Need help forcing low-level divisions to play on international fixture dates

I'm setting up a Canada portion of a US-Canada edit, using the advanced panel (doing the Canadian part first because it's easier ) - amazingly, everything seems to be working properly on the first try, except FM is ignoring all the scheduling directives I set up. I've specified 30 fixture dates for the competition (every Saturday from 2 May 2009 to 31 October 2009 - inclusive - plus three Wednesdays), set the league schedule to run 2 May 2009 to 31 October 2009, have jacked the fixture priority to 'International', and have tried setting Check for Clashes to 'none' and 'domestic comps only' and even leaving the box unticked.

But, every time I set it up in FM, the start and end dates are still the same (though actually it skipped May 2nd once or twice out of my dozen or so tests), but everything else has been ignored, with the schedule placing the three Wednesday dates wherever the hell it feels like (usually two in May and another in June), and the actual matches set for the clubs throw THAT out the window to skip every international date in the book, including skipping three weeks in June for the Confederations Cup and another three weeks in July for the Gold Cup.

Now, the league in question is a U23 league for developing players, the fourth level of my US-Canada setup (it happens to be my top league in Canada - my 14 higher-level Canadian clubs compete in leagues based in America), so there is almost no chance that any of them will ever have a senior-level international player on their rosters. Therefore, I don't want this league skipping international dates. Heck, the schedule will be congested enough once I add the Canadian main cup.

So, I need a little assistance. Any that anyone out there can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Change the fixture priority to "Domestic League - Low". This will then set fixtures on the same days as internationals, and only reschedule if there are lots of players called up.

Change the fixture priority to "Domestic League - Low". This will then set fixtures on the same days as internationals, and only reschedule if there are lots of players called up.

I think that's the setting I started out with - and I'd left my fifth-tier league (second-tier in Canada) set to that without success. I still get 17 days off in June 2009 (for the 2009 Confederations Cup) and 20 days off in July 2009 (for the Gold Cup).

I tried it out again - no dice. I even tried setting the priority to "Friendly" - and it still skipped the international dates. All it seems to get me is FM scheduling league games on back-to-back days: 30 June and 1 July.

You could try to set (or change) the specific dates in the xml file directly by using notepad.

You could try to set (or change) the specific dates in the xml file directly by using notepad.

I've checked the .xml file in Wordpad - the dates are all there. I don't know enough about it to know if moving them around inside the file would make a difference, but if they're there to begin with, I don't see why FM isn't using them.

I'm starting to think that the United States might be hardcoded to obey international dates - I've run a four-season sim with the US and three other nations that run on the February-November (or similar) schedule - Brazil, Russia, and Norway. All the divisions in Brazil ignore international dates and play right through tournaments - including the 2014 World Cup IN Brazil, Norway's Premier Division does not play on international dates, but all the divisions below it do, and the two playable Russian divisions both observe international dates. In the US, FM has MLS never playing on an international date, skipping every relevant tournament - Gold Cup, Confederations Cup and World Cup - which is crazy, because in its history, MLS has always played regular-season games on international dates and during international tournaments. There are two match days scheduled during this year's World Cup - one during the break after the group stages and one during the break before the final - and this year will be the closest MLS has ever come to fully skipping the dates during any international tournament.

So I would be very interested to hear if anyone has successfully set up a league in the US (or Canada, Mexico, or any other CONCACAF nation) that FM will allow to play on international dates.