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Hi All,

For anyone interested I am currently in the process of building a custom extended Northern Irish league system.

I am currently working on an initial file that I will upload that will include all regional divisions and clubs but no structure that if you want you can use as a base to create your own league structures. I'll aim to populate as much information as I can gather re stadiums etc although this gets tough past around level 5/6 when we start getting into pub teams etc.

I then intend on uploading 2 different league structures, one with current NI money/rep and one alternate reality version where after Sky lost all English premier rights to a BT bid they opted that after NI's breakthrough tournament in France to equal the monies received for TV to NI clubs to help improve the clubs and talent coming through...second one is obviously just for a bit of fun to see what would happen should the phenomenal amount of money going into England would do if it went to a lower tier nation :)

Most people will be aware there isn't much of an official pyramid past tier 4 although the tier four divisions do have extended structures underneath its a bit sketchy with qualifying rules etc. on how to get teams up and down the pyramid. So with this in mind I will be taking a little bit of artistic license on how to get it to operate in the most logical way based on regions. 

Leagues included will be as follows:

  • Northern Irish Football League
  • Northern Amateur Football League
  • Mid Ulster Football League
  • Ballymena and Provincial Football League
  • Northern Irish Intermediate League
  • Fermanagh and Western Football League
  • Belfast and District Football League
  • North West Junior Football League
  • North West Saturday Morning League
  • Newcastle and District Football League
  • Carnbane (Newry) Football League
  • Linsdale Football League
  • Belfast Sunday Morning Football
  • Ballymena Saturday Morning Football League
  • Coleraine and District Football League
  • Down Area Winter Football League
  • Hutchinson Tiles Winter League
  • South Antrim Football League

I have currently populated down to what would be (roughly speaking) level 11 with a remaining 4-5 levels to go. A major point to note the further down the pyramid is a LOT of Reserve, 3rd and even 4th teams so unless strictly stated as a reserve league i.e. NAFL 3A-F, I will keep the division in the pyramid as in most cases there are top teams mixed in amongst the reserves (small nation effect) I actually think it makes t a bit of fun if your main club gets up to the top level but you can also play lower tier with your reserves as well :)

I'll keep this thread updated with progress and files when they come.

Cheers

Radz

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Fully completed leagues so far:

  • Northern Irish Football League (3 Divs)
  • Northern Amateur Football League (7 Divs)
  • Ballymena and Provincial Football League (4 Divs)
  • Northern Irish Intermediate League (Single Div)
  • Ballymena Saturday Morning Football League (3 Divs)
  • Coleraine and District Football League (2 Divs)
  • Hutchinson Tiles Winter League (Single Div)

So 21 complete so far. I'm hotting territory now where FM doesnt have any teams for the majority of the renaining leagues so a lot more work involved. Am aiming to complete a league division a night at least.

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2 hours ago, Matty435 said:

This would be great. Very interested in it.

Let me know if you need any info on the Mid Ulster league structures and I can help with it

Thanks @Matty435 I'll give you a shout if I do, thankfully its one of the better documented leagues with a fairly decent website!

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Additional leagues completed Belfast & District Football League  (4 Divisions) So I'm up to 25 division and 391 active clubs.

Currently working on Belfast Sunday morning League and will move on to Down Area and District after that.

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Completed Belfast Sunday Premier Football League (Single division) and Down Area Winter League (2 divs) tonight. DAWFL does show 4 divs on their website but as 2A and 2B seem to be solely reserve league with a heap of 3/4th teams I have left them off. (Also the editor will only let 2 reserve teams be created per team so when the likes of Abbey Villa have 4 teams it won't allow.

I will be moving on to the Newcastle and Carnbane (Newry) leagues this weekend and that will be the second full regional system complete

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Wow - very in depth. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. You've mentioned cups there, regards Mid Ulster then are you intending to add the likes to Marshall Cup (all MUFL) as well as the the Premier, Alan Wilson, Alexandra, Foster, Beckett and John Magee divisional cups?

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@Matty435 I'm still researching into exact cups as I'm concentrating on filling the leagues out first. I will be attempting to get all the cups I can find into the game. According to the Mid Ulster site http://www.midulsterfootballleague.co.uk/Home.aspx they list the following. Are they set out as you say Marshall (All teams) Then on a divisional basis below that? Thats good to know thanks!

Wilmor and O'Hara are reserve cups and to be honest at this stage I'm keeping the reserves as FM standard because of the nature of most of NI's reserve leagues it will be difficult to replicate (although I will give it a go in a later version)

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51 minutes ago, Radz said:

@Matty435 I'm still researching into exact cups as I'm concentrating on filling the leagues out first. I will be attempting to get all the cups I can find into the game. According to the Mid Ulster site http://www.midulsterfootballleague.co.uk/Home.aspx they list the following. Are they set out as you say Marshall (All teams) Then on a divisional basis below that? Thats good to know thanks!

Wilmor and O'Hara are reserve cups and to be honest at this stage I'm keeping the reserves as FM standard because of the nature of most of NI's reserve leagues it will be difficult to replicate (although I will give it a go in a later version)

Yes the cups run by the MUFL are as below

Marshall Cup - All MUFL First teams
Premier Cup - Intermediate A
Alan Wilson Cup - Intermediate B
Alexandra Cup - Division 1
Foster Cup - Division 2
Beckett Cup - Division 3
John Magee Memorial Cup - Division 4

Wilmor Johnston Cup, O'Hara Cup and Mid Ulster League Cup are as you say all Reserve competitions and not as straightforward!

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@Matty435 thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Further update Newcaslte  District and Carnbane leagues have been filled. There's currently 425 playable clubs (not including their reserves, B, II or III teams) with the Ballymena and NAFL regional structures completed.

I'm now moving on to complete the Mid Ulster league region consisting of MUFL, South Antrim FL and Lonsdale league.

Mid ulster FL will come first and is currently full to Div 1 Divs 2,3 and 4 are only partially complete.

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  • 3 weeks later...

FINALLY all 495 playable teams (plus the additional 2-300 reserve teams) are now in place across 52 playable divisions.

Working through entering the cups now before I begin on the structure. this is a MUCH bigger project that I anticipated and am now remembering why I gave up on some of the lower leagues in 2014!

There are a lot of difficulties around FA cups such as Steel and Sons, Mid ulster, NW, Antrim Shield on how to tackle the relegation of 'senior' registered teams I'm not sure how to have a competition pick only select teams IF they're in a division... this may have to be a glitch in my game I guess.

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This is a very ambitious project. I used to always play in the NI leagues in previous versions & when the last game came out thought I would do what you are doing, but gave up due to its complexity. After reading what was available I had an idea how it was set up, but  I knew it was incorrect so eventually gave up. If you finish the database I might look to play it, though haven't bought this years version yet, but I am interested playing in the lower leagues.

Wish you all the best completing it.

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On 12/30/2016 at 21:59, YOUNGSTEVE said:

This is a very ambitious project. I used to always play in the NI leagues in previous versions & when the last game came out thought I would do what you are doing, but gave up due to its complexity. After reading what was available I had an idea how it was set up, but  I knew it was incorrect so eventually gave up. If you finish the database I might look to play it, though haven't bought this years version yet, but I am interested playing in the lower leagues.

Wish you all the best completing it.

Thanks, I've given it a run through without cups for 3 seasons and all looking good, Have added County Antrim cups NIFL and IFA cup comps and am running it through. 

 

Aiming to add Mid ulster Cups and Ballymena Cups this week then although there are literally more cup competitions than actual league I'm going to purposely limit lower leagues to one cup competition

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@Matty435 @YOUNGSTEVE 

All finished and currently running a 3 year sim. Ran 2 sepereate 1 year sims with no issues so going for a long sim to cover some bases.

A quick breakdown of what the system is. I've expanded and filled the 18 Senior/Intermediate/Junior leagues with a total of 52 individual divisions.

There are 495 first teams available although there are an additional 100(ish) B/Res/II/2nd teams riddled throughout the lower divisions so in some instances you can play 2 divisions with the one team which can be a bit of fun!

League Pyramid

I've attached an image of the full pyramid structure I've managed to put together. I'll give a quick explanation of reasonings behind it. In reality NI ony goes down to level 4 although it is difficult for level 4 teams to get into the top teir dues to regulations of pitches and operating status.

In level 4 there are 4 main regional divisions 3 of which have their own league structures, NAFL, MUFL and Ballymena and Provincial. The 4th league is the Intermediate League (essentially North Western) which is a little bit of a remnant of a previous structure before the Championship was split into 2 a few tears back.

With these 4 main regions defined I have kept that leg structure and extended further down using smaller divisions thats are based closest to the main regions (This is partly because it was the simplest way of getting a promotion/relegation system using the basic rules but also becaus ethere is no defined 'level' for the other leagues)

There is an exception to this where I have allowed 3 leagues to gain promotion through the Down Area Winter League into the NAFL system, this is because there are a lot more leagues based around this regional scope and if I were to just have each league eventually come through each other it would go down to level 25 which I felt was a bit much JUST for this region!

Promotion and relegation is fairly simple with a 2 up 2 down method in most cases. The promotion/relegation play off between Danske Prem and Championship still exists, there is a play off between the 4 region divisions in Level 4 with 2 teams promoted into the Premier Intermediate league. The last play off is between the 3 divsions into the Diwn Area Winter league with 3 teams going from the playoff.

Cups

Were a little more difficult due to some being based on region and this option isnt available in the basic rules.

Irish Cup is essentially as is with a slightly more rigid divisions included rather than 'paid intermediate entry or invote' for lower teams. I've dropped reserve teams from Intermediate Cup and Steel & Sons cup for simplicity, Regional FA cups exist in a manner but please note I had to select specific teams so promotion/relegation of teams wont make much of a change here for senior cups like CA Shield etc.

All NAFL and MUFL cups are included with as best as I could, Ballymena and North West Cups exists but I had to drop some of the lesser cups due to fixture congestion and the season never finishing/overrunning

All lower leagues have at least one cup competition again a lot were dropped due to fixture congestion and season ranges.

Finally, once my test runs have ran ok a few times I'll upload and yoh can have a play away, I hope you enjoy taking Newtown Forest from the South Antrim league or The Dons from Lonsdale to compete with the big lads in the Danske premier and Champions league glory!!

Also please pass on the word that this exists I'm sure there's some interest out there in this!

Cheers

Radz

 

IMG_6065.PNG

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Excellent. Look forward to giving it a try and thanks for all the work you've put in to it. Will be taking my own club from the depths of Mid Ulster and I know there's a few other lads at our club also play FM who'll fancy giving this a go

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57 minutes ago, Matty435 said:

Excellent. Look forward to giving it a try and thanks for all the work you've put in to it. Will be taking my own club from the depths of Mid Ulster and I know there's a few other lads at our club also play FM who'll fancy giving this a go

No worries hopefully have it uploaded this evening! Also forgot to mention I've dropped the European play offs because they were killing fixture and season times (and to be honest I think they're pointless in real life as well!)

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