[England] (Official) League Specific Issues

[South-Side]

I have a question regarding transfers after Brexit, at the end of first season

I'm trying to transfer Florin Andone from Brighton to my team. As I see on the screen below he has a set status until 2023

Then when I'm about to confirm his transfer, work permit rejected

Why does he need a work permit if he is not a foreign player until 31/12/2023 ??? Why does it get rejected, it makes no sense...

Can someone explain?

 

[harris-aslam]

Hi, 

I am managing Wigan in the Sky Bet Championship in my second season. I am just intrigued as to why although Laird and Mengi are both u20 before 1st January 2021, being 19 at present in Jul 2021, they are not regarded as u21 players? Is it because they are on loan or is this a bug? 

Kind regards, 

Haris

 

EDIT - Never mind - checked the rules! it does exclude loans; thank you!

Edited February 21, 2021 by harris-aslam

[cdleedsfan]

Sorry, not sure if this is the right place or not. Also this is very trivial but in the Premier League "Predicted to finish" both Leeds United and Southampton are predicted to finish 10th with nobody predicted to finish 15th. (Post Winter Update)

[AM99]

Premier League fixtures - there seems to be an awful lot of consecutive home/away league games. In this example Man United have loads of periods where there are 2 home games in a row, followed by two away, with a big blob of 4 home games in a row in April.

Not got a screenshot on hand but the December/January period seems off too, with very few games in December especially around the Christmas period and then an absolutely stacked schedule in January too.

Edited March 6, 2021 by AM99

[BenMcCluskey]

Summary: Player sent off in last Premier League game is not suspended for next match

Description of Issue: I started a Liverpool save after the latest update, Andy Robertson was sent off for a second yellow card in my game against Southampton but he isn't suspended for my next game against Tottenham. On the player profile page it doesn't show that he has any bans due, the two yellow cards are showing but it's as if they were from two separate games (it says he needs three more for a one match ban even though he was sent off).

Steps to Reproduce: Check the save game file, you will see Robertson was sent off in the last game but isn't suspended. I did give him a one week rest as he was jaded and I figured it made sense to rest him if he wasn't going to play, not sure if that caused the bug.

Files Uploaded to the OwnCloud: "Ben McCluskey - Liverpool.fm"

[simsy91]

Summary: Fixture Congestion in the Championship

 

I'm currently playing in the Championship in season 2025-2026. Around the Christmas period the scheduling has got a bit nuts- a full league programme for all 24 teams on December 28th, then the following day too (29th). This only affects the Championship, and not League One and Two. Looking back in the game this hasn't happened in any previous years. A very strange bug, but at least it affects all teams equally! (Time for a bit of rotation I think). 

 

See screenshots below for more info. Filename for upload: David Sims - Southend.fm

 

[LuCki_BOii]

The league is not competitive in my save. Man Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool are finishing as Top 4 all the time(10+ years since the start) and Arsenal, Tottenham on 5th and 6th place most of the time. I'm only having this issue in this league. There is no competition like in real life or atleast like on previous Football manager games.

 

Files Uploaded to the OwnCloud named "Issac Jeremias - RB Leipzig.fm"

[Crispypaul]

I can upload a save if required - but in the Premier League I've gone up to a category 1 academy before the season reset but our U23 team are not in any of the available reserve leagues.  Is this correct or a bug?

[Wass]

In my Kidderminster Career save, I have just noticed two matches being played on consecutive days in the Championship.  I appreciate it is in the Christmas window where fixtures are always congested, but 3 games in 4 days is going to detrimentally affect my small Kidderminster squad.  The main problem is i'm in 7th place, level with 6th place in the playoffs, so these fixtures could prove crucial in the long run.

Friday 26/12/25 Home vs Huddersfield

Sunday 28/12/25 Away vs Cardiff

Monday 29/12/25 Home vs Sunderland

[Fidney]

This is a weird one, and as about inconsequential as you can get.

New game after the 21.4 update and I bagged the Bournemouth job just as first season ended.

Going through the close season and asked if I want to enter my U21 and U18 teams in leagues for the following season and I answer yes. My U18 team gets entered into the Premier League U18 Professional Development League Group South (I use an LNC file to rename the leagues) along with a very unexpected side - AFC Sudbury U18s

 

I confess that I do use a few editor files, but these are from an established and reputable source which "fix" kit colours down to level 8 and others which apply "licences fixes". None of the latter go down to the level of AFC Sudbury (and I have opened each in the editor to check whether any of them change any thing to do with AFC Sudbury - they don't).

The editor file to fix kit colours does have 47 changes for AFC Sudbury, but all of these are changing the kits or the colours - again I checked in the editor to make sure no other values had been changed.

Is this a known "issue" or has anyone experienced similar?

Savegame Fidney.fm has been uploaded

Edited April 5, 2021 by Fidney

[Manager25]

I am not sure if this should be in this section,but the efl youth alliance(category 3 u18 league) is apparently having a rule change for next season of allowing the u19s in the match but i am not sure if this just only 3 u19 players or similar to the u23 where it is 3 u19 outfield players and an u19 goalkeeper i am only thinking the latter option as i believe rumours are saying preston are keeping 3 outfield players and a goalkeeper on as u19 players(1st year pros)                                            https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/preston-north-end-contracts-academy-20306180.amp

Also something to look out for although not 100% confirmed but apparently Luton town, Peterborough united, fleetwood town and Bournemouth are trying to move up to category 2

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/peterborough-united-submits-plans-training-19768285.amp&ved=2ahUKEwjF0puUwOrvAhXhhv0HHeh9DqIQFjACegQIGRAC&usg=AOvVaw0Wp0wd3YiVsXOtiiG0XO1p&ampcf=1

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/sport/football/luton-town/category-two-status-prime-ambition-luton-towns-academy-chief-3085622%3Famp&ved=2ahUKEwj0p8KswOrvAhXJg_0HHSpQAOkQFjABegQIDRAC&usg=AOvVaw10OAyHyLG29R7Hn9CrQ1o4&ampcf=1

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.fleetwoodtownfc.com/news/2020/july/huge-investment-in-academy-upgrade-and-poolfoot-dome/&ved=2ahUKEwim-OO6wOrvAhXzhv0HHciwD2QQFjABegQIChAC&usg=AOvVaw1tZH3QcrYO-m9WcAxhaUR9

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://trainingground.guru/articles/six-clubs-bidding-for-academy-promotion-await-fate&ved=2ahUKEwjv4Z-pwOrvAhVehP0HHanmCegQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw0M_tC1CXBV8D72zIa-xDLG&cshid=1617742713795

[simsy91]

I'm in the 2031/32 season with Southend United in the Premier League.

Just looking at my fixtures I have five home matches in a row! Throughout late January and all of February.

One of these games was a reschedule due to an FA Cup replay, but other than that the others must've been in place from the get go (they are all standard Saturday matches). I don't have a save from earlier in the season I'm afraid, just the recent backups. But surely no team would have more than two in a row home or away?

[BenMcCluskey]

On 24/03/2021 at 12:51, Wass said:

In my Kidderminster Career save, I have just noticed two matches being played on consecutive days in the Championship.  I appreciate it is in the Christmas window where fixtures are always congested, but 3 games in 4 days is going to detrimentally affect my small Kidderminster squad.  The main problem is i'm in 7th place, level with 6th place in the playoffs, so these fixtures could prove crucial in the long run.

Friday 26/12/25 Home vs Huddersfield

Sunday 28/12/25 Away vs Cardiff

Monday 29/12/25 Home vs Sunderland

I have the same problem - it seems to be something to do with the Championship scheduling for the 2025/26 season. All the Championship teams are expected to play three games in four days.

I've uploaded a save file, the file is called "Ben McCluskey - Kidderminster"

 

[metal_guitarist]

Scholarship contracts should be able to last for 3 years, not 2. It's becoming more common for some clubs to offer a 3rd year of scholarship rather than a professional contract after 2 years. Example here with Burnley:

New Deals For Under-23s | Burnley Football Club

2 years should be the default contract offer when a player joins the youth team with the option to extend for a 3rd year when the player is in the last year of his scholarship. 

[EnviableOne]

ok so something went wrong in 2021/22 as once the championship playoff final finished, both teams were marked as promoted, and even though i won the league, when the next season was set-up, the three that got pro,moted were 2nd and the two playoff winners, even though between the win and re-fresh, the team was treated as being Premier league.

uploaded as Playoff-Promotion

Edited June 8, 2021 by EnviableOne

[ferociousblazze]

In my game City failed the premier league ffp but after the next season started they did not start the year with -5 points as the rules state.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Is the point deduction supposed to be applied at the end of the season or is this a bug in my save game?

[ngendur]

i dont know if this is bug or not Arsenal finish 4th and only qualified to Europa League, Bolton managed to finish 5th and qualified to Uefa Conference while Southampton finish 6th get to Europa League. 

 

 

[bradconway]

FFP issue in League 1

I understand the league 1 (England) FFP rules mean that a team can only spend 60% of turnover on player wages. My limit for spending is set at £46k per week, which is £2,392,000. My projected revenue for the season in the finance tab is £8.92M and last seasons turnover was £5,919,535. If we were using last years turnover I should be able to spend £68k a week.

I am in July (so the season hasn't started) will the FFP sort itself out or is this a bug? Surely it would use last years turnover or the anticipated turnover as the basis for calculation? 

 

I have now been put under an embargo so would appreciate someone looking into this

[bradconway]

Still no response on the FFP issue.....

Also seem to have a bug with the ban. Can anyone make sense of the attached screenshot? Note: my next game is an FA cup game and it's the 3rd of November in game, yet states the ban will start on the 28th December, yet the ipswich game it says the bans start from is in 10 days

Edited August 19, 2021 by bradconway

[thamer_dk1]

The number of substitute in English primer league gets reverts to 7 in the 2nd year in career mode. the 9 substitute rule have continued in the fallowing season 

[Crispypaul]

Going to bump this ahead of FM2022 - but the EFL Central League was missing from FM2021 due to covid it appears  however its definitely back for the 2021/22 season (for example here's the fixture list: https://uk.soccerway.com/national/england/central-league/20202021/south/r58111/)

I ask because if you start off with a non league side in FM21 your U23 team will never play regular games even in the Premier League, however at least with the Central League being available there will be some form of pathway for your U23 side as it appears the PDL and Premier League 2 were not accessible regardless of your academy level

[Sir Harold Caine]

I am playing in Serie A at the moment but I notice that all the English leagues are still stuck in the last season, even though all other leagues around the world has restarted. In the Premier League, Eveton and Norwich have not played their reverse fixture, therefore both having only 37 games played. Why does this happen and any way to fix this?