\'Appy \'Ammer

Here's a selection of screenshots. This is how the football world should be . Enjoy the file.

**** Version 3.15 released 10th September. Reduced the high amount of prize money awarded for more realism **** **** Version 3.14 released 6th August. Moved UEFA Cup 3rd Round fixtures in the first season to January to avoid World Cup clash. **** *** Version 3.13 released 31st July. Fixed fixture clash causing players to be on International duty in September. Download updated at bottom of this post. *** ** Version 3 was released on 28th March, and updated to work with 23.4 (10th May). I have now removed that download, so please use v3.14, which is the latest version. ** This is version 3 of my 80s Style European Competitions that I have released over the last few years. Here is the link to the 23.0 version. I have removed the version that worked with 23.3. There's been a bit of an overhaul from the first version, and I'd like to give a big thankyou to @irish kopite for bouncing a lot of ideas off me, and for working out things I didn't think possible. Also credit to @Carlito85 for his UEFA revival files which inspired me to hone in on the 80s competitions. Version 3 sees me reverting back to using all 54 Nations again instead of 48 teams in version 2. However, unlike in the first version, San Marino's clubs will drift in and out of the European Cup and in the case of the European Cup Winners' Cup, San Marino's and Gibraltar's clubs fluctuate depending on if the Title Holders defend their crown. The last major change from the previous versions sees the Scottish League Cup winners qualify for the UEFA Cup providing they have not already qualified via another route. This follows the English League Cup winners that I introduced in version 2. Both these were in place during the 80s, and it wasn't until 1995 that UEFA decided to put a stop to allowing the Scottish League Cup winners entry. Raith Rovers were the last to take advantage of this rule in 1994/95 season! The competitions in order of importance are as follows.... 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. (The first season sees 48 teams involved due to 3 nations not playing a Cup competition the year before). 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. ** Yes, I finally got to see this work properly, after years of trying! ** 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. (In modern times the English League Cup winner qualifies for the Europa Conference League, but not so anymore for Scotland). The holders are also invited back if not already partaking in European competition. 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. Liechtenstein get a representative in the ECWC, as despite no domestic league, they do have a domestic cup. I've now got the 'Round Tree' to show when looking at the Stages screen. 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! I have a added club coefficient points for drawing and winning matches. This is based on how it was in the 80s. I cannot get the coefficients page to show in the game as I had to keep the rules as fixed, and they only show in flexible rules. However if you look at the League Reputation page, in the Europe tab, you will see that the top 16 leagues are the countries that will be receiving byes to the first round of the EC and ECWC. This does change over time. I have tested into the next century and I can confirm that this part of the game is dynamic. I don't know if my allocation of club coefficient points effects the league rankings but it is something I will explore further in future releases. The Club World Championship works in the game, but I have haven't got my head round how teams are picked. I have paid no attention to it as I use a 6 team Club World Cup file. It will work with other files as well. The winners of the EC are instructed to qualify for it. The 3rd Round of the UEFA Cup plays during the 2022 World Cup. It's FIFA's fault. The calendar is bunged so I just left it be. It'll only clash that year. FIXED in version 3.14 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. Please use the Dutch file attached along with this file if you want the Dutch FA Cup to work. Place both files in the 'editor data' folder, and tick them when you start a new career game. Dutch file 23.4 for 'Appy's 80s style European Comps (FM23).fmf 80s style European Competitions v3.15 (FM23).fmf

We must have had different reasons for the crash. I couldn't get beyond 2 to 3 days. You managed 5 years before your first crash. Mayeb @Lucas could look at your file.

Agree. However doesn't look like solved the problem for everyone.

I have holidayed up to 2077. No crashes.

File is working now after the SI minor update to 23.3

I actually had no fix myself, but SI released a minor update earlier which has fixed my crash issue using my custom edited file.

Hi @Lucas, I was just about to do as you suggested but I now see the bug has been fixed with the minor update. I'm glad to report my file is now working

Please please please please please log this in the bug tracker and get a support ticket separately. We need as many people as possible to start flagging this up. No errors given I guess, just a crash? The more we kick up a stink the sooner it'll get noticed and something maybe done about it.

As well as the support ticket (which will get nowhere) I've logged it in the bug tracker. Others have had crashes, not all similar, but if enough people log issues SI may feel obliged to look into it further.

@alian62at least you were given a message why your file failed. You're then able to use logic to get your file up and running (which you shouldn't have had to do in the first place). I get nothing. Just a crash. That leaves me with absolutely no indication as to what the problem is , but the pre game editor says the file is fine. File even works on fm22 ffs!

I've just done a few tests, and still have the crashing within a few days. I removed Russian and Belarussian from the 3 European competitions and also removed both countries from Europe>Nations. I feel my only option is to rebuild it from scratch but as I said above, surely if I am just repeating the steps I have done before I will get the same result....a crash. Have you tried using your file in FM22 (if you have it)? I verified mine in the fm22 editor and the file works fine. I'd love to know what 23.3 has done. I've had no further response from Sega Support yet, but I bet they say nothing can be done because the game does not crash without custom files. I am quite snookered.

I have included them. I could try omitting them and see if that does anything. I've someone else's international file for 32 nation world cup's that I've included Russia in and that still works ok. Unless the issue is the clubs only.

I'm in a dilemma, and not sure what to do now? I have been spending the last few weeks preparing an update to my '80s style European competitions' file and I have been nearing completion of the project. I have been doing all testing within the editor, and I verified the file the other night. After the 23.3 update was released I decided to test my new file in the game environment. But after setting up a holiday the game crashes within 2 game days. I have submitted a support ticket and initial advice is to remove all custom files to see if game crashes. The game is fine then, so I have added the folders back one by one, and all is ok until I put back my 80s file. Not good. I loaded a save I had going a month ago using the original database and my 80s file, but that too crashes within 2 days. So any save with my old file or new file involved will now crash the game. I decided to verify the file in the fm22 editor to see if it would work. The file works great in fm22 , and i ran a holiday save with no issues overnight for 90 seasons. So something in 23.3 has triggered my file useless. What options do I have? I could rebuild the file from scratch, but apart from taking ages to do, if I am literally copying the file bit by bit to a complete replica, would I not be getting a repeat of the crash. I think if I do rebuild, maybe 1 competition at a time and testing in between to see if the crash occurs. Are there any other better options out there for me to try? Thanks for any advice.

Is it specifically Russia you're looking to play with in the AFC, or are you just looking to get Russia to play competitively in any continent? I have added them to a file I downloaded that had changed the world cup format to stay at 32 teams. I activated them for tournament qualifying which dropped San Marino down a bit. So San Marino and Andorra are often leap frogging each other in the world rankings in order to get them to play in the euros or world cup qualifying. Along with my own custom European club file I have russian clubs participating in European football as well.

I just saw this file! Good effort. I was interested in your coefficient attempt but I see you kept all the individual competitions as fixed. Was flexible causing too many problems? It played havoc with my file!

Shame the problem was never fully solved. Once I shifted to Flexible rules all hell broke loose!! I have added co-efficient points to replicate the 80s as best I can. It may be doing something in the background as after a long save test different countries are getting byes to the first round than at the start of the game. Just a shame you cannot view the co-efficient table. Better than nothing though I suppose.

In Other Stage Rules > Continental Cup Rules, there is a section named Continental Cup Ranking Points. Where can I see a total, or a table of these in the game? Is this related to the co-efficient? Or does this contribute to the world ranking points? If I add these to my European file will it contribute to countries moving up and down the ranking table and consequently changing how many European qualification spots a country may get? Sometimes I see a country (in my 80s euro file) have an extra European place or lose a place. This suggests that a nation has moved up or down in ranking but I can't see a table telling me so. Sorry, there's lots of questions here, but it's an area I'm not too clued in on.

I've had this problem too and I've questioned in the bugs section if this a bug. Alas I've had no acknowledgment of my post so don't even know if it's been looked at. Maybe take a look and add a comment with your problem. Here's the link: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/913_pre-game-and-in-game-editor/rules-not-saving-r14247/

Hey well done @irish kopite. I just loaded up the editor to have a play around but it seems you've done the hard work. This is a game changer. Well done again. When you're back on line again would you mind uploading it or send it to me and I can update this file? (if I haven't managed to do it myself.)

Trying to get the runner up thing working fried my mind when I first set out with the 80s files in fm20. I tried the use runner up as backup option and listed every domestic cup, but to no avail. It was then pointed out that the reason could well be the hard coding. I reluctantly accepted it and I didn't even try this year. I just accepted things. I've read your post several times now and I'm just about getting my head around your editor instructions. It's crazy, you got to think like a robot to understand the editor sometimes.

Ahhh, sorry Dave, I think I found the culprit. I have a file that has a fantasy Oceania Champions League format that has Northern Mariana Islands included. It must be that. Sorry for causing a minor panic for you.

Hi @DaveTheEditor, first of all great file, super detail. I have just one problem. Northern Mariana Islands are not selectable, and on my start screen coming up as being in Oceania. (And yes I did just have to ask google where in the world they are!). I've loaded the file into the editor and the continent they are assigned to is Asia (part of East Asia). You also have them listed as Asia in the opening post. I'm a little confused. There is also an error message and the country is not selectable. Not sure what is going on. The file tests and verifies ok in the editor. How can I get it to work?

Here are some screen shots of a recent holiday save I had done. These are the finals of the ECWC. Important factors to note are I only have the N Irish Premier League active, and no tournament around the world is in full detail. Therefore alot of the results will go on reputation. As you can see there are mainly the big teams coming out as winners but there are "smaller" clubs in the runners up positions. Another enormous factor that makes these final outcomes different to "the days of yore" is due to hardcoding, if the winner of the domestic cup has won the domestic league, then their place is taken by the next best team in the domestic league. The real life competition used to pick the runner up of the domestic cup. Therefore in FM the chances are weighted towards the "bigger" teams entering the competition as these teams are more than likely to be high up in the league. Thus you see more of these "big" teams making the final. I reckon if you were able to run this with loads of nations on full detail and many leagues, you would see more variety of finalists. You would also need alot of patience .