UEFA REBOOTED - Alternative Continental, Intercontinental, and International files

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

The past few months has seen me rewrite my 80's Style European Competitions for FM24 . I have decided to compile the files I am using to be available under a "UEFA REBOOTED" banner. I completely dislike the way modern football is heading, and particularly the change to the European competitions next season, is something I am not looking forward to. So, I hark back to an era of Continental knockout football, which I will detail below.

The major changes of this version compared to my previous ones, are that the nations are dynamic, and change each season depending on the national team world rankings. This is the case for all 3 European competitions. The other major change is that I have rewritten the European Cup Winners' Cup over the ID of the Europa Conference League. This means that all 3 competitions will have the intro music and graphical content that comes with the vanilla version. I have adjusted graphics for ad boards and logos, and I may put these up for download if others are interested. I am also providing downloads for Welsh Cup, an annual 6 team Club World Cup, a Belarus nation file, a Russian nation file, and an International file allowing the 2 latter nations back into all competitions and playing on home soil.

And so to business...

UEFA REBOOTED - 80s Style Continental Competitions Version 2 released on 20th April to stop fixtures clashing with the new International calendar from 2026 onwards

European Cup: 54 team tournament. League Champions only plus the holders of the competition from the previous year. If the holders are also their nation's champions then an extra nation is invited to take part.

European Cup Winners' Cup: 54 team tournament again. Domestic FA Cup winners take part. In the event that a team has done a league and cup double, then the runner-up takes their place. Holders from the year before are invited back if not in the EC. 

UEFA Cup: 112 team tournament, with a 2 legged final. A nation can have between 2 and 4 representatives depending on the ranking of the nation. Qualifying teams are based on league positions, and in England and Scotland, the League Cup winners qualify as they used to back in the day, however this is now dependent on how high up the world ranking the nation is. The holders are also invited back if not already partaking in European competition.

Here is the breakdown for the UEFA Cup team allocation:

Nation ranking  Number of Qualified Teams  Teams in R1  Teams in QR

       1 to 4                              4                                       1                       3

       5 to 8                              3                                       1                       2

       9 to 16                            2                                       1                       1

      17 to 50                           2                                       0                       2

      51 to 54                           1                                       0                       1

European Super Cup: The winners of the EC play the winners of the ECWC in August.

      NOTES

• All matches are played over 2 legs, with the away goals rule included. The exception to this is the finals in the EC, ECWC, and the Super Cup.

• The Euro/SAM club challenge is disabled.

• The squad selection rules has been a complete pain. Thanks to @Roy Race 9 for the excellent advice and online tutorials. I have mirrored the match day squad rules of the real life UEFA tournaments. There is no squad registration date as it is just bugged, and caused all sorts of problems.

• Financial Fair Play now included to match the current rules. This is bugged though and doesn't seem to do anything as I've never seen a team fail FFP!

• Liechtenstein get a representative in the ECWC, as despite no domestic league, they do have a domestic cup. 

• Russia and Belarus are included. I'm not making a political statement here, I just prefer to see the teams competing. It's still a game after all!

• Club coefficients are included but I don't see a screen that uses this info. Thus the reason I chose to use world rankings to create dynamic changes.

• Some European leagues have European playoffs at the end of their season. These are rendered useless now as the UEFA Cup takes the league placings for the qualifiers. Belgium and Romania spring to mind. If the league splits into a Championship group the final placings in this mini league is what counts.

• You will notice at the end of the season that the league champions have a 'C' next to them in the final league table. There's no visible information from the league table screen to say who has qualified for what. This is not a bug. It is because I did away with the Europe > Continent > Teams tab in the editor. You can find out who has qualified for what by clicking the team overview and then competition to see what they're involved in in the new season after the reset day on the 10^th July.

Other files that I have included

UEFA REBOOTED - Dutch file   

Please use the Dutch file attached along with this file if you want the Dutch FA Cup to work. This just removes any link to the now defunct Europa Conference League.

UEFA REBOOTED - FA Cup (This is an optional file) Added 18th April 2024

In response to the FA's decision to scrap all replays next season, I have released my FA Cup file which puts them back. This version has replays in each round from qualifying to the final. The fifth round is played at the weekend and not midweek. You will also see the reintroduction of neutral club grounds being used for the semi finals. Wembley is still used sometimes but then again it was in real life too. If the match goes to a replay it is played at the same ground as the first match (I couldn't alter that). There's no geographical consideration involved for what teams play where, so you may see 2 northern teams play in the south or vice versa. And one final finger up to the FA is I have the Cup Final as the last game of the season after the league season has finished.

UEFA REBOOTED - Welsh Cup    (This is an optional file)

This file makes the 5 English based Welsh teams available to play in the Welsh Cup (Swansea City, Cardiff City, Newport County, Merthyr Town, and Wrexham). This used to happen in the 80s, and was open to a few more border teams than I have entered here. Each year didn't necessarily have the same border teams playing. What makes this interesting is this type of thing becomes possible, where Third Division Newport County made it to the quarter-finals of the ECWC! The difference in this version is the 5 teams are playing under the English flag, therefore they are more likely to get a bye to the first round of the ECWC, as opposed to a Welsh league team, who would have to go into the qualifying round. This of course would change if Wales moved up into the top 16 nations in Europe, or England move down.

UEFA REBOOTED - 6 team Club World Cup   (This is an optional file)

This is played annually each December. It is based on the 7 team Club World Cup, just minus the host nation. It involves the 6 continental winners to determine the club world champions. The new 32 team tournament that runs every 4 years is scrapped.

UEFA REBOOTED - International file   (This is an optional file)

This file reintroduces Russia back into International competitions. I am not making a political statement, I just want to see all nations playing in the competitions. This also allows both Russia and Belarus to play their matches on home soil. I have not altered how the competitions work, so the formats are the same as the vanilla version. Gibraltar has been sacrificed and won't play any of the Euro qualifiers or Nations League matches. They do play World Cup qualifiers and friendlies.

UEFA REBOOTED - Russia file   Use this file in order for the international file to work. This also allows the Russian clubs to play their continental matches, in the 80 Style file, on Russian soil. I have added over 4000 Russian regens to the database, I think you would need to load players from that nation to really see the effect of that. (the original Russia nation (ID 791) is present as 'y' in the game)

UEFA REBOOTED - Belarus file   Use this file in order for the international file to work. This also allows the Belarusian clubs to play their continental matches, in the 80 style file, on Belarus soil. (the original Belarus nation (ID 758) is present as 'x' in the game)

I recommend using the the International file with the Russia and Belarus files, to ensure the Internationals work correctly. If you don't use them all together you will see 'y' or 'x' appearing as nations in your game! 

Place the files in the 'editor data' folder, and tick them when you start a new career game. To change the nation flags to the new ID's for Russia and Belarus you will need to adjust the config files. Replace all ID's that have 791 to 583, and 758 to 574 in the following folders that i'll detail. If you have no graphics folder in your My Documents > Sports Interactive folder then use the Resource Archiver to extract the graphics fmf. In there you can find the config files in the following folders to change the ID's mentioned above:

FOR FLAGS

graphics > pictures > flags > large

graphics > pictures > flags > medium

graphics > pictures > flags > small

For Awards, and Competition name changes that my file hasn't addressed, use a downloadable name fix and adjust the config xml. For example change any reference to the Champions League to the European Cup. I can't post that here as it is not my name fix file, but it can be found through a bit of internet searching!

For other graphical changes to ad boards, and logos that relate to these 3 competitions click this link and download the zip file using something like winRAR.

Plans for the future ... 

• Update the file when SI do their final update for FM24 No need to do this as the database remained at 24.3 
• Change International competitions to get away from the 48 team World Cup idea
• Release an FM24 version of my FM23 FA Cup file that includes replays for all rounds, and reintroduce neutral club ground semi final venues.  Released 18th April 
• Return clubs to home grounds that they played in back in the 1980s.

Thanks of course, go to all the regulars on the Sports Interactive Editor forum who have often given much needed help and advice when I've come to a dead end. Much appreciated. I'm still giving special shouts out to @irish kopite for your immense help on FM23, and to @Carlito85 for the original insight into creating these databases.

 

Enjoy the files, and as usual just raise any issues you have on here, or on X / Twitter https://twitter.com/AppyAmmer1980. You can also download my files from My Workshop on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198014497223/myworkshopfiles/ 

 

 

 

UEFA REBOOTED - Dutch file for 80s style continental comps.fmf UEFA REBOOTED - Welsh Cup.fmf UEFA REBOOTED - 6 team Club World Cup.fmf UEFA REBOOTED - International file.fmf UEFA REBOOTED - Russian clubs return to competitions.fmf UEFA REBOOTED - Belarus.fmf

UEFA REBOOTED - FA Cup.fmf

UEFA REBOOTED - 80s style continental competitions v2.fmf

Edited April 20 by \'Appy \'Ammer
added a link for FA Cup file and version 2 of 80s comps added

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Here are some screenshots ...

 

Edited March 17 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

And some more... notice the UEFA CUP ad boards. I've yet to find how to replace the logos on the grass and carpet.

 

Edited March 17 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Here are the dynamic changes...

Here is a screenshot of the top 16 nations in Europe in March 2024, followed by the 16 teams that consequently got byes to the first round. 

 

 

 

 

Then this is the same save in 2108. The top 16 has changed and so has the entrants for the first round. 

This affects all 3 competitions, including the UEFA Cup. The dynamic change means a nation can have anything from 1 to 4 teams depending on the world ranking of the nation. The top 4 nations get 4 qualifiers, the next 4 get 3, then the next 8 get 2, then the next 34 get 2 into the qualifying round, and the next 4 get 1. So there will now be interest in the international matches as that can influence the club game. 

 

Edited March 17 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Russia and Belarus now play their matches at home, both continentally and internationally.

And here are the national teams playing football competitively again.

And here is the Russian national team with the World Ranking working.

Edited March 17 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Finally I am aware of a few issues that are present and can't be changed.

If you're using the Welsh file, unless Wales get into the top 16 in Europe, the winners of the Welsh Cup will enter at the qualifying round. If the Welsh Cup winner is one of the 5 English based teams they will enter into the first round, as the game considers them English (providing England remain in the top 16!). 

In order to get the UEFA Cup dynamic changes to work, things got very complicated with several hidden stages set up to sort the teams. There is a small issue that involves the 3 lowest nations (Gibraltar, Malta, & San Marino). This screenshot shows them as part of the teams in the UEFA Cup but they haven't qualified. They correctly do not play. BUT if you were to look at the Team Overview > Competitions tab the UEFA Cup would be listed, however it doesn't have them pitted against anyone. This is just cosmetic and does not affect the gameplay. This was a nightmare in early testing as I originally had 102 teams with this problem. I'm happy it is now just 3.

Finally, in recreating Belarus and Russia from 2 extinct nations, I had to keep the original nations in the database otherwise the file would not verify. So the original Russia (ID 791), and the original Belarus (ID 758) are present as 'y' and 'x'. Those letters mean they will be at the bottom of the nations list so you won't really see them listed unless you scroll right down. I have deleted as much of the information as I could from the 2 original nations. An unfortunate result of creating a new nation is you cannot change the nation's population. So for Russia and Belarus you will see the population stay at 0 !

Here are the old nations:

 

The odd player may generate, as you can see above there is 1 top player and it is the year 2047. I have created over 4,000 regens for Russia, so I would imagine you would need to load all players from that nation to see the real benefit of that. In creating these regens it just minimizes the chances of getting players generated with noticeably non Russian names.

That's it everyone. I hope you enjoy the databases.

Edited March 17 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[MichaelNevo]

Brilliant work as always! Can't wait to use this once I'm happy with my own database. Can't beat a bit of nostalgia! 

[Curtains-2720]

I love this mod 

[Curtains-2720]

Feedback to increase immersion even more

Some notes/info graphics wise for users of this mod:

Trophies and logos of the ECWC and the UECL must be interchanged (IDs) in all graphics folders

Some logos packs contain a "Retro section" with a logo of the old UEFA cup. I like to use that one and replace the current EL logo for immersion

Some notes data wise:

- The ECWC replaces the UECL, but some data of UECL remains on the new page of the ECWC, such as the previous UECL Golden Boots:

- The UECL trophy is completely deleted from the history of teams who had previously won it (Roma and West Ham):

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Yeah, your bang on @Curtains-2720. I have changed everything on my file with the name fix from sortitoutsi, and went through the config file to remove all links to the competitions I've changed or replaced. As that wasn't my original work I didn't make it available to download, but it doesn't take long to do. 

It was tough to remove a trophy from the mighty Hammers cabinet after it took so long to get it!

If anyone knows how I can remove any logos I have left in then let me know (ie the banner on the pitch when the teams walk out!) 👍

 

[PaMi 7]

9 ore fa, Curtains-2720 ha scritto:

...

What skin is this, please?

[Curtains-2720]

1 minute ago, PaMi 7 said:

What skin is this, please?

It's Mustermann skin

[NineCloudNine]

20 hours ago, Curtains-2720 said:

Some notes data wise:

- The ECWC replaces the UECL, but some data of UECL remains on the new page of the ECWC, such as the previous UECL Golden Boots:

- The UECL trophy is completely deleted from the history of teams who had previously won it (Roma and West Ham):

 

The awards name can be changed in the PGE if you wished to.

FYI club trophy histories are drawn from the competition histories, they are not a separate item, so will inevitably change or vanish when the competition history is changed.

Edited March 18 by NineCloudNine

[Curtains-2720]

Thanks for the infos!! Much clearer

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

I've added the qualification ranking allocation for the UEFA Cup in the opening post. Hopefully that will make things clearer for people.

[Curtains-2720]

For some reason, 2 venues are missing in the Palmares history of the CWC: Amsterdam Olympic for 76/77 and Estadio Da Luz for 91/92:

 

Edited March 18 by Curtains-2720

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

I believe the stadiums are now extinct. That tends to happen in the history, they just don't show.

[NineCloudNine]

On 17/03/2024 at 10:43, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

Yeah, your bang on @Curtains-2720. I have changed everything on my file with the name fix from sortitoutsi, and went through the config file to remove all links to the competitions I've changed or replaced. As that wasn't my original work I didn't make it available to download, but it doesn't take long to do.

 👍

 

 

I am sure I am being dense but I don't understand this. The revised competitions all have their original names when I start a game with the file active, even though I can see you have renamed them in the file. Why do I need the name fix you refer to to make it work? I also don't know what config file you're referring to. Your previous version worked first time for me so I'm not clear why this one doesn't, sorry!

Edit: correction, the European Champions Cup has the correct name, the others are still called UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League.

Edited March 18 by NineCloudNine

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

1 hour ago, NineCloudNine said:

I am sure I am being dense but I don't understand this. The revised competitions all have their original names when I start a game with the file active, even though I can see you have renamed them in the file. Why do I need the name fix you refer to to make it work? I also don't know what config file you're referring to. Your previous version worked first time for me so I'm not clear why this one doesn't, sorry!

Edit: correction, the European Champions Cup has the correct name, the others are still called UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League.

PM'd you mate

[Holzi]

Hello!

Is it possible to load only the international file + the Belarus file + the Russia file to have the Belarus and Russian teams back in the current competition format or is this not working?

Thank you for your work!

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

18 hours ago, Holzi said:

Hello!

Is it possible to load only the international file + the Belarus file + the Russia file to have the Belarus and Russian teams back in the current competition format or is this not working?

Thank you for your work!

Yes that is possible. You won't see russian teams in European competitions until the 2nd season.

Edited April 5 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[Holzi]

Thanks!

[kennypavey]

Hi @\'Appy \'Ammer!

I am trying to add the 2024/2025 participants for UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions Cup for Sweden (they play spring -  autumn schedule). Do you know how I can do this? I tried adding them to "teams for next season" but that removed them from the league apparently  

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

I'm sure it would be possible but not something I have done before. So are you starting your save in 2024?

You could try a couple of things. Are you able to alter the histories of the league? Not sure if it will let you change the future! That would be the easiest way. 

You could try in Teams > Qualified Teams to "Get specific team" and I think you can set what year you want that to happen. You would probably need another instruction in there to revert back to the normal selection rules by adding a start date to it. I'm guessing here but it's logical 🙂.

The very long winded hard work way would be to redo the competition to take place in the year you want, and add the teams you want in it. Then have the normal competition start again the year after. So you'll effectively have for example 3 competitions running in different years... UEFA Cup 2023, UEFA Cup 2024, and UEFA Cup 2025+

I've not done any of this myself but I guess it's possible. Unless anyone else has a far more simplistic way of doing it?

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

FA Cup file released today. Here is a screenshot of the neutral club ground semi finals.

And here is an example of a schedule that includes a fifth round replay and the FA Cup final being the last match of the season. AS IT SHOULD BE !!!!

Edited April 18 by \'Appy \'Ammer

[irish kopite]

14 hours ago, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

FA Cup file released today. Here is a screenshot of the neutral club ground semi finals.

And here is an example of a schedule that includes a fifth round replay and the FA Cup final being the last match of the season. AS IT SHOULD BE !!!!

Your timing is excellent given recent announcements!

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

1 hour ago, irish kopite said:

Your timing is excellent given recent announcements!

I had actually this done a month ago, I was just enraged at yesterday's news that I thought it was an ideal time to publish it! LOL

[CroissantEater6]

On 18/03/2024 at 20:58, NineCloudNine said:

I am sure I am being dense but I don't understand this. The revised competitions all have their original names when I start a game with the file active, even though I can see you have renamed them in the file. Why do I need the name fix you refer to to make it work? I also don't know what config file you're referring to. Your previous version worked first time for me so I'm not clear why this one doesn't, sorry!

Edit: correction, the European Champions Cup has the correct name, the others are still called UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League.

I have the same problem. Could you please show us how to solve it? 

[Serbiamanager21]

This mod is great, I enjoy playing it but I want to draw attention to the fact that the second match of the first round ECC is played during the international break and I can't count on those players

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

15 hours ago, CroissantEater6 said:

I have the same problem. Could you please show us how to solve it? 

I will sort something out tonight

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

2 hours ago, Serbiamanager21 said:

This mod is great, I enjoy playing it but I want to draw attention to the fact that the second match of the first round ECC is played during the international break and I can't count on those players

I'll get on the case later on today. 

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Thanks to @Serbiamanager21 for highlighting a problem with the First Round Second Leg matches clashing with International matches. Unbeknown to me the International fixture schedule changes from Sep 2026 onwards. This was causing a problem with players being on International duty when the second leg matches of the first round were being played. I have altered the European Continental calendar slightly, so all being well there will be no further problems. I have removed version 1 and added version 2 into the opening post. 

Enjoy.