for being the top ranked club in Scotland), SPL runners-up get 2 points. This continues down the league structure so by winning the Second Division you would get 25 points whereas finishing in last place you would receive 36 points. The side with the lowest points total at the end of the 2031-32 season is the winner.

In addition you can receive bonus point deductions for a variety of achievements. Winning a domestic cup competition is worth a reduction of 3 points whereas reaching the semi-finals or finals is worth a deduction of 2 points. Any giant-killing (knocking any side from any higher league out of any cup competition) earns you a 1 point deduction. Your club's first appearance in the SPL is also worth a 3 point deduction.

What If I Want To Pick A Player-manager?

If you wish to add a player-manager as one of your boosts you need to be aware of the following conditions.

* The player must be over 34 years of age at the start of the game.

* He must still be an active player at the beginning of the game (not retired as a player)

* No editing of his playing or coaching attributes will be allowed.

* The man will be signed to a four year contract (expiry date 31/7/2015) with a weekly wage of £1000.

* You will be set as one of his preferred people and your club set as one of his preferred clubs.

* If he choses to leave/gets sacked/retires from playing etc. this is simply an element of bad luck. No alterations will be made to compensate for this once the game has started.

Which Clubs Are Available?

In selecting 16 clubs I started by including all clubs who had applied for joining the football league during the last three rounds of admittance of new clubs. I also admitted some of the biggest clubs from the Highland League, the South of Scotland League and the East of Scotland League. In addition the re-formed Gretna 2008 and Clydebank were admitted due to special sporting considerations.

RBS Second Division North

Buckie Thistle

Cove Rangers

Deveronvale

Inverurie Loco Works

Keith

RBS Second Division South West

Clydebank

Dalbeattie Star

Gretna 2008

Pollok

Threave Rovers

RBS Second Division South East

Edinburgh City

Linlithgow Rose

Gala Fairydean

Preston Athletic

Spartans

Whitehill Welfare

The Form

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20):

Club:

Club Boost 1:

Club Boost 2:

Preferred Formation:

The (now 14) forum members and their clubs:

Mohammad Zaki - Spartans

Arron Balmer - Inverurie Loco Works

Mike Nevo - Clydebank

Zinedine Zidane - Pollok

David Ginsberg - Cove Rangers

Kris Scott - Preston Athletic

Stefano Salvatori - Linlithgow Rose

Matt Stoff - Whitehill Welfare

Richard Ineson - Gretna 2008

Alex Seddon - Edinburgh City

Reverend Laws - Gala Fairydean

Jake Stothard - Keith

Omar Brown - Buckie Thistle

Preben Elkjaer - Deveronvale

Dalbeattie Star and Threave Rovers will be our control to measure our success against.

Bit of a dumb question but do we play the game on your game or do you play it on yours ?? so is it like chairman game in other words

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Arron "The Great" Balmer

Club: Inverurie Loco Works

Club Boost 1: Bank Balance

Club Boost 2: Youth Facilities

Preferred Formation: 4 - 1- 3 -2

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Mohammad 'Ghando' Zaki

Club: Spartans

Club Boost 1: Youth Facilities

Club Boost 2: Youth Recruitment

Preferred Formation: 4 - 4 - 2

Bit of a dumb question but do we play the game on your game or do you play it on yours ?? so is it like chairman game in other words

Not a dumb question at all. I will run the game on my computer and post the results.

Not a dumb question at all. I will run the game on my computer and post the results.

yeah thought as much just making sure. Looks like a cool and different way to do a chairman game

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Mike "The Hammer" Nevo

Club: Clydebank

Club Boost 1: Youth Coaching

Club Boost 2: Youth Recruitment

Preferred Formation: 4 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Zinedine Zidane

Club:Pollok

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Player/Manager - Ryan Giggs haha!

Preferred Formation: 4-5-1

EDITED MY PLAYER/MANAGER FOR THE SECOND TIME. Frank isn't 34

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): David Ginsberg

Club: Cove Rangers

Club Boost 1: Training

Club Boost 2: Reputation

Preferred Formation: 4-4-2 Wide Diamond

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Mohammad 'Ghando' Zaki

Club: Spartans

Club Boost 1: Youth Facilities

Club Boost 2: Youth Recruitment

Preferred Formation: 4 - 2 - 2

I know the scottish lower leagues can be wild, but setting your preffered formation to cope with having 2 men sent off is a touch pessimistic!

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Stefano Salvatori

Club: Linlithgow Rose

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Reputation

Preferred Formation: 4-2-3-1

I know the scottish lower leagues can be wild, but setting your preffered formation to cope with having 2 men sent off is a touch pessimistic!

It's errr, well, it's late out here and I have sand in my eyes...I did mean 4 - 4 - 2 *cough.

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Matt Stoff

Club: Whitehill Welfare

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Reputation

Preferred Formation: 4-2-3-1

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Richard Ineson

Club: Gretna 2008

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: +£750,000

Preferred Formation: 4-3-3

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Alex Seddon

Club: Edinburgh City

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Training

Preferred Formation: 4-1-4-1

Cool. Only one more place left to fill.

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Reverend Laws

Club: Gala Fairydean

Club Boost 1: Ariel Ortega Player-Manager (Should be messy!)

Club Boost 2: Training

Preferred Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond

I really hope this team emerge as a bunch of unlikeable bad boys, in spite of the name. Have no idea as to Ortega's coaching stats.

Crap - just thought - i cant see any screenshots hosted on any sites like photobucket or tinypic - so you may want to give my place to someone else unless you can send the screenshots to me via e-mail with what i need on it.

Will understand if you replace me pal.

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Jake Stothard

Club: Keith

Club Boost 1: Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Player Manager Francesco Totti

Preferred Formation: 4-4-2 flat

The Form

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Omar Brown

Club: Preston Athletic

Club Boost 1:Youth Coaching

Club Boost 2: Youth Facilities

Preferred Formation: 4-4-1

Crap - just thought - i cant see any screenshots hosted on any sites like photobucket or tinypic - so you may want to give my place to someone else unless you can send the screenshots to me via e-mail with what i need on it.

Will understand if you replace me pal.

The Form

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Omar Brown

Club: Preston Athletic

Club Boost 1:Youth Coaching

Club Boost 2: Youth Facilities

Preferred Formation: 4-4-1

As you have already signed up I will add you and extend the number of chairmen. However Preston are already taken so if you can nominate a different club that would be great. Your choice is limited to Buckie Thistle, Dalbeattie Star or Threave Rovers I'm afraid. Also I assume your formation is supposed to be 4-4-1-1?

Anyway no more sign-ups now please.

I will be the final chairman and base myself at Deveronvale.

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Preben Elkjaer

Club: Deveronvale

Club Boost 1: Danny Murphy (Player Manager)

Club Boost 2:Youth Coaching

Preferred Formation:3-4-3

The Form

Chairman Name (loyalty and patience set to 20): Omar Brown

Club: Buckie Thistle

Club Boost 1:Youth Recruitment

Club Boost 2: Youth coaching

Preferred Formation: 4-4-1

I made some changes to the club boost

Cool. I have noted your changed boosts.

Next step for me is to finish some editing and do a test run to find any quirks. I will ad the game thread tomorrow night or possibly Tuesday.

Can i change Reputation to Youth Facilities please?

Right. All of the edits have been done including your change David. I will run one more test with the edited file and then we are off.

Thank you very much for accepting the change, can't wait to see this start.

Is this going ahead?

Yes. I had a weird problem where the game crashed if I tried to alter the custom database options during the set up. The game started fine withput me trying to change the database size but obviously this made me worry about the stability of the game. In the end I had to do more tests for my own peace of mind.

The current situation is that the game is fine and I have holidayed to the end of the first season in the real file. Expect the new thread and the first season write up sometime this weekend. Sorry for the delay.