Your least favourite league

[heracles]

I dont think SI should chunk any of the leagues. I'm sure Indonesians or anyone for that matter playing this game will try managing a team in their national league, even if the standard truly sucks. If i'm not wrong, the standard of the Singaporean and Indonesian league are around that of the Blue Square Premier or Coca-Cola League 2. I wouldnt suggest having those removed as well.

[Stormz30000]

MLS. STUPID rules and restictions.

[StormGathering]

I agree re: the MLS. Salary caps/etc are no fun... my preferred strategy of signing good players at the expense of the club's budget doesn't work well there.

Btw, since we're on the subject of the Indonesian league, is its second division the lowest-quality available league? I'm looking for the absolute rock-bottom playable league for my next attempt at management. Thanks.

[YOUNGSTEVE]

I agree re: the MLS. Salary caps/etc are no fun... my preferred strategy of signing good players at the expense of the club's budget doesn't work well there.

Btw, since we're on the subject of the Indonesian league, is its second division the lowest-quality available league? I'm looking for the absolute rock-bottom playable league for my next attempt at management. Thanks.

The NI 2nd division is extremely low quality.

[mundane sphere]

MLS isn't too bad, I started a game with Chicago Fire where I spent a little short of four years before signing for QPR. Once you familiarise yourself with the rules such as trade allocations and drafts, it is possible to build a pretty decent squad without spending a lot of money. Given the relatively low reputation of the MLS, you will end up signing most of your foreign players from Africa, the Americas, and weaker nations in Europe, so thorough scouting is needed to unearth hidden gems for cheap, which is something I enjoy. Sometimes you can sign for free good domestic players who have been "waived" by their teams because they needed to open a slot for an incoming player. During my MLS career, David Beckham was waived by LA Galaxy when he was about 34, whom I snapped up promptly thinking that I could perhaps boost my merchandise sales.

Having said that, there are flaws that might ruin your enjoyment in a long career game in the MLS. The biggest flaw is the lack of quality on the part of drafted players. Even though I know that the CPUs have to settle for as low quality drafts as I am forced to sign, I would appreciate it much more if at least the top five to ten picks were good enough to make it to the MLS. At the moment, the vast majority of drafted players are so poor that they would struggle to shine even in the USL.

Another problem is the fairly limited amount of fresh competition once you have built a squad that is heads and shoulders above the others. There are only 13 teams in the MLS on FM08, but you still play 30 matches a season. On top of that there is no relegation/promotion so you are playing against exactly the same set of oppositions every year.. even up to three times against some teams in one season. However, if you are highly successful (win the MLS and have the most points in the regular season) you can play in up to four international competitions in a season (the SuperLiga, the CONCACAF Champions League, La Copa Sudamericana if you win the SuperLiga and the Club World Cup if you win the CL). Ironically, in the MLS, the lack of fresh domestic competition actually encourages you to be more successful in pursuit of more international competition.

In summary, the MLS might not be an ideal choice for a long career game, but it still offers you a very unique experience in terms of transfer policies, league structure and competition structure. If you are looking to start a short-term game with a very different league setup from that of a major European league, I could still recommend the MLS.