Affiliated Clubs

[letissierandhenryaregreat]

With the rise of City Football Group, Red Bull and other similar groups of football clubs, I believe the affiliated club system in FM needs updating. 

There should be a type of affiliation specific to football groups. This would allow for more fluidity between clubs in terms of finances for starters. You should also be allowed to hire staff members for your feeder clubs, which reflects the movement of coaches and staff between football groups. You should also have more access to scouts, sports scientists and analysts within your football group, thus widening your scouting knowledge and improving your ability to deal with injuries for example. Additionally, much like your reserves and youth teams in FM already, you should be able to influence the tactics, playing style and transfer policy of the feeder clubs within your group to benefit the one you're managing.

Current football groups should exist in the game at the start and on rare occasions during the game certain consortiums who take over a club could do so with the intention of making your club part of a group.

Lastly, this type of agreement should be reflected in the contracts you can give players when signing them. For example, if you're Man City or RB Leipzig signing an ageing star you should be able to sign them on a one or two-year deal with a club option to either to extend your contract there or send you to their MLS feeder. Alternatively, you could sign a young player for RB Bragantino or Montevideo City Torque with the promise of 'moving' them to RB Leipzig or Man City in a few years time. To further help reflect this and movements between clubs within the same group, signing a player from a club in the same group should affect your budget in a different way.

[JohnnyP14]

On 14/12/2020 at 12:10, letissierandhenryaregreat said:

With the rise of City Football Group, Red Bull and other similar groups of football clubs, I believe the affiliated club system in FM needs updating. 

There should be a type of affiliation specific to football groups. This would allow for more fluidity between clubs in terms of finances for starters. You should also be allowed to hire staff members for your feeder clubs, which reflects the movement of coaches and staff between football groups. You should also have more access to scouts, sports scientists and analysts within your football group, thus widening your scouting knowledge and improving your ability to deal with injuries for example. Additionally, much like your reserves and youth teams in FM already, you should be able to influence the tactics, playing style and transfer policy of the feeder clubs within your group to benefit the one you're managing.

Current football groups should exist in the game at the start and on rare occasions during the game certain consortiums who take over a club could do so with the intention of making your club part of a group.

Lastly, this type of agreement should be reflected in the contracts you can give players when signing them. For example, if you're Man City or RB Leipzig signing an ageing star you should be able to sign them on a one or two-year deal with a club option to either to extend your contract there or send you to their MLS feeder. Alternatively, you could sign a young player for RB Bragantino or Montevideo City Torque with the promise of 'moving' them to RB Leipzig or Man City in a few years time. To further help reflect this and movements between clubs within the same group, signing a player from a club in the same group should affect your budget in a different way.

Definitely think this would be a good idea, especially considering the bolded (as in real life club owners are buying/investing in clubs in other countries)

[VitoCorleone]

On 14/12/2020 at 11:10, letissierandhenryaregreat said:

With the rise of City Football Group, Red Bull and other similar groups of football clubs, I believe the affiliated club system in FM needs updating. 

There should be a type of affiliation specific to football groups. This would allow for more fluidity between clubs in terms of finances for starters. You should also be allowed to hire staff members for your feeder clubs, which reflects the movement of coaches and staff between football groups. You should also have more access to scouts, sports scientists and analysts within your football group, thus widening your scouting knowledge and improving your ability to deal with injuries for example. Additionally, much like your reserves and youth teams in FM already, you should be able to influence the tactics, playing style and transfer policy of the feeder clubs within your group to benefit the one you're managing.

Current football groups should exist in the game at the start and on rare occasions during the game certain consortiums who take over a club could do so with the intention of making your club part of a group.

Lastly, this type of agreement should be reflected in the contracts you can give players when signing them. For example, if you're Man City or RB Leipzig signing an ageing star you should be able to sign them on a one or two-year deal with a club option to either to extend your contract there or send you to their MLS feeder. Alternatively, you could sign a young player for RB Bragantino or Montevideo City Torque with the promise of 'moving' them to RB Leipzig or Man City in a few years time. To further help reflect this and movements between clubs within the same group, signing a player from a club in the same group should affect your budget in a different way.

Not only that, but clubs in MLS should be given more options to establish relations with national and international clubs as the league as a whole looks to grow the game and sport. In addition, I would like the ability to add regional teams as affiliates almost automatically. For example, I will start a save as manager of Minnesota United and don't have a regular "B-Team" and limited relations with Forward Madison and the MNUFC Academy, so it would be nice to establish some time of feeder partnership similar to my Academy with Shattuck-St. Mary's (specifically for youth players because Minnesota United and Shattuck are located 45 minutes away in real life), Green Bay, Milwaukee teams, Des Moines Menace, Valour FC, and any teams located close to the state of Minnesota in the Midwest or Manitoba. 

Maybe it would be worth adding an ability to create a B-Team when there currently isn't one established.

Furthermore, for the game as a whole, there should be some sort of actions available to establish an affiliation with a team from a real-life sister city. For example, the City of Los Angeles and Berlin have a government-agreed proclamation declaring them as sister cities, so clubs located in these cities and greater metropolitan areas should be allowed to have a quicker option to establish this connection, as well as a higher success rate of creating excellent relations. 

Lastly, I think the real-life demographics of cities, states, and regions should be reflected in the game when it comes to affiliate clubs. For example, Minnesota United should be allowed to establish better and more affiliate clubs in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany because of the prominence of those cultures in the area in real life. 

Also, it would be nice for German clubs to establish relations with local clubs in Argentina, for example, in addition to being able to control a lower level team (but that's a different discussion board). I have wanted to establish an affiliation between a German club and one of the teams in Bariloche due to the city's history revolving around Germans emigrating to the area after WWII.

Edited January 18, 2021 by VitoCorleone

[Luke Hume]

Reviewed so locked.