Removal of B Teams/II Teams - FM22

[si223]

Football Manager 2022 - Removal of B Teams/II Teams

Hello all,

Just to advise that after a year off I will be recreating the databases without B/II teams using the same method as in Football Manager 2020. I was unsure whether the same method would work, but after some testing it appears to be broadly the same, although some additional re-population of unavailable in-game leagues is required. For Football Manager 2020 testing, please see 

 

For my first test in Football Manager 2022 I chose Germany: Bundesliga, Bundesliga.2 & Liga.3

As before I chose a team from the German Lower leagues, in this instance SVA Bad Hersfeld, and allocated them as the II team for SG Barockstadt Fulda-Lehnerz (This is always an important first step as the first club you choose will actually use their new II team.) I wanted to choose a team that I would have no interest in generally to have a II team, hence this choice; However, in order to make this work I had to move SG Barockstadt Fulda-Lehnerz in to the 3.Liga; Conveniently I had to get rid of two pre-existing II teams (Dortmund II and another) from the 3.Liga, so this was an easy replacement to make, along with one other randomly chosen team from the German Lower leagues.

As before I then moved the players from every II team in Germany to their parent club, removed their affiliation status, and replaced them with SVA Bad Hersfeld as their allocated II club. 

In order to prevent these (now independent) II clubs from rising up the ranks and pissing me off by their presence, I then needed to make every II club in Germany extinct. I did that, however it also required me to re-populate the Regionalliga Nord with 2 teams from the German Lower Leagues, the Regionalliga Sudwest with 1 team from the German Lower leagues, the Regionalliga West with 2 teams from the German Lower leagues, the Regionalliga Bayern with 1 team from the German lower leagues, and the U19 Div.2 North - Grp N with 1 German U19 team who were not already plying their trade in an U19 league (without these re-populations the German leagues would not load in-game)

I have now tested the Bundesliga, Bundesliga.2 and Liga.3 for 3.5 in-game years, and can confirm that no clubs in the original roster of these leagues had a II team, nor has created a new one (as is the problem if you simply delete the II teams without the above steps).

The only potential issue is from teams that are promoted to the 3. Liga from unplayable divisions; I have removed all of their II teams present in the editor files, however, it may well be possible that they will create new II teams as time goes on. In my test, however, this hasn't occurred.

 

 

 

 

 

As before, the newly selected II team will not show up on the affiliation screen as a II club, but instead as being "a mutually beneficial relationship". This is the case for all teams, including the initial choice who will use them as a II team regardless. As before, 1 club is required to have a II team for this to work. 

 

I will continue to test the other leagues, but i see no reason why this solution will not be successful.Germany Try No.5.fmf  

 

Even when Barockstadt are inevitably relegated from Liga. 3, they will never come in to contact with their allocated II team from the German Lower Leagues, so this should be a permanent solution.

Edited November 19, 2021 by si223

[si223]

I have now completed changes & testing for the removal of all B/C/II/2/Stand-alone Reserve, U23 & U21 teams in the leagues that I load: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy. Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland & Ukraine. All have been tested for 3.5 in-game years and the method has been successful in preventing these secondary teams initially appearing, or being re-created by their parent clubs, in-game. Players will therefore not "move freely" between clubs and have their histories look like sh*t (in my opinion)

As always, 1 club per nation, typically a lower reputation 2nd/3rd division club as is my preference, is required to still have a 2nd team for this method to work.

Some notes:

It is possible that some clubs who are promoted from unplayable divisions will still have their 2nd teams, but this hasn't occurred in any of my tests. For the majority of nations I have also removed secondary teams from one division below the playable level so this is less likely.

I have moved the rosters of the secondary clubs to their original employer.

Some nations which had B teams in previous years i.e Turkey/Slovenia appear not to; Unsure, but after a few years in game testing none were created. If I'm wrong I will amend and update.

Austria; Kept a couple of the II clubs simply as they have a different & unique name i.e. Liefering & Violets, which doesn't bother my OCD. I have, however, severed their links and they are now independent clubs.

Spain: I have only removed all B/C clubs from the 1st,2nd & 3rd tiers; The 4th tier, Segundo Divison RFEF Grupo I-V still have their 2nd teams.

Here is the database file if this is of interest to anyone besides me  If anyone finds any issues, please let me know.

 

 

II Team v.4.fmf

Edited November 21, 2021 by si223

[J-Hood]

great effort on your work, its always difficult doing things in the editor and then testing it. just out of curiosity apart from the aesthetics of playing history does this file change anything apart how the game is played. 

[si223]

2 hours ago, J-Hood said:

great effort on your work, its always difficult doing things in the editor and then testing it. just out of curiosity apart from the aesthetics of playing history does this file change anything apart how the game is played. 

 

Yes and no.

The lack of B teams in general will mean that players who are not playing in their first teams will not get the game experience of playing in said B teams; However I'm not sure how much of an impact this has or whether it is any different from Reserve/U18 teams which are not differentiated from their club.

The increased roster of some clubs will lead to either a flurry of transfer activity getting rid of some players, or those players stagnating if they can't get a game; In my experience it would be the latter as clubs tend to just let players stagnate.

Some playable leagues which have B clubs in them e.g. Liga 3 in Germany etc, have had those clubs removed and replaced. 

 

For my own personal database I will resolve the stagnation issue also, but that will require a lot of changes which will significantly change things and it wouldn't be to many peoples liking. If I'm completely honest I will most likely change every players history in the leagues I mentioned to suit my aesthetic taste....my OCD is a bit much!

I simply know the B teams p*ss others off as well as me, so I thought I'd do that first.

Edited November 24, 2021 by si223

[rusty217]

I've been doing this for myself too. I think there's an easier method though. Just deleting all B, II etc. clubs and then going into the advanced nation rules > reserve rules and unticking the type of B club box has so far prevented any new ones from being created. Seems quicker than having to edit affiliates and set a dummy B club for every team. After that it's just a case of deleting all the existing ones and replacing them with lower division teams in any playable leagues.

Here's my Germany file if you're interested. I went down to the 4th (maybe 5th?) tier and deleted/replaced all B clubs. Also expanded the top 2 leagues to 20 teams. But the main thing was B team elimination!

The Netherlands were even easier. You don't even need to delete their Jong teams, you can just edit them into the Dutch reserve leagues instead, after that they function as regular reserve teams. Here's my Dutch file too.

The only issue I've had so far has been Switzerland. Specifically the Liechtenstein teams. Delete their B clubs and there won't be enough teams to run the Liechtensteiner Cup, but since the cup isn't Swiss you also can't edit it too reduce the number of teams it requires. The Swiss teams can be fixed the same was as Germany though.

Germany.fmf Netherlands.fmf

[si223]

That does seem like a quicker solution; For my own method I simply discovered it by endless trial and error having not found any other way to manage it online. For years i saw a lot of people asking how to do it and no answers.

Can I ask; are the club rosters from the B teams transferred to their primary clubs with your method, or do they become unattached players?

For my part, I don't think I'll play the game for another couple of weeks. I've just edited every player history in Austria (player histories) to look good rather than be realistic, and I have all the other leagues left to do haha

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by si223

[rusty217]

13 hours ago, si223 said:

That does seem like a quicker solution; For my own method I simply discovered it by endless trial and error having not found any other way to manage it online. For years i saw a lot of people asking how to do it and no answers.

Can I ask; are the club rosters from the B teams transferred to their primary clubs with your method, or do they become unattached players?

For my part, I don't think I'll play the game for another couple of weeks. I've just edited every player history in Austria (player histories) to look good rather than be realistic, and I have all the other leagues left to do haha

I'm pretty sure it will make them all unattached players. Haven't started playing yet, still got a lot of leagues left to do too, so I'm not 100% sure though. I transferred over the players for some teams (just select all in the B team and change contract to the main club, pretty easy), but it would've been too time consuming to do them all so after that I just stopped caring about it. Those that are transferred to youth leagues (eg. Dutch B teams) will all transfer to the main club at least though.

[Legofingerz]

Wow! following this with great interest. Would love to have a clean way of removing B/II teams and replacing them with reserve teams or U21s

@KUBI Hi, are you able to offer any advice on removing the B/II teams cleanly from the game? 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Legofingerz

[si223]

21 hours ago, Legofingerz said:

Wow! following this with great interest. Would love to have a clean way of removing B/II teams and replacing them with reserve teams or U21s

@KUBI Hi, are you able to offer any advice on removing the B/II teams cleanly from the game? 

 

The file attached a few posts above has the removal of the B/II teams with no other changes.

[scythian12]

Just a question of curiosity: why do second teams bother you?

[si223]

2 hours ago, scythian12 said:

Just a question of curiosity: why do second teams bother you?

In short; I'm a tad OCD and I like things to be neat, tidy and orderly. I don't want to see a first team player with duplicate seasons in his playing career for no good reason other than he played once for the B team every year; This would **** me off and ruin my enjoyment of the game.

[OkkeD]

@si223 where do i drop the .fmf files? now i guess in the       program files(x86)/ steam/ steamapps/ common/ Football Manager 22/ data           and then... or is that good?

 

edit: i got it, it needs to go in editor data in the sports interactive file if someone is wondering

Edited December 23, 2021 by OkkeD

[Ankzo]

Le 05/12/2021 à 23:04, si223 a dit :

In short; I'm a tad OCD and I like things to be neat, tidy and orderly. I don't want to see a first team player with duplicate seasons in his playing career for no good reason other than he played once for the B team every year; This would **** me off and ruin my enjoyment of the game.

like me !

By the way I read your topic on the subject for fm 20 and I completely found myself, who tried and failed. So you are my hero
Now like you I only have to make the history of the players.

Thank you so much. Now i can play again :)

[Arnoldfredriksen]

Hi All, has anyone tried removing B/2nd teams from FM23, does it work the same as in FM22 ?

[Motobaka]

Is there an easy way to filter all the B teams?

I’m trying to get rid of them in the Mexican league.

What I’m doing is basically just going through every team and looking at their current affiliations.

If they have a B team, I erase it if it’s not extinct.

Later I’ll try the advanced rules and tick the option to not allow B teams.

[rusty217]

2 hours ago, Motobaka said:

Is there an easy way to filter all the B teams?

I’m trying to get rid of them in the Mexican league.

What I’m doing is basically just going through every team and looking at their current affiliations.

If they have a B team, I erase it if it’s not extinct.

Later I’ll try the advanced rules and tick the option to not allow B teams.

If they're actually treated as separate teams, as they are in Mexico, then yes. On your club search add a condition for Has Affiliated Club Contains B Club. Like this:

It'll show you both the senior club and the B club so you will have to pick out only the B clubs rather than just deleting all though. Once you've removed clubs you can click Apply again to get it to refresh the list which will also remove any senior clubs that no longer have B clubs. Once it says 0 records found, your job is done (unless there are B clubs that exist via other methods).

 

 

[Motobaka]

hace 59 minutos, rusty217 dijo:

If they're actually treated as separate teams, as they are in Mexico, then yes. On your club search add a condition for Has Affiliated Club Contains B Club. Like this:

It'll show you both the senior club and the B club so you will have to pick out only the B clubs rather than just deleting all though. Once you've removed clubs you can click Apply again to get it to refresh the list which will also remove any senior clubs that no longer have B clubs. Once it says 0 records found, your job is done (unless there are B clubs that exist via other methods).

 

 

Thanks a lot! Will do.

[patb]

On 30/11/2021 at 01:56, si223 said:

 

The file attached a few posts above has the removal of the B/II teams with no other changes.

any updated version for FM23?

[Haywire]

Lookin for fm 23 version.

[Ankzo]

You can import data FM22 to FM23 and i hope to FM24 but you need too adjust the relegation team and the promotion, i don't know what will happen to the players.

Me I'm going to do it again for FM 24, but it will take me a little time. Of course I'll share it.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Ankzo