[FM 23] - CONCACAF Expanded Universe - US 10 Tier, Canada 4 Tier, and CONCACAF Continental Competitions

[nielsoncp]

**Edit: March 10th - We figured out the issue with tournaments! Thanks to Digi and Omarsorto over on the SI board for the help sorting it out. So, I am proud to present the FM 23.3 version of the CONCACAF Extended Universe**

About a decade ago, the user Raysox created a three tier US pyramid complete with crests and kits for 72 teams. He released  an FM mod for the set, which is how I got into the game, and ever since I've updated and expanded it for new versions. It's grown a bit from his original vision (now ten tiers and 384 teams in the US and four tiers and 80 teams in Canada), but explores what it would look like if the US and Canada had functional soccer pyramids, as well as a world where CONCACAF has continental club competitions that are a notch below UEFA's. 

This first post will cover the US and Canadian competitions. For both, I created a basic and advanced version. The basic files don't have a lot of the immersive features (cup draws, FFP, deadline day experience, or VAR), so if you don't want those features, use those files. The advanced ones have some more editor magic (the above, plus U21 and HG U23 players are always eligible, schedules are more balanced, etc.) So, you can pick your preferred game experience. 

USA - 10 Tiers

- The US has four professional leagues (Apple+ MLS, Prime Championship, Peacock League One, and Paramount+ League Two), three semipro leagues (reconstituted USL Championship, 1, and 2), and three amateur leagues (NISA, UPSL, and NPSL.) The lower five leagues are split into regional divisions, while the top five are national in nature. There is a good amount of TV money throughout the Pyramid and is on a winter schedule, beginning in August and running through May. 

- There is one national Cup, three cups based on league type (named for major figures in US Soccer history), and twelve regional cups that take place in the winter months. 

- All teams in USL1 and above have reserve teams, and all teams have a U19 squad. The teams are split into regional youth and reserve competitions. 

(3/10)- Advanced File has FFP regulations, Immersive deadline days and cup draws, VAR, Schedule adjustments to address congestion (especially for the first year, thanks winter world cup), and other fun features around revenue splits and cup dates.  

(3/20) - It appears that there is a bug that causes lower level saves (level 3 and below) to Crash to Desktop on August 22nd if you use the advanced version. It doesn't happen with the basic database, so if you want to start a save in the lower leagues, you should use that version. 

(4/15) - The Files are now updated for 22.4.

 

The USA kit and logo files can be found at this link

Canada - 4 Tiers

- The Canadian Set-up has two professional leagues (The CPL and the Canadian Soccer League), one semi-pro league (CSL 2nd Division), and one amateur league (CSL 3rd Division.) The lower two levels are split into regional divisions. There is also TV money, but not nearly as much as the US. The season runs from April to October. 

- There is one national cup and four regional preseason cups.  

- All teams in the top two tiers have a reserve and a U18 team, split up according to the preseason cups. 

(3/10)- Advanced File has FFP regulations, Immersive deadline days and cup draws, VAR, Schedule adjustments to address congestion, and other fun features around revenue splits.  

The Canadian kit and logo files can be found at this link

Both of the graphics files have the kitbasher files for the teams and sponsors in each country, so you can easily update the kits as you advance through the save.

 

 

 

Canada - 4 Tiers - CEUD.fmf Canada - 4 Tiers - CEUD - Advanced Mode.fmf

USA - 10 Tiers - CEUD - Advanced Mode.fmf USA - 10 Tiers - CEUD - Basic Mode.fmf

Edited June 8, 2023 by nielsoncp
Updated for V 22.4 with fully operational files- and the Messi transfer in July 2023.

[nielsoncp]

CONCACAF CLUB COMPETITIONS

The other fun part of this mod (for me at least) is imagining what it would look like if CONCACAF had a developed continental competition. The Competition file has five competitions:

• Concacaf Champions League
• Concacaf Gold Club Cup (equivalent of Europa League)
• Concacaf Silver Club Cup (equivalent of Europa Conference League)
• Central American Championship
• Caribbean Cup

 

The top 3 competitions are 32 team, 8 group competitions in the fall with a four round knockout tournament in the spring. The money for the competition is about 75% of UEFA's, so particularly for teams in smaller countries entry can be make or break. Like the US and Canadian Files there are advanced and basic versions - the advanced versions have more complicated roster registration rules and participation money. 

 

CONCACAF Continental Competitions - CEUD.fmf CONCACAF Continental Competitions - CEUD - Advanced Mode.fmf

Edited April 15, 2023 by nielsoncp
Finalized Files for V 22.4

[nielsoncp]

ADDITIONAL CONCACAF NATIONS

I think it's kind of fun (and rounds out the world a bit) to have some more CONCACAF countries playable as a part of the tournament. I gave the Mexican competition a lot of TV money (to hopefully help it compete with the US teams a bit more than previous iterations) and activated the top 20 nations in CONCACAF (who all participate in all three competitions.) The competitions are all made in basic mode, so they reflect some of the roster rules and realities of the respective competitions (transfer deadlines, dates of the competition (based on wikipedia), restrictions on the number of foreign players, playoff structure and relegations, etc.) The one big exception is that a lot of the Central American competitions have an opening/closing (apertura/clausura) structure - for those competitions I included a midwinter break to imitate the structure. I also activated (or created) several lower level divisions to create more opportunities for promotion and relegation. 

The 16 countries are Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago. 

 

Trinidad and Tobago - CEUD.fmf Puerto Rico - CEUD.fmf Panama - CEUD.fmf Nicaragua - CEUD.fmf Mexico - CEUD.fmf Martinique - CEUD.fmf Jamaica - CEUD.fmf Honduras - CEUD.fmf Haiti - CEUD.fmf Guatemala - CEUD.fmf El Salvador - CEUD.fmf Dominican Republic - CEUD.fmf Curacao - CEUD.fmf Cuba - CEUD.fmf Costa Rica - CEUD.fmf Belize - CEUD.fmf Barbados - CEUD.fmf Bahamas - CEUD.fmf

Edited April 15, 2023 by nielsoncp
Added nation files for V 23.4

[nielsoncp]

12/17 - Update #1

- I matched the kits in the editor with the kit colors (not necessarily the designs) in the logo pack. It should work well. This will probably be the last update until we have confirmation that the discipline rules issue has been fixed. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by nielsoncp

[kieko1986]

the kit colours dont match the kits you created

[nielsoncp]

Hi Kieko! If you load all of the kits into your graphics folder they should appear on the team screens and in 3d. I did not go through and change all of the kits in the pre-game editor yet to make them correct, because that's a big undertaking. Eventually it will get done. 

[yoshadii]

Did they fix the issue with the editor, so that the databases can be verified in advanced rules can be added? 

[nielsoncp]

They did! I am working hard at getting the new database set built at the moment - I am hoping to have it out this weekend or early next week. 

[yoshadii]

Thank you 🙏🏾 I was testing this out and it’s excellent. Just waiting patiently on the next update and the competitions. 

[nielsoncp]

We're dropping the WIP everyone!

With the update to 22.3 I was able to make most of the database work as I had hoped (thanks again to Digi and Omarsorto for their help in figuring out the continental piece.) 

.I ran two tests with the files for stability - there were no crashes, one went 20 years and the other 45, so I feel pretty good about the state of the set. Additionally, the kits and logos should be updated for 22.3. If you run across issues with the editor files or kits and logos please let me know and I'll work to address them.

Also, as a heads up, there is one change I still want to make to the club competitions (I want to have losing teams in the group stages qualify for lower competitions), but that is proving more difficult than I thought, so I wanted to share what I have and think represents the whole world. Thanks all!

[Digijustin]

This looks sick. And I just got my US DB working with your NACL file as well. I am really liking what you did here and am going to give it a spin now. Well done

[nielsoncp]

Also, if you are a Steam User, this whole set is available as a collection here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2945218677. 

[Ninja777]

Found your files on another page too - I've tried Martinique untill they get into the french cup 7. round, but there seems to be some sort of error. When I am supposed to pick the team for the match (french cup 7. round) I cannot pick more than 4 players of "non-eu" status. The thing is that in the rules of the french cup, it clearly says that Martinique players are considered "Eu-players". 

Is it that Martinique file which has an error, or something to do with the french cup having an error?

[nielsoncp]

Hi NInja! I was in process of replying elsewhere, but I'll post it here instead.

Thanks for highlighting this. I didn't edit any of the EU/non-EU settings for Martinique, so it should be the default setting. I looked in the France record in the editor file for this database, and Martinique is listed as one of the nations that should be treated as EU. I tried to do a quick change to the France rules so that Martinicans can be included, but it wasn't readily apparent what changes I would need to make. 

My guess is that this is an issue within the game itself - it may be worth putting in a bug report in the France Specific issues thread of the bug forum: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/league-specific-issues/france-official-league-specific-issues/. 

[nielsoncp]

A quick note - it looks like there is a bug that causes lower level (Peacock League One (3rd tier) and below) saves to crash to desktop on August 22nd in the advanced rules version of the US database. It does not impact the basic rules version, so if you want to start a lower league save, start there until further notice. Thanks all!

Edited March 20, 2023 by nielsoncp

[Ninja777]

On 17/03/2023 at 18:29, nielsoncp said:

Hi NInja! I was in process of replying elsewhere, but I'll post it here instead.

Thanks for highlighting this. I didn't edit any of the EU/non-EU settings for Martinique, so it should be the default setting. I looked in the France record in the editor file for this database, and Martinique is listed as one of the nations that should be treated as EU. I tried to do a quick change to the France rules so that Martinicans can be included, but it wasn't readily apparent what changes I would need to make. 

My guess is that this is an issue within the game itself - it may be worth putting in a bug report in the France Specific issues thread of the bug forum: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/league-specific-issues/france-official-league-specific-issues/. 

Hi again

I've tried editing the database for Martinique in particular, and editing so that Martinique players should not count as Non-EU (according to the rules etc) but no matter what they are listed as, it doesn't work whatsoever. So my players with one nationality (Martinique) will be listed as non-eu, when in the french cup. But my players with dual nationality is now listed as EU-players, so thats a plus. Yeah it might be a bug from in the game itself.

[Digijustin]

Hey @nielsoncp I decided to test my happiness and wanted to see if the August 22nd crash still applies. I needed to update your NACL and US advanced files but had to make this fix to get around some weird Icelandic issue. It verified with that update but alas, it still crashes on August 22nd. I'm bummed that SI hasn't fixed this and my motivation to play this game is on life support. 

 

[omarsorto6]

31 minutes ago, Digijustin said:

Hey @nielsoncp I decided to test my happiness and wanted to see if the August 22nd crash still applies. I needed to update your NACL and US advanced files but had to make this fix to get around some weird Icelandic issue. It verified with that update but alas, it still crashes on August 22nd. I'm bummed that SI hasn't fixed this and my motivation to play this game is on life support. 

 

Yea man concacaf this year has been a  huge mess . You can’t edit anything with out game crashing , gold cup not working right. What I did to have some fun in the game I merger the most I can south and North America and I took out all concacaf competitions . And add the North America teams to the South America competitions . I tested it out and had no crashes , 

[Moxley]

is there any other fix to the august 22 crash other than using the basic version of the DB or no? playing as a local team right now and wanted to continue the save but obviously can't. also is it normal for Canadian teams to have two U18 squads?

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Moxley

[nielsoncp]

2 hours ago, Moxley said:

is there any other fix to the august 22 crash other than using the basic version of the DB or no? playing as a local team right now and wanted to continue the save but obviously can't. also is it normal for Canadian teams to have two U18 squads?

 

Hey Moxley - the Canadian u18 team thing is something I haven't been able to figure out yet. I'll take another look tonight and see if I can get it sorted. 

As far as the August 22nd bug goes, so far the only workaround I've found to manage a team from the start is using the basic database. Since it affects more than my database (see Digi's link above) I don't think you can start a game at a team below level 2 and have it work past that date.

Ii haven't tried simming forward a year and running it then, but that may be worth a test. However, it could also be that the game will crash at some indefinite point in the future, and having been a victim of that on FM 21, I'd hate for people to have the experience of putting in 60+ hours and lose the file. 

[SuperSlappy]

Am I doing something wrong that none of the league reputations in Concacaf are changing?  No matter which clubs win the tournaments, the league reps are all the same as they were at the start of the game.

[bold013hades]

This is really cool. Do you have a list of clubs you created that are in the databases? I think it's cool there are some custom/fantasy clubs in here, but I'd like to replace them with some historical clubs

[nielsoncp]

On 02/04/2023 at 16:32, SuperSlappy said:

Am I doing something wrong that none of the league reputations in Concacaf are changing?  No matter which clubs win the tournaments, the league reps are all the same as they were at the start of the game.

I don't know if I have activated changes in league reputations, or if that is somehow impacted by the modding. I haven't actively done anything with it (aside from changing reputations in the editor), so I don't know if dynamic league reputation is a thing outside of Europe. Other, wiser folks can answer that. 

On 05/04/2023 at 03:52, bold013hades said:

This is really cool. Do you have a list of clubs you created that are in the databases? I think it's cool there are some custom/fantasy clubs in here, but I'd like to replace them with some historical clubs

Most of the fantasy clubs are from this thread at SportsLogos: https://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/96415-raysoxs-us-soccer-2030-football-manager-mod/. Most of the teams existed at the time, and are in game. The ones he created wholesale in the US were Queen City, West Texas, Baltimore FC, 3 Rivers United, Buffalo Athletic, California Athletic, AFC Cleveland, Northern Virginia Cavalry, Oklahoma City FC, Albuquerque FC, Anaheim Blues, Connecticut Hearts, Providence City, Louisville Premier, Memphis Rogues, FC Norfolk, Nashville Metros, New Orleans United, Omaha ONE FC, and San Francisco SC. Several of those are now the sites of USL Championship or USL1 Clubs (or similar such teams that appear in the mod.) Clubs like Milwaukee Bavarians or Kitsap Pumas existed at the time as semipro teams and got a substantial bump in reputation, and several others (like the San Antonio Scorpions and the Carolina Railhawks) rebranded or became new clubs in new leagues. So, all told, I think there are around 20 clubs that you could switch out for other defunct US Clubs. 

[nielsoncp]

I uploaded the 23.4 versions of the files, so they should be ready to play. I may do one more run at the CONCACAF Continental Competitions (I've been trying to figure out how to make it so that teams drop into lower divisions when they fall out of the CONCACAF Champions League), but I don't think there are any other major revisions coming to this database aside from that. Happy playing everyone!

[Vakama2619]

Hey there, does the Mexican file have a Basic Rules version?

[nielsoncp]

15 hours ago, Vakama2619 said:

Hey there, does the Mexican file have a Basic Rules version?

Hello Vakama! Good to see you posting across multiple sites.  The only changes in the Mexican league file is the increase in money for participating in the league. I can't change the TV money in basic mode, so there isn't a basic mode version of it. Are you having the CTD issues with the Mexican database?

[Vakama2619]

2 hours ago, nielsoncp said:

Hello Vakama! Good to see you posting across multiple sites.  The only changes in the Mexican league file is the increase in money for participating in the league. I can't change the TV money in basic mode, so there isn't a basic mode version of it. Are you having the CTD issues with the Mexican database?

Yeah I asked on Sortitoutsi and as the Mexico file isn't link there I removed and asked it here, I did attempt to load with it and it crashed however I'm unsure if that's it or not, I'm gonna guess no, unfortunately this problem happened a couple weeks ago and I no longer have access to PC GamePass and probably won't for a while

[Rimmshot79]

Is this realistic league structure or more fantasy?

[igorlv]

7 horas atrás, Rimmshot79 disse:

Is this realistic league structure or more fantasy?

fantasy

[Rimmshot79]

On 11/05/2023 at 17:34, igorlv said:

fantasy

Thx,any file for realistic 23.4???

[nielsoncp]

On 12/05/2023 at 10:39, Rimmshot79 said:

Thx,any file for realistic 23.4???

This is probably your best shot:

 

[nielsoncp]

Hi friends! Since it looks like we're at the end of the FM 23 window, this summer I am planning to release a few test versions I've been working on. They're elements I may or may not include in the FM 24 version of this database, so I want to see if anyone wants to use them and give feedback. 

First, I redid the qualification in the top tier of the US database based on this James Lawrence Alcott tweet: 

So, for the US top tier, the top 3 teams automatically qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, and teams 4-7 are entered into a playoff. The winners of the semifinal face off for the last CONCACAF Champions League spot (loser goes to the Gold cup), while the losers of the semifinal face off for the last Gold Cup spot (loser goes to the Silver Cup.) It's down below as US Advanced Playoff Test. 

The second is a reworking of the CONCACAF Champions League to mimic the drops between the Champions, Europa, and Europa Conference Leagues. So, the top two CL teams go into the round of 16, the 3rd place group team in the CL faces the 2nd place group team in the Gold Cup, and the 4th place CL team faces the 2nd place team in the Silver Cup. The loser of the knockouts in the Gold Cup faces the winner of the silver Cup round, and that team proceeds to the round of 16 in the Silver Cup. It's down below as CC - Drops between competitions. 

I have a more… ambitious one I'm working on for the CONCACAF Competitions, but that will take some time this summer. 

If you use them, please feel free to let me know what you think and any tweaks you would suggest. Thanks all!

CONCACAF CC - Drops Between Competitions.fmf

USA - 10 Tiers - CEUD - Advanced Mode - Playoff Test.fmf

Edited June 8, 2023 by nielsoncp

[Vakama2619]

Still using all the basic dbs for this, would using the advanced db for the USA playoffs crash the game at all?

[nielsoncp]

6 hours ago, Vakama2619 said:

Still using all the basic dbs for this, would using the advanced db for the USA playoffs crash the game at all?

It probably will - I don't think the bug was addressed in the 23.5 update, and there hasn't been any mention of a fix in the forums.

I did find, though, that the problem happens on the 4th Monday in August - so if you are doing a lower level save and want to use the db, quit the job on the 4th Sunday and reappoint yourself on the following Tuesday, and you're good to go for a year. Also, once you're in the 2nd tier it no longer impacts gameplay,

[nielsoncp]

Ok, for now, this is the last one I'm planning to release for FM 23 - although we'll see if I find another intriguing problem to sort in the editor. 

 I redid the CONCACAF competitions. The problem with the CONCACAF leagues (for anyone who has played) is that the gap in talent between the top and bottom (or even mid tier) teams in North America is pretty massive, so a lot of the teams outside of Canada/Mexico/The US are being blown out by the 5th or 6th year in. The new competition tree looks something like this:

The shorter (and much less complex version) is that to ameliorate this I added a fourth cup (the Bronze cup) that the teams lower in the group stage of the Gold and Silver cups get dumped into, and the lower teams in the Champions League group stage face off against the 2nd place teams in the Gold and Silver cup group stages. In theory this creates winnable competition for teams from smaller leagues, so they can get the champions league money and also have a route to a cup win. 

 

There were two other tweaks that are notable and one fun thing:

1) I  added a coefficient, so theoretically nations can climb and fall - so it's possible to do a build a nation and get more slots. 

2) There is also now a super cup between the winners of the four competitions in July. 

3) I created a rotating set of host nations and stadiums, so the finals won't be at the home stadium of the larger teams anymore. 

The file is below

CONCACAF Continental Competitions - 4 Cups and Drop Downs.fmf

[omarsorto6]

On 23/05/2023 at 07:28, nielsoncp said:

It probably will - I don't think the bug was addressed in the 23.5 update, and there hasn't been any mention of a fix in the forums.

I did find, though, that the problem happens on the 4th Monday in August - so if you are doing a lower level save and want to use the db, quit the job on the 4th Sunday and reappoint yourself on the following Tuesday, and you're good to go for a year. Also, once you're in the 2nd tier it no longer impacts gameplay,

In what year aug 2022 or 2023?

[nielsoncp]

13 hours ago, omarsorto6 said:

In what year aug 2022 or 2023?

I hit the bug on the 4th Monday in August both years. Made it out of tier 3 after that, so I don't know if it stops after that. 

[nielsoncp]

As a quick note, the US files are now updated with the Messi transfer happening in July 2023. 

[Mitoma7]

@nielsoncp Got a question to ask, I am using Pro's database (and his transfer updates) too so I dont know if this plays a role but the transfers is a bit screwed?  because I couldn't find Josef Martinez in Inter Miami  (anywhere not even as a future transfer) or Campana for example. Julian Carranza is also still in Inter Miami despite being in Philadelphia. 

[nielsoncp]

On 09/06/2023 at 00:30, Mitoma7 said:

@nielsoncp Got a question to ask, I am using Pro's database (and his transfer updates) too so I dont know if this plays a role but the transfers is a bit screwed?  because I couldn't find Josef Martinez in Inter Miami  (anywhere not even as a future transfer) or Campana for example. Julian Carranza is also still in Inter Miami despite being in Philadelphia. 

Hmmmm. Inter Miami is one of five MLS teams that are hardcoded, and so I need to make them manually each year. My guess is that the players didn't transfer over to their new teams in 23.4 - I may have to look deeper into it. 

[SuperSlappy]

@nielsoncpis it alright to play with the Advanced Canada DB but play with the Basic USA DB?  Or should both of them be either Advanced or Basic?

Thank you once again for doing so much work and for putting a coefficient in so that leagues can move up or down.

You rock!

[nielsoncp]

8 hours ago, SuperSlappy said:

@nielsoncpis it alright to play with the Advanced Canada DB but play with the Basic USA DB?  Or should both of them be either Advanced or Basic?

Thank you once again for doing so much work and for putting a coefficient in so that leagues can move up or down.

You rock!

The short version is, I don't know, We only tested it with US leagues. It does seem to afflict other custom databases, so I think it may be a buyer beware situation. However, if you do find a date you can't sim past, quit and take the job again after the next pause. I found the US database CTDs at 9 am on the 4th monday in August (incredibly specific, I know.) There may be one in the Canadian database that I'm not aware of yet. 

[bold013hades]

Did you ever figure out what is causing the game to crash? I created a US database and the game always crashes at the end of August. It doesn't matter which team I pick or whether I use the advanced or the basic rules version. Also, how did you get your new Concacaf Champions League to show up in the game. I created a new CCL too and it won't ever show up in-game when I have my USA db loaded too

[nielsoncp]

14 hours ago, bold013hades said:

Did you ever figure out what is causing the game to crash? I created a US database and the game always crashes at the end of August. It doesn't matter which team I pick or whether I use the advanced or the basic rules version. Also, how did you get your new Concacaf Champions League to show up in the game. I created a new CCL too and it won't ever show up in-game when I have my USA db loaded too

Unfortunately it looks like both of the bugs you mentioned are hardcoded. I have a workaround for the CCL issue (it's in this thread: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/913_pre-game-and-in-game-editor/custom-usa-database-causes-nacl-to-disappear-r14514/ ), but the CTD one is a game bug that afflicts custom databases. If you quit the job and sim forward a day you can rejoin and play for another year - details are in this thread: 

 

[bold013hades]

12 hours ago, nielsoncp said:

Unfortunately it looks like both of the bugs you mentioned are hardcoded. I have a workaround for the CCL issue (it's in this thread: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/913_pre-game-and-in-game-editor/custom-usa-database-causes-nacl-to-disappear-r14514/ ), but the CTD one is a game bug that afflicts custom databases. If you quit the job and sim forward a day you can rejoin and play for another year - details are in this thread: 

 

Thanks for this.

I've done tests when I start unemployed and the game still crashes when I don't have a job, so does the quitting and simming ahead only work if you've had a job previously? Also, can it work over many years? I.e., can I quit, sim ahead, and play another year multiple times in the same save? I hope the answer is yes, because I save would be pointless if it only could be two years long haha

 

[joseluiscarrasco97]

has this been updated on steam?

[themodelcitizen]

@nielsoncp @Digijustin @pepepelanda I posted in the bug thread but I believe it's because most created DBs have a blank field for "continental cup rules", whereas the default US rules has entries there. Just copy and paste the "continental cup rules" under "other league stage rules" from the default MLS into your custom league and alter accordingly depending on how you want it to qualify teams to the CCL. Without the US actually qualifying any teams that way, the CCL doesn't have enough entries so it doesn't draw. I believe @Zachary Whyte's advice about MLS needing at least 24 teams would only affect the Leagues Cup drawing properly