St Cecilia: A Caribbean Odyssey

[simsy91]

Allow me to introduce myself and my footballing challenge. I have devised a database for the fictional Caribbean island of St. Cecilia, my aim being to rise through their national pyramid, enter the continental tournaments, and lastly (and most ambitiously) challenge the top Mexican and American clubs in the region.

I hope you can indulge me in this- I've found it really rewarding to create a database for a fictional nation, and been able to draw up maps, place names, kits etc. It has really brought out the child in me! I will upload the database when all finally verified in case anyone would like to take a look.

GEOGRAPHY

Link to map

St. Cecilia is located about 30 miles west of Dominica in the Windward Isles, in the heart of the Caribbean sea. It is approximately 55 miles long and 25 miles wide, and is home to approximately 1.8 million people. The capital city is Bedford (population 400,000), and there are eight parishes. A number of small islands are also part of the country. I based my country culturally and demographically on Jamaica, and physically on Dominica. There are mountain ranges and rainforests, but also plains and beaches.

HISTORY

St. Cecilia was discovered in November 1493 by Christopher Columbus on his maiden voyage across the Atlantic. It was named 'Sabadero' as it was first sighted on a Saturday; the day before Dominica (Sunday) was sighted for the first time. Claimed by Spain, she was taken over by France in the 17th century. The invaders were confined to the south-east of the country by the natives until 1795 when Britain assumed control of the island. Even now though, the parishes in the south-east still retain their Spanish/French influence, even speaking their own creole language called Carreguen to this day. Becoming an important colony in the area, it was visited by Queen Victoria & Prince Albert in 1869, following admission into the British Windward Islands. St. Cecilia was bestowed its present name in 1908 by King Edward VII, after wealthy nobleman Sir Stanley Bolson retired to the island, bringing with him his famed possession- a relic of St. Cecilia, a 2nd century Roman saint.

St. Cecilia was on the verge of receiving independence in the 1970s when St. Swithun's Mount erupted, causing devastation on the island. St. Cecilia remained under British rule until 2012, in which conditions British culture, including football, thrived. The favourable terrain made excellent conditions for sport, and football in particular, and in time a regional league was set up. Following independence, St. Cecilia applied to join FIFA, where they were accepted in early 2015. The league structures were formalised into a national system, and come June 2015, the birth of a footballing nation was imminent.

LEAGUE STRUCTURE

There is a 6-tier league structure, as follows;

• All-Star League: 14 clubs
• Challenge League: 16 clubs
• First Division: 16 clubs
• Second Division: 16 clubs
• Third Division: 34 clubs split across 2 leagues
• Fourth Division: 68 clubs split across 4 leagues

Continental qualification is as follows:

• All-Star League winner qualifies for the North American Champions League (qualifying round)
• Runner up and third qualifies for the Caribbean League (group stage and qualification rounds respectively)

CUP STRUCTURE

There is a national FA Cup involving all 168 teams.

Furthermore, each parish has its own end-of-season tournament, (starting in the bottom left of the map above and working clockwise);

• Lamina Island Plate
• Bedford & District Cup
• Central Shield
• St. Mary's Prize
• Plymouth Reach Crown
• Cornwallis Mountains Medal
• Copa de Sabadero
• Coupe de Molinquais

The winners of each regional tournament come together every year in November, for the main football festival on the island- the St. Cecilia's Relic. All other domestic football stops for a month and the eight teams, each cheered on by their own parish, play their way through a group stage and semi-final. The final is held on St. Cecilia's day, November 22nd, in the grounds of the Cathedral of St. Cecilia, the only time this stadium is ever used. Due to the historical value of the prize, it is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the region and nets the winner a cool £2m.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

As a musician, I had to call my fictional Caribbean island St. Cecilia, after the patron saint of music. I also had to write their national anthem too (am I taking this too far?...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XGVhER_F7o

AIM OF THE GAME

I have made St Cecilia roughly the same reputation as Barbados; it is the 14th-strongest nation on the continent. My aim is to build up the reputation further of the country, all the while taking a team from the lower reaches and making them strong domestically. Having built up my own reputation, I would aim to take the international job, and aim for qualification for the Gold Cup, the Commonwealth Games and maybe even a shot at a World Cup berth.

Any questions let me know!

[Muttley84]

Well, good luck with this. I appreciate the time and work you put into this. Their flag is awfull though, you shoul go with something a bit more... caribbean, and reflect that on the national team kits too.

[Kuji]

I will follow this, good luck!

[Toads]

I'll follow this, so good luck!

[oriole01]

Definitely following. I'm in the midst of a creating a similar project in the editor, so something like this should keep my motivation levels up to get it done someday. Good luck!

[oche balboa]

Looks good this 

[simsy91]

Thanks guys!

So rather than applying for managerial vacancies at the top of the game, to make it a bit more realistic I waited until part-way through the season when managers started to be sacked. I was rewarded with a job offer from third-tier side Kimbolton North End.

Kimbolton North End FC is based in the suburb of Kimbolton, in the north-east of the capital city of Bedford, on the edge of the plains that stretch to the north. They play home matches at John Roe's Field, with a capacity of 5,000. Predicted 4th at the start of the season, The Villagers were the first team in the country to sack their manager after Reuben Henry was given the boot just eight (!) games into the league season with the team in last place. Following a good run under caretaker management, at the winter break Kimbolton NE lie in 11th place, but only 3 points above the drop.

Kimbolton North End's biggest rivals are Kimbolton FC, who play in the next league up and are very much the more dominant of the pair. Local city rivals in our league right now are Lightfoot Springs and St. Ethelburga's. We are already knocked out of the cup having lost to lowly Westhampton Pier in the second round.

The squad have a bit of promise and are on a bit of a run at the moment. I seem to have a number of very promising 17-19 year olds who I will build my team around. The board want me to both use our youth players and to sign others, and I now have a transfer window to look forward to bolstering my squad. It seems I have the most impatient chairman in the country so results will have to be on the money straight away. With half the games already played, this year will be about consolidating our position in the league and then look to have a run in the end-of-season Bedford & District parish cup, although we are drawn in a group with national giants Bedford Masters and only the top team qualifies for the latter rounds.

Will update at the end of the season!

[LATB]

Outstanding work. 

Did you simulate future seasons to test the editor will work? 

[simsy91]

Thanks LATB. I ran a couple of test saves for approx 8-10 seasons to ensure everything was in order. I've also added a Commonwealth Games tournament with regional qualification, to give my country a better chance at international qualification. It seems to run ok and has thrown up some intriguing results!

[ManchesterCentralFUN]

Are you going to add graphics

[simsy91]

End of SEASON 1- 2015/16

A mixed bag over the second half of the season, a few decent results against teams top of the table, but not enough points taken from teams around us. In the end, we finished in 11th- exactly where we were when I took over! Second half of the season was a marginal improvement- 18 points gained instead of 16. We were never really in relegation bother and without a poor run towards the end of the season we could've pushed a little more mid-table.

Fixtures:

League:

The title was so close- New Lundy won it, despite not being top until the last day of the season! Going into the last day, any one of six teams could have won it! We took some great results off the big teams, including a 2-0 win against Porte Bonlefouer, but in the very next game we lost to last-placed Lightfoot Springs.

FA Cup: Knocked out before I joined.

Parish Cup:

In the local District cup, we finished second in the group; trouble was only the top team qualifies! Against Bedford Masters, who had just finished 4th in the Super League, we held out for 80 minutes before falling to a narrow 1-0 defeat. They went on to win the group comfortably.

I made several signings through the window, including Ranelie Cain from Five Parish Point, who was voted the club player of the season. I was lucky in the update to be blessed with a great regen- Chevon Delfish, who despite his age (16) is comfortably my best striker. I need to strengthen with some more solid defenders and a decent goalkeeper too. Early previews to next-season points to a mid-table finish being the aim.

NATIONAL TEAM

The national team played several friendlies, with a mixed set of results, but finished off the year with an impressive 3-0 friendly victory over the Bahamas. Current world ranking: 187th

[simsy91]

Season 2- Mid-season update

A really promising first-half to the season has left me top (just) at the winter break. It's been a real three-horse race at the top so far, with myself, last year's 3rd placed Morgan, and the newly promoted Mero. I had a great start to the season, unbeaten for the first nine games. After a few iffy results, including letting in injury time goals to Porte Bonlefouer and St. David's City, I had two massive away wins against my title rivals- if I'd lost them both I'd be out of it, but I won away, including on Mero's sandy pitch (!) to take top spot at the winter break.

This season has been overshadowed so far by a board takeover. As soon as the window opened, I signed two goalkeepers, Carlos Young and Rohan Dainty, both of whom were better than last year's no.1 George Haynes. I also signed the interestingly named Fladimir Williams, who last season won the First Division and was the league's top scorer with 18 goals. It's a good job I did- due to the takeover, an embargo was placed upon me about a week into the summer transfer window. I missed out on the rest of the window and it is STILL ongoing... I've just missed out on the entirety of the winter transfer window too!!!! Luckily, most of my players have stayed, bar a couple of departures. It's just so frustrating to not be able to sign anybody! I've had it before in the game, but never for more than a month. I just hope this gets resolved soon as my squad is starting to run thin, and if I can I will bring in some free signings.

On a more positive note, a really promising season in the FA Cup so far. In the second round we beat Longtown Ravens, from two leagues above us, in extra time. A couple of other wins against lower league sides was followed by a win against Firbanks, one league above us but struggling. This put us through to the quarters, where we have been drawn at home to fellow First-Division side Catherine's Lighthouse in a very winnable tie. Get through that and we could be in the semi's- let's see what happens!

[ManchesterCentralFUN]

ey is it possible if I could have the database to play

[Toads]

17 hours ago, ManchesterCentralFUN said:

ey is it possible if I could have the database to play

I second this