Affiliate options - how are they determined?

[rc1269]

I'm playing in my second season as AC Milan.  Last year I added a "foreign affiliate to recruit youth players."  Which, in theory increases the odds I get a player come into my youth intake from their club/nation.  That's all fine and good and what I intended.  Here's the issue - how does the system determine from which countries I can select a club?

It is my assumption that the engine filters clubs that might have some degree of suitable youth scouting and coaching.  However, what is not clear to me is how the engine selects the list of countries/competitions from which to draw eligible affiliate clubs.  Case in point:

I am established with my board and they let me choose my affiliate.  I get a long list of nations and clubs from which to pick a "foreign affiliate to recruit youth players".  My main goal here is two-fold:  I want a club that can feed my youth system, and I also want a club that I can send central/south American youth transfers to play and earn EU citizenship.  Naturally this makes my most appealing target as Spain.  In Spain I could send an Argentinian youth for 2 years and gain EU citizenship.  By now you probably see where this is going - I NEVER have the option to choose a club in Spain.  Ever. 

There doesn't appear any rhyme or reason other than the AI is trying to stymie my ability to expedite EU citizenship.  I have a French affiliate from last year, and looking at this year's (major EU) options I can choose from:

Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Czech, Swiss, Sweden, Serbia, Austria...      but, you guessed it, yet again no Spanish options.

At first I thought that perhaps it was due relative national or competition rankings.  ie, I couldn't get an affiliate at a nation or competition ranked higher than Italy.  Except, the Bundesliga is ranked higher than Serie A, and I can choose clubs from that league.  And it can't be nations, since Italy is ranked 14th right now and eclipsed by nearly all the above countries.

So, maybe it's a rival country issue?  I can't get/loan players from/to rival nations?    No, that's not it either.  France and Germany are Italy's biggest rivals and I have both of those options. 

Lastly, in case you think it might be related to which leagues I have playable, think again...  I have Spain playable down through the second division.  Meanwhile, Belgium, Austria, Denmark... etc, are all not playable, and I have affiliate options there.

It is clear that when I attempt to create a marketing affiliate I get clubs outside of the EU, such as Japan and South Korea.  That makes sense.  What doesn't make sense is to exclude from a youth recruitment affiliate the option to select an affiliate from one of the most robust youth/newgen nations in the game.

I have run and re-run various affiliate type scenarios (loaner club, scouting club, youth recruit club, etc...) and never once have I had the option to select a Spanish club (or English, for that matter, though I've never desired one). 

Does anybody have any insight into how the system draws eligible nations/clubs for the various types of affiliates?  I'd upload a save, but at this point I'm assuming the mechanism is something intentional and it's not a bug.  (could be a bad assumption)

Cheers

[rc1269]

I guess that's a "no idea" from the community here?

Well, I ran a little test, and have determined that this clearly seems by design and not a bug.  If anybody at SI is ready this, would you mind enlightening us as to why my Italian club cannot sign on a Spanish club as an affiliate?  I assume you have some good reason for programming that in.  

 

Here's what I did to test this.

1) When I go to "choose club" it brings up the potential affiliate list.  There are no clubs from Spain on the list.  However, if I navigate away from that list and go to any other club, it still has the "Choose as affiliate" button attached to that club.  So, I navigated directly to Levante in Spain, and chose them as my affiliate:

 

2) It successfully brought up the board prompt to confirm Levante as my affiliate, so that part worked just fine:

 

3) Fast forward two days, and I get the following response from the board:

 

Levante doesn't have a senior affiliate, so I know that's not the issue.  Their reputation, facilities, youth recruiting, etc... are all well in-line with many other clubs in other nations that are offered to me as potential tie-ups.  So, it appears to me that SI have intentionally prevented me from establishing an affiliation with this club.  

Is there some real life Serie A rule that prevents tie-ups with clubs in Spain?  If not, why is this restriction implemented?  I'd be curious to know.  

Thanks

[JRHaggs]

I have no idea, sorry.

I definitely think that the affiliate request system is unnecessarily obfuscatory and that the board feedback side needs to be expanded beyond its current skeletal form.

So, while I haven't had your specific headdesk situation, you have my moral support.