[FM22] Editing CAF World Cup Qualification

[CroissantEater6]

A. I want to change the format of the African World Cup qualification (54 teams).  I like the format used in the 04-05 qualification campaign which includes:

1st Round ---> Knockout Stage (Home and Away) 48 teams = 24 (Seeded) v 24 (Unseeded) teams

2nd Round ---> 24 teams from the 1st round join the 6 best African teams seeded by World ranking. So, 5 groups of 6 teams (Home and Away)

6 pots (Seeded) in 5 groups ( Pot 1 ---> 5 teams, Pot 2 ---> 5 teams,etc.)

The top team in each group qualifies to the 32 teams World Cup. I also want this format to remain permanently after the 2022 edition because I don't like formats that have greater than 32 teams.

Regarding the calendar (match days), for example: 

1st Round ---> March 2021

2nd Round ---> June, September, October, November 2021

Interval --> Every 4 years

B. I am a newbie to editing. So, I have watched  many editor guides on Youtube and have read several posts here related to international editing. So far, following International Competition Editing Guide by Dynamo ZahnZee on Youtube, I succeeded in creating,a simple format, a single round of 9 teams in 6 groups. Besides, I have tried to edit the existing advanced rules in the existing format but I don't think it is doable without starting from the basic rules. 

C. I am only interested in the CAF world cup qualification.  So, I don't know if it is possible to edit the CAF section only as it has no intercontinental play-offs and no AFCON qualification in the World Cup qualifying.

D. Is there any guide/reference either videos or screenshots to make this edit from basic to advanced rules?

 

Thanks in advance 

Edited November 15, 2022 by CroissantEater6

[rusty217]

It is doable from the advanced rules, would be more/less difficult depending on exactly what you want to do. Specifically, editing the existing rules probably easier from advanced, you'd have the default rules as a base to work from (although international rules aren't always complete when you open them in the editor, so it may not be much of a base in some cases). If you want to create entirely new qualifiers than basic would probably be easier.

You will have to edit all of the WC qualifiers though, not just CAF. You might be able to do just CAF if you're using the 48 team WC format. If you want to keep it at 32 then you'll have to edit every continent's qualifiers and the WC itself to account for that. I can say from experience it's not easy or quick. It will be quite a bit of trial and error and take quite awhile before you get it to work the way you want.

I'd also highly recommend starting with a group phase rather than knockouts. Simply because you'll probably want the host nation not to participate in qualifying, since they qualify automatically, a group stage would be able to adjust to 1 less team easily, 1 group would just have 1 fewer teams than usual. A knockout round would be more tricky. It's possible to make dynamic knockout rounds that adjust to different numbers of teams, but it's not something I've ever tried and it seems quite complicated.

TBH the best way to do it would just be to find an existing 32 team WC file, download that, open it up in the editor and change the CAF qualifiers to what you want. That would save you from having to do all the other WC/qualifier stuff and a lot of the stuff like team selection, fixture dates etc. would be there ready for you to use.

[CroissantEater6]

Thank you very much for your explanation. 

A. Could you please tell me how I can edit the following based on 10 matches in the second round? 

2nd Round --> 10 matches per group (5 groups of 6)

B. Could you please tell me how to automatically select the bottom 48 teams (for the 1st round) in Africa based on World Ranking? Same goes to the top 6 teams (for the 2nd round) in Africa. 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by CroissantEater6

[rusty217]

A. Not sure what exactly you're asking there. The number of matches don't matter for ranking levels. The number of groups do though. So if you have 5 groups it should probably be Ranking 0 = 5 teams Team qualified from this competition (assuming only 1st place qualifies to the WC?) Ranking 1 = 5 teams Team managed to qualify to this stage (for the 2nd placed teams that I assume don't qualify for the WC?) Ranking 2 = 5 teams Team managed to qualify to his stage (the 3rd placed teams) and so on.

B. Set it up like this

Under qualified teams first choose the Host Nation of the WC and tick the Ignore Teams box. Then get the best 6 (in your case) teams from Africa sorted by world ranking and assign them seeding 0. Then get the rest of the teams from Africa and assign seeding 1. Then set teams with seeding 0 to start in stage 1 and teams with seeding 1 to start in stage 0.

Then in the stage section, tell it to Get Qualified Teams  For Comp with seeding 1 for stage 0, make sure to tick Remove Picked Qualified Teams too. Do the same for the other stage too with their seeding (and of course Get Qualified Teams From Stage so teams from stage 0 move to stage 1 as well).

Edited November 17, 2022 by rusty217

[CroissantEater6]

Thank you very much. That's a great help. 

A. In advanced rules, how can I adjust the calendar (Dates and Fixture Dates) to be compatible with 10 matches in the group stage (2nd round)? 10 matches in each group (5 groups of 6 teams).

Default format = (2nd Round) 6 matches --> Second Round 0,1,2,3,4,5. 

However, as you can see below (Dates), it was not possible to add [Second Round 6 (Matchday 7)]. Instead, I added a specific date (24 March 2022). 

B. Could you please explain what are these years (2000,2002,2003) in Fixture Dates? 

[rusty217]

A. You can add extra dates to the Fixture Dates page, if you do that then they'll be available to pick on the Dates page. If you set them up on the Fixture Dates page you should have an option to use existing match days in the standard International calendar. You can see the existing ones there have Internation... under special date, that's it. You can choose the March, June, Sept, Oct or Nov international dates. Picking specific dates works too, just be aware that if they don't match the international calendar they may disrupt league matches.

If you're going from 6 matches to 10 then you'll need to add 4 extra matches. Whether you fit them in after, move some matches earlier or try and fit them in somewhere else is up to you.

B. On the General page for a competition there's a Base Year For Dates, it's usually set to 2000, although there are some exceptions. The years used in fixtures are based on that. So if the base year is 2000 then a match set in 2002 will be 2 years later. eg. if the qualifiers are set to start in 2025 then a match set March 2002 would take place in March 2027, 2 years after the start date. You need to base all of your dates around the base year, so have a look at what it is. If it is 2000, then your 2022 date would be set to take place 22 years after the qualifying tournament starts.

[CroissantEater6]

Great! Thank you very much for your time and help.