Fantasy CONCACAF

Toronto Blizzard · March 12, 2012

The culmination of the past eight months, I present to you… a fantasy CONCACAF file.

This file has been created with the advanced rules, which allows multiple nation rules in a single file, along with continental rules.

Fantasy structures for the following countries are included:

Canada

USA

Mexico

Guatemala

Honduras

El Salvador

Nicaragua

Panama

Costa Rica

Jamaica

Trinidad and Tobago

In addition, there are multiple continental competitions.

All clubs in the Canadian and American pyramids have stadiums, kits, finances, supporters’ profiles, affiliates and rivals.

With the burgeoning growth of soccer in America, big European clubs have established academies to reap the benefits of this relatively untapped market. Manchester United, Chelsea, Ajax, Barcelona, Arsenal and Bayern Munich have all established amateur youth academies that have been entered into the lowest level of the American pyramid.

Known Issues:

1. In order to get the American teams to generate players in an advanced editor file, I had to place the American leagues in another country (in this case, St. Martin, renamed USA). The clubs are still based in the actual USA and the newgens are all still American, but the flag when you load the game will look like France’s flag:

When loading the game, choose the USA with the French flag (the USA with the American flag will not work). The only place this really becomes an issue is in the continental competitions, where the wrong flag will appear next to the American teams. If someone who’s handy with graphics wants to fix this, I’d be very appreciative.

2. Youth intake players in the USA are all 17, whereas in other countries they’re 14 or 15. This appears to be hard-coded with American-based teams when using the advanced rules.

3. No matter what I do, I can’t get the CONCACAF Champions League to register the winner in the history every year; it works about 75% of the time. I’ve spent months trying to fix this, but finally decided that I just wanted to finish the file and that I would warn people in advance. The worst that will happen is that you’ll win the CCL in one of those years and not get to play in the Club World Cup or gain the manager points. Sorry.

Other Tips/Suggestions:

• Tick the boxes for “Add key staff” and “Add players to playable teams”

• Add all American and Canadian players to the database

• The majority of the new teams in Canada and the USA start with only a handful of senior players and a load of U18s/U19s. You need to build your squad quickly.

• If you’re trying to filter players by American nationality, you’ll see “American” appears twice – one is for players who are from the re-named America, while the second is for actual American players. If you get no results or minimal results, choose the second “American”.

• The way the continental competitions are set-up, you will get the same team every year from competitions that are available in the game but not loaded. I would recommend loading at least all the top leagues from these CONCACAF countries as view-only.

This file has been simulated in holiday mode for 20 years and played through 3 full seasons. Please report any bugs or issues in this thread, rather than in official bugs forums.

Download: http://www.box.com/s/u1b8moikvapriizy5lnp

Toronto Blizzard · March 12, 2012

Here is a breakdown of the various national structures:

United States:

Major League Soccer

18 teams (New York Cosmos and St. Louis Stars added)

8 teams enter playoffs

Bottom 2 relegated

A number of US internationals have returned to join these new MLS clubs, such as Clint Dempsey (NY Cosmos), Maurice Edu (St. Louis), Onguchi Onyewu (NY Cosmos) and Brad Guzan (NY Cosmos). New York Cosmos club president, Pele, has even pulled strings in his homeland to lure Brazil’s hottest young star to the Big Apple... NEYMAR!

The two MLS Cup finalists qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League automatically, while the remaining six playoff teams compete in a qualifying round to determine the two other Champions League qualifiers. The four teams that do not qualify from this qualifying round enter the SuperLiga.

Major League Soccer-2

18 teams

8 teams enter playoffs – finalists promoted

Bottom team plays winner of APSL in promotion/relegation playoff

American Professional Soccer League

18 teams

8 teams enter playoffs – winner plays bottom MLS-2 team for promotion/relegation

Bottom 2 relegated

American Soccer Championship

18 teams

8 teams enter playoffs, finalists promoted

Bottom 2 relegated

United States Soccer League

32 teams (16 in USSL – East; 16 USSL – West)

8 teams enter playoffs in each league; 2 winners play for USSL Championship

Bottom team from each league relegated

National Soccer League

80 teams (10 teams in 8 different regional leagues)

4 teams from each leagues enter league playoff; winner enters NSL Championship

Finalists promoted

Cups:

In addition to the existing US Open Cup, which has been expanded to include all 184 clubs in the American pyramid as well as non-league clubs, the following cups have been added to the US soccer calendar. The winner and finalist qualify for the CONCACAF Copa Plata.

President’s Cup – a super cup pitting the MLS Cup champion against the winner of the US Open Cup.

National Challenge Cup – involves clubs in the ASC, USSL and NSL, plus non-league clubs.

Regional Cups – six regional cups

Two friendly international cups have also been launched to generate excitement (and revenue):

The Americas Cup takes the winner of the US Open Cup, the Canadian Soccer League champion, and clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Colombia in a knock-out tournament. This cup is played in February in the southern US.

The World Football Challenge pits some of the world’s most storied clubs against the MLS Cup winner and finalist. This knock-out cup is played in the north eastern US in July.

Canada:

BlackBerry Canadian Soccer League

16 teams

Bottom 3 relegated

In addition to the three current Canadian MLS clubs, and FC Edmonton of the NASL, the remaining 12 CSL clubs are resurrected from the original CSL of 1987-1992.

Many Canadian internationals have returned home to join the fledgling league. More controversially, another Canadian, who was born and raised in Canada but elected to play for England, has returned to his hometown of Calgary - Owen Hargreaves. Hargreaves has instantly become polarising figure in the CSL – supporters of his new club, Calgary Kickers, have warmed to the hometown boy who played one some of the world’s biggest stages. Supporters of the rest of the country (and the Canadian Men’s National Team) still see him as Canada’s archetype soccer traitor, in whose footsteps to representing other nations Begovic and de Guzman followed.

The top two clubs qualify for the Champions League and the third-placed team qualifies for the SuperLiga.

Magna Canadian Soccer League 2

16 teams

Top 3 promoted

Bottom 3 relegated

Bombardier Canadian Soccer League 3

16 teams

Top 3 promoted

Bottom 2 relegated

Canadian Regional Soccer League

64 teams (16 teams in 4 different regional leagues)

Top 2 teams from each league go to Canadian Regional Soccer League Championship

Finalists promoted

Cups:

The Canadian Champions Cup has been re-branded as the Voyageurs Cup, to reflect the official name for the championship trophy, named after the Canadian national team supporters’ group, the Voyageurs, which donated the cup in 2002.

All teams in the Canadian soccer pyramid compete for this cup. The winner and finalist qualify for the CONCACAF Copa Plata.

Rogers Canadian Super Cup – The curtain-opener on the season, the winners of the CSL and Voyageurs Cup compete for the super cup in March.

Duke of Connaught Cup – Donated in 1912 by the Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada, this cup was the earliest national championship of Canada. The Duke of Connaught Cup has been resurrected as a lower league cup (CSL-3, CRSL and lower league teams).

Regional Cups – five regional cups

The Canadian system has two international friendly competitions of its own:

Governor General’s Dominions Cup – Hosted at the King George V stadium in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the province’s two clubs face off against Canada’s Voyageurs Cup winner, as well as teams from other former British Dominions (India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland).

Northern League – The CSL runner-up (the CSL champion plays in the Americas Cup friendly tournament) joins clubs from Russia, Norway and Sweden in a one-stage round robin.

Mexico:

Five divisions

Each has playoffs; lower divisions have relegation playoffs

Copa Mexico

Champions League Qualifying

Supercup

Top 2 teams in Primera qualify for Champions League

Top 2 teams in Champions League Qualifying qualify for Champions League; next 2 qualify for SuperLiga.

Costa Rica:

3 divisions, split after 2 rounds (Scottish-style)

Top 2 qualify for Champions League and Copa Centroamericana; third-placed team qualifies for SuperLiga

Copa Nacional (finalists qualify for Copa Plata)

Honduras:

2 divisions, split after 2 rounds