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FM18 All-European (Less England) Small Club to Big Club Challenge Introduction Welcome to a new chapter in the history of the ‘Euro Nation’ Challenge, born out of the recent history of the highly successful Gundo’s Challenge and the Big Euro Nation Challenge that spawned out of it. Originally set up as an alternative to the hugely successful Dafuges Challenge for FM06, Gundos Challenge offered an alternative for people who wanted to play in another European country. The Big Euro Nation Challenge followed for FM08 and, like Gundo’s Challenge, has had some fantastic stories over the years. These threads have always been hugely popular and successful thanks to those who played, and who still take part, in the challenges. Some of the stories are legendary, and hopefully more of these will be born in this, and future, versions of the game. The premise of the challenge is the same, and simple, to start with a previously unplayable club and taking them all the way to a National Title and then on to winning the European Champions League. With a variety of leagues, styles of play, different rules, and many different locations for your clubs there can be a lot of variety throughout the thread, providing a great atmosphere and stories for our users to become immersed in. General Challenge Info Possible Countries Austria Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France - June 20th Germany Greece Holland * Hungary Iceland Ireland * Israel Italy - July 30th N. Ireland - 25th June Norway - January 13th Poland Portugal Romania Russia Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain - July 10th Sweden - December 15th Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales * Holiday for two seasons not one. League Reset Dates Austria - 13th June Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Holland * Hungary Iceland Ireland * Israel Italy N. Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales The Rules A) Game Set-up 1) Load One Nation Only (All Available Divisions within your nation) 2) Your choice of Database Size (Large Recommended) 3) NO Edited Databases of any kind 4) Customising Database You can add players to the database up to a limit of 100,000 in total in order to add more depth to your save and also add more difficulty down the line. Suggested Adds Players from Top Clubs/Top Divisions (Europe or All Continents) - This increases the challenge at Continental Level Players Based in your Nation - This can add up to 50% more players to your game Players Based in your Region (Central Europe/East Europe/UK & Ireland) - This can add extra players likely to join your club There will be a file correcting the club/competition names, I will advise use of this. NO other additional customising is allowed. 5) Attribute Masking should be Enabled 6) Disable Ingame Editor (Please do this) 7) Optional Ticks Add Key Staff (This will give you a Scout, Physio & Ass Man by generating them if your club is without) Add Players in Playable Nations (This will ensure all clubs have a minimum number of players, generating them if needed) The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference. B) Steps in the Game 1) Add an unemployed manager; you will not use this man to manage your club. I like "Unemployed Man or Holiday Man" 2) Go on holiday until the reset date of your chosen nation (Should take about an hour) TIP - Changing Detail Level to None will make it go faster. (Remember to change it back afterwards) TIP - Saving on the day before this date may give you a better choice of teams by reloading the game then going on holiday for one day, I would strongly recommend trying this. 3) Add a new manager - Use yourself, or a created character to help build a story line a) Personal Details - Your Choice b) Tracksuit vs. Trainer - Your Choice c) Past Experience lowest Possible (Generally Sunday League) d) Coaching Licenses lowest Possible (None) e) Other options are up to you TIP - If you add the language of your country of choice it will make it easier at the beginning TIP - Training now includes you at some level depending on your abilities. 4) Choose to take over any club which has been promoted to the bottom playable league of your nation. TIP - Easiest way in FM17 to see this is on the "Season Review" screen, showing the "Promoted Clubs" TIP - You can confirm your club by checking the Domestic History's page for not being at this level since start of game 5) Retire your unemployed manager. 6) Manage your club to National Title & European Champions League Victory 7) Completing the Challenge. C) Signing of Players 1) You must be able to scout them TIP - You don't actually have to scout them, just be able to TIP - You can check your scouting range on the Scouting page 2) Alternatively (If you can't scout them), you must bring them on a trial first 3) You are able to sign anyone sent to you via Agent Offer TIP - Make sure you screenshot the Agent offer 4) In later versions you can get your DoF to find players, he will bring in players not in Scouting Range, these are also allowed. TIP - Grab a screenshot of your DoF signing them D) Posting 1) Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this) 2) Discussion of tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this) Expected Updates We have minimum expectations when it comes to a first up post and also in the end of season updates. The Bold pages are necessary for everyone; the others are some suggestions that will get others interested in your posts and following your club. All other screenshots are welcome and encouraged, but we please ask that the majority are posted as links, because lots of pictures can make the page very slow to load. First Post: Domestic Leagues History (Club) Profile (Manager) Overview (Club) Squad (Club) End of Season Updates: Transfers (Club) - This is so we can see the ins & outs League Table (Competition) Squad (Club) Information (Manager) Profile (Manager) Information (Club) Profile (Players) Progress of your club should be documented using this thread; we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing badly. If you title your end of season report in bold this makes it easier to identify. Everyone will be supportive, and really get into your game if you give more detail. E) Other 1. If you are Sacked 1. You can Restart from the beginning or; 2. Continue your game and pick a new club (Under Same Rules) at the end of the next season or; 3. Add another Euro League/Remove Current League, holiday a whole season and continue 1. You can still only have one nation running at a time 2. Once the league becomes active you MUST holiday a full season 3. The club must be one of those unplayable from the beginning 2. No Restrictions on Parent or Feeder Clubs 3. International Management allowed from FM14 forwards (But you cannot start as an International Manager) The use of any external utilities and editors (Such as Genie Scout or FMM) are prohibited. As of FM14 there are also unlockables, these are also prohibited, please don't use them. It would be appreciated if you also ticked the box at the start which prevents the use of the ingame editor. How to Post a Screenshot 1) While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard). 2) Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image 3) Save the file as a JPEG or PNG 4) Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack 5) Post the direct URL to the image here. Alternatively using ALT + F9 in game saves a screenshot to your user data folder. (You can also edit this in the shortcuts options) The Euro Nation Motivational I would like to thank all of you who choose to participate in this thread this year, and to wish everyone taking on this challenge the best of luck on a long and hard journey to managerial success! I have personally had a number of hugely enjoyable saves over the years, first in Gundos challenge and then latterly in the Big Euro Nation Challenge. The atmosphere and support these threads have historically offered is key in making the thread, and your saves more enjoyable as I can testify to. I and some of the other regulars of these threads are here to help for the new challengers and hope everybody that participates contributes considerably to the thread. There is nothing better than getting immersed not only in your own game but providing the encouragement to other people's attempts too. Remember we are all fighting the same battle - to defeat the AI (and uncover fabulous newgens!) - Therefore it goes without saying that any form of cheating will be severely chastised. Don't do it! I know that it is painful to lose a European Final or to lose the title on the final day (I have been there myself on more than one occasion) but eventual success down the line is all the sweeter for those defeats. Good luck to all the participants – Here’s to a successful (and enjoyable) version!!

[FM19] What do you mean you are going to do a Youth Only save but you don't even have a Youth team at your club? You're a flipping idiot! Don't be so bloomin stupid. How the hell is that even meant to work? Of course you need an U19 Team...... Don't you? Well actually, it would appear not. Let me explain.

Using the real world cup 2018 data file I decided to have a go at many games as as many different nations at the world cup as possible. I’ll keep my efforts for all the different nations in this one thread rather than start a new one for each time I start a new game as another nations. I’m going to try and keep the nations real squads though if we have an injury before the tournament starts I’ll have to call another player up obviously and if that nations squad isn’t whittled down to 23 by the time I come to play them I’ll have to do that myself. First up is England. As you can see we have entered a dystopian reality where Wilfred Bony had a good season. There was great shock at my England selection, though I'm susprised RLC shocked more than me selecting a goalie in Nick Pope who hadn't played a single game this season. First friendlies are against Ivory Coast and Morocco and I'm not optimistic.

INTRODUCTION In the summer of 2018, Iceland will compete in their first ever World Cup, having surprised everyone to reach the European Championship Quarter-Finals in 2016. They are undoubtedly a country on the up in international football - however, back in 2010, this was not the case. Gylfi Sigurdsson was an emerging talent, while the likes of Eidur Gudjohnsen and Gretar Steinsson were in the twilight of their careers. Even in light of their recent success as a nation, Icelandic domestic football has never achieved anything of note. My challenge is to change that. There are only two manageable divisions in Iceland, creatively named the Premier League and the First Division. There are 12 teams in each, and to give myself more of a challenge, I decided to take over at the smallest club in the First Division - Bi/Bolungarvik. This is the obvious choice - they are the only amateur side out of the 24 manageable sides, and the club is supposedly worth just £28K (the top clubs in Iceland are around the £2m mark). Torfunesvollur, the home stadium, has a capacity of just 600, and there are just 30 season ticket holders - that's not even families and friends! The challenge will be to build Bi/Bolungarvik up from pretty much nothing into the dominant force in Iceland, and eventually upset an apple cart or two in European competition. DOMESTIC STRUCTURE There are three competitions in Iceland. The domestic league season begins in early May and runs through to September, with each team playing just 22 league games per season - for my mind, this means more excitement as every game is crucial from the beginning. The Icelandic Cup runs parallel to the league season, however the Upper League Cup precedes it, running for two months from late February through to the end of April. The 24 top teams are split into 3 groups of 8, who then play each other once, with the top two from each group progressing to a Quarter-Finals (along with the two best third-placed sides). The ULC adds a good two months of competitive football onto the start of the season, and is generally taken seriously. My start date at Bi/Bolungarvik is the 22nd December 2010, so we're already halfway through the first season of the major European leagues on the game. However, the 2011 season will be my first in charge of the only amateur side in Iceland. We're predicted to finish rock bottom (two teams are relegated and two teams are promoted, there are no Playoffs of any kind), so my aim for the first season is simply to be as competitive as possible and survive in the First Division. Before the 2011 ULC begins, I need to strengthen the playing squad, and organise some friendlies. The challenge starts now!

Knattspyrnufélag Rangæinga We start our journey in the fifth tier of the icelandic league system, the 4. Deild Karla Group B. As an amateur club, and with no resources whatsoever I will never buy players, just use whatever the youth intakes give me. And we will see how far we will go! This is pretty good for a team in this league. The Manager Warg Wargolini is a total newbie in the football world, he has never watched a single game of football. What made him want to manage Knattspyrnufélag Rangæinga? We have no idea... The Squad This is our team for this season, and it's, okay, I guess. No depth whatsoever, but we have to live with that until we get our first youth players. This is also our best starting eleven in my opinion. "Star" players And for some reason, the earliest possible starting date in the game was 13th March, and the League Cup had already started, so these four games was already played. I will be doing three to four updates per season, and if something special happens. EDIT This is the file I used for this save. https://community.sigames.com/topic/415725-fm18-released-full-icelandic-pyramid-5-tiers/

If, after reading some of my long-winded drivel, you somehow find that you could do with more of my drivel to read, then a lot of my stuff can be found in the following threads. Some of the threads will be mind, and others will have shared contributions. Either way, if you like what you read in this thread, then the following threads might be enjoyable too. If on the other hand you think I am boring, need to get a life, and what the hell is it with all those nicknames and will you just shut up about Professionalism, tutoring and just go and buy some players, then the following are probably not for you. [FM17] Football, fire and ice: The inside story of Iceland's remarkable rise. In the build-up to EURO 2016, I was reading a Guardian article that I was linked to on twitter, and while the whole article was great, there was a single little paragraph that resonated with me and the way that I play FM. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/08/iceland-stunning-rise-euro-2016-gylfi-sigurdsson-lars-lagerback?CMP=share_btn_tw "Take some small task and do it to death". That sounds like my mantra for FM. The concise very definition of the way I play. From a Target Man winning 67 consecutive headers in FMwhateveritwas, (just because someone said it couldn't be done), and San Marino winning the World Cup, (again, you can't do it without cheating!), to goal-scoring GK's, (that's ridiculous, you will never get past 50!) and Youth only saves, (boring, I stopped reading at the top of page 1), I suppose the way I play FM has always been...... unusual. So Iceland seemed to suit me, (and of course I have never managed there which is an attraction too). Another attraction is that we rarely see others managing in Iceland. San Marino is all the rage now, (at least it was last year, even when you kept getting sacked 8 years into the NT job), and Gibraltar is popular with the official structure add-on being released every season now. But Iceland are neither too rubbish to be a "proper challenge" for idiots like me, nor good enough to be managed in more commonly. As for which club I was going to be, well I was torn. Initially, my plan was, (as usual), to go on holiday for 1 season and then select one of the teams that were promoted into the bottom playable League, but this was different. The article I linked to above mentioned Breidablik specifically and how, with the arrival of the economic meltdown, they were the 1st to discard expensive foreigners and rely on home produced Youth *** I was reluctant to start with a team in the Úrvalsdeild, (that's the Premier League to you and me), so instead I looked lower down in 1. deild karla, (that's the First Division to you and me). Semi-Pro, (check), Synthetc pitch, (check), Council owned stadia, (check), Great youth facilities, (check) and Well established youth recruitment, (check). Predicted to finish 7th of 12 teams in the FM16 game. No affiliated clubs, (so they're not a feeder which I was worried about), not a single non-Icelandic player, (check), and just 1 single player with senior International experience. Jóhannes Karl Guðjónsson doesn't ring any bells to me, but he has played at Villa, Wolves, Leicester, Burnley and Huddersfield. I may not recognise the name, but I certainly recognise the career. That's Joey Gudjonsson to you and me. Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs is a bit of a mouthful, but thankfully they are more commonly known as HK. The club dates back to 1969, but was officially established on 26 January 1970. Originally only a handball team, with the football team established in 1992. The summer of 2007 saw the football team play for the first time in the Icelandic top division, the Úrvalsdeild. The club were relegated in their second season to the second tier and were again relegated to the third tier in 2011. I've been going through the current (ISL) senior International squad and seeing how many, (if any), have been produced by HK. Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson is a centre-back who moved from HK on to West Ham before joining Bochum in Germany and onto Rosenborg in Norway. Rúrik Gíslason is a winger who moved on to Anderlecht and Charlton, before going through Viborg and OB in Denmark before settling at FC Kobenhavn. Kolbeinn Sigþórsson is one of the stars of the current (ISL) National side and although the big striker is currently at Nantes in France, he was snapped up by Dutch side AZ after just 5 games and 1 goal for HK in his debut season as a 16 year old. Good performances for AZ brought a £4.3M move to Ajax, but despite a decent scoring record in Holland, he was sold at a loss to Nantes last year, (where he certainly didn't set the World alight). So there is some degree of pedigree to the players that the club has produced in the past and certainly enough to fill me with optimism. I wonder if we produced a certain young man by the name of Orri Freyr Oskarsson though...... No. It seems that he was produced by Þór and whether it was as a result of a collapsed lung, or a change in name, he was never able to reach the heights in real life that many of us, (including myself), saw him achieve in game. Some say he was greedy, but I put this down to him actually being deaf in one ear, (it's true I tell you!) The reason for his decline from scoring 48 goals in 92 games for Þór could well be down to the serious issue of a collapsed lung, but it's equally probably that it's as a result of his pre-match diet of hamburger, chips and Pepsi, (again, I tell you it's true!), but you also have to remember that the (ISL) leagues were sponsored by..... yes, you guessed it, Pepsi, back then. I have had a look at the FM16 HK squad and it was pleasing that although all were Icelandic, we did have a single solitary 2nd Nationality. (I love a 2nd Nationality for some reason, possibly because I am English but to Irish and Scottish parents). That the 2nd Nationality was Nepalese, (yes really), is just a bonus, because I have never seen a single Nepalese FM player ever never mind about had one in my squad. I hope he's still in the FM17 squad. The first thing that jumps out at me, (looking at the FM16 HK squad), is that where as the default setting for a Serbian player in FM seemed to be between Balanced and Fairly Ambitious, (neither of which I am keen on at all), the default personality for an Icelandic player, seems to be between Balanced and Fairly Sporting. Fairly Sporting Spo 15-20, Pro & Det & Amb & Loy all 1-14 That doesn't look good at all. (Pro) and (Det) both at 1-14. If it was Sporting rather than (F.Sport), things would be better because it would look like this. Sporting Spo 18-19, Det 1-9, Pro 5-20 Potentially lower (Det), but potentially higher (Pro). Looking at the squad, (again, I am talking about the FM16 squad, then I have 1x (F.Pro) player, and that's it. The actual make-up of last season squad is as follows. 14x (Bal) 1x (L.Hearted) 1x (F.Pro) 10x (F.Sport) 3x (F.Loyal) 1x (F.Det) 3x (F.Amb) 1x (Amb) 1x (Sport) 1x (Resilient) 1x (Honest) 1x (Spirited) I think it's safe to say that we are going to need some tutors on the hurry-up. With that in mind, I need to have a think about what my self-imposed rules are going to be. In my Partizan save I started off by saying that I would only sign Serbian players, but then relaxed it to allow myself to sign non-Serbian non-playing tutors, but obviously Iceland doesn't have quite the infrastructure that Serbia has. I'm tempted to relax my initial rules to include all Scandinavians, (and still allow myself to sign non-playing tutors from absolutely everywhere), but with the idea being that I will slowly wean myself off non-Icelandic Scaninavians and then ultimately, even non-home-grown Icelanders. I'm not sure how realistic this is going to be, but that's my thinking anyway. Having never managed in Iceland, (and only just becoming aware that they have a rule of a maximum of 3 non-EU players in the squad, (why don't England do that?), I'm not sure at this stage what sort of players are going to appear on my scouting list, but I guess I will use the above as a start and maybe refine/relax things as I go depending on how I am getting on. I just have a Senior squad and an U19 squad which is a little strange for me, so it seems that from quite an early stage in the save I am going to have to improve at selling/releasing players and/or get a feeder club going in order to get some of the fringe players loaned out and playing competitive football. We will probably need to get promoted before we can loan players out into a playable league, (and there is absolutely no guarantee of that), and even then the 1.deild, (Icelandic 2nd League), has a rule whereby each match squad can only have a maximum of 4 loan players, (so 1 single feeder club in the league below is just not going to cut it). Maybe I shold load the Faroe Island sructure, but that isn't going to be playable from the off so I guess that's a no-go. Decisions decisions decisions. Something that should be mentioned at this juncture is that in real life it takes 7 years for foreigners to gain Icelandic Nationality, (but only 4 years for other Scandinavians). It should also be mentioned that being born in Iceland to non-Icelandic parents does not in itself entitle you to Icelandic citizenship. The next... problem, predicament, whatever you want to call it, is that because it's very cold in Iceland, their season actually runs from May to September, so by the time I start my save, we will in all likelyhood, gone through pre-season and...... actually, hang on, that's not right. If their season finishes in September, and the game doesn't come out until Novemeber, then in my FM16 save, why am I looking at a fixture list which says that we have already gone through pre-season, and played 6 out of 7 Deildabikar Group B games? (No, I don't have a clue either but we will see in the 2nd season I guess). Ok. This is a disaster. I have just looked to extend the contract of 1 player and the option for an additional "option" on the player did not exist. Is this an Icelandic thing? This could kill the save before it begins! Right from the off my plan is to select players based on PA rather than CA, and hope that I have enough guile about me in order that we don't get relegated and I don't get sacked. Based upon previous saves, this is not a foregone conclusion. 2 go down from a league of 12, so I just have to finish higher than 2 others. That's doable, (even with 16 year olds, isn't it....)

Welcome to my Scandinavian Challenge! My Aim is to win every domestic title in Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark! This is me, an Unemployed Former Semi-Pro who had to cut his career short due to injury, he decided to go into coaching a quickly got his UEFA 'B' Badge and is ready to take the challenge of the Scandinavian Countries. Hope you stick around for the adventure!

Hi The game crashed when I pressed the hot link "STAGES" over the league table on the Pre-Match window on game day. See image. Has never happened to me before. Im managing UMF Grindavik in the Icelandic second division, first season. The game crashed again when I did exactly the same. The text in the image says basicly that the game stopped working, in norwegian.