Leageus with consistent challengers / Long term save

[Lucozade1]

Really didn't know what to pick for a title.

With FM23 around the corner, I want to do something different, but I want to stay at one club. I want to start in the lowest division of said league and see how far I can take them.

England seems like the obvious choice as the league goes the deepest, but in the past, I always found that there is too much money in the league and you end up being a financial monster. (That being said, I did skip FM this year, but did notice the prize money is a lot less, so maybe things have changed?)

After that, we have Spain and Italy with a handful of good sides in each league, with a lot less revenue, and Barca and Real always tend to keep strong squads.

I like the idea of Portugal. 3 top teams to compete against, but I just worry that once you get a foothold in that league, you'll be playing 7 or 8 important games a season, all in Europe, as the league becomes a formality. I just cant see the likes of Porto, Benfica and Sporting keeping up beyond a certain point.

I'd love to go somewhere random like Croatia, but I think that'd be even worse than Portugal once you make your mark on the league.

 

TL;DR 

What is a strong league that will always have top competition, but doesn't have lots of money, eg the prem, were bottom half sides are richer than most in other countries

[Vänsterback]

If you feel that the big 5 leagues are too rich and Portugal too little of a challenge once you get a foothold there I'd say that no league would suit you. Because outside the big 5 no league have top teams like Portugal.

Maybe Belgium can be a bit challenging even in the long term due to its championship play-off format but I haven't tried that myself yet.

Otherwise I always would recommend Sweden due to its four playable levels and several title contenders in the top league. But as you mentioned, such a league will become a formality once you get good enough to compete in the Champions League.

[Lucozade1]

To be honest, I think it's going to be between England and Spain.

Spain seems to have no prize money, but two powerhouse clubs and then Atletico

Vs

England who has decent prize money, so richer throughout the league, but also a strong 6 or so teams with money to maintain their quality, which could keep me out of Champions league football for a few years.

I think long term, prem is the better option, with stronger and richer clubs, but short term, I think Spain with less financials means getting to the top is delayed a little bit more

[Vänsterback]

Wow, really going crazy adventuring in obscure leagues then?

[Lucozade1]

Haha, I'd love to manage somewhere like Romania or Wales, that is what I really want.

But long term, I just worry that once the league is won a few times, and europe is a regular thing, you'd just pull so far away from the rest, that the league becomes a pointless part of the game each year. Don't get me wrong, it would be a buzz for the odd european night when you get a victory or two, but having to play 38 games or so a season to just win 36 of them would get a bit draining.

If I could have teams adapt around me and keep up, it'd be great, but being able to make money through scouting and selling players that clubs of similar statue couldn't do, will see them fall way behind.

FM23 is still a month or so away though, so maybe I will go into obscurity 

[Alejandro_FM]

For similar reasons, I'd also say England or Spain give you the best shot... 

Completely based on my personal experience, to have a challenge once you've made it to the top a few years in, you kind of need 2 things: (1) The top 2-3 teams have to stay strong and continue to invest and compete for the top talent and (2) other teams in the league need to be play competitively with you and "steal" points. 

The second condition is what rules out France, as I've found in long term saves that as good as PSG were, I was not dropping points against the rest of the league and was creating a nice cushion at the top of the table regardless of my matches with PSG. 

In Spain - you might still drop the occasional point to Sociedad on the road, or a random home loss to Valencia, and Real + Barca will be there to capitalize... In my most recent season (2036), I just came second with 98 points to Real with 101. 

[Exi]

Because the player tends to get way stronger than the AI because of poor AI descisions, I think you could look at leagues that have rules that limit you somewhat so you have a bit more competition for a longer time.

Not sure what league to choose. I only know that Sweden limits you somewhat by requiring you to play more Swedish players. But there should be even harder leagues, if that's your thing. Or Impose rules of your own.

Edited September 22, 2022 by Exi

[herne79]

There’s a whole world beyond Europe.  Head to Brazil .

[Freakiie]

Not sure if SI will give Hertha sugar daddy finances again in FM23, but Germany in FM22 had some decent top tier competition with obviously Bayern being there, Hertha turning into German City and occasionally Dortmund/Leipzig don't suck (although that one can really vary a lot per save). No restrictions whatsoever regarding transfers though, so you can pretty easily spiral out of control with cheap wonderkids in Germany.

Out of the lower leagues, Belgium tends to get a lot of sugar daddies (I think in my current save there's 4 sugar daddy clubs and a very strong Anderlecht), but that's in like 2045, so you'd have to holiday a while to see that build up and money alone doesn't guarantee AI competitiveness in a league like Belgium. The Netherlands has Ajax as a massive financial powerhouse compared to the rest of the league, but PSV/Feyenoord are nowhere near them financially so you can probably snag up second place behind Ajax very quickly and start getting CL money from that. Finally, Ukraine could be interesting, although the top team squads will be absolutely ravaged in FM23. Shaktar tends to massively dominate the league, you barely have any income from the league itself and with the relatively strict foreigner rules you need to keep a solid Ukrainian core, which should make for a decent challenge even long term.

[Lucozade1]

I actually went through all the leagues to see what rules they had.

The one I like most is mandatory buyout clauses. Now in Europe there is only Spain that I could see that do this, but I like the Brazilian model better. Your buyout can only be a max of the player wage x 4 or something.

I tried putting mandatory release clauses in as a rule at Croatia once, but literally every player had a £0 release clause, so that didn't work haha

Ukraine is also a good shout. I did look at them and their rules about having to play 4 Ukranians in the starting squad, but I'll have to see what the league actually looks like when it's released

Edited September 22, 2022 by Lucozade1