[FM23] African League

[GreenTriangle]

First of all, I have to specify : this is a fictional league, so, it doesn't exist in real life.

What does this league contain ? Almost 500 African clubs. 496 clubs to be more exact. These clubs are divided into 6 levels (divisions), according to the following structure :

Each team will therefore play 30 games in the league. But there are, in addition, some cups:
- a cup (named "League Cup") that takes place in the classic system (a knockout stage played over two legs).
- a second, more important cup (called " the League Trophy"), which takes place in a mixed system, including at least one group stage and one knockout stage.
- the third cup (named "African - West Asian Cup"), in which only teams from League 1 (Level 1) can participate but also includes teams from outside Africa, more precisely 16 teams from the Persian Gulf region.

Why such a complicated system of cups, based on division into leagues? It would have been simpler for all 496 teams to play in the two competitions ("Cup" and "Trophy"). There is a reason: the number of available dates is not enough. Also, the cup system based on a single game was very subjective because some teams could end up playing series of 5-6 games at home or away. I preferred the system based over two legs, but that means that to win all 3 (or 4) trophies some teams would have had to play over 85 games per season. By dividing into league competitions, the number of these games was reduced to 65-70.

*****

How were the participating clubs selected ? I gave up the selection based strictly on reputation because the South African clubs have a very high reputation, even the ones in the 3rd league. I chose to take into account two aspects: the "official" ranking of continental African club competitions ... and the number of players having a certain nationality who play in Europe. Thus, although the teams from Guinea and Tanzania, for example, have a better continental coefficient than those from Ghana, Cameroon or Senegal, there are many more Ghanaians, Cameroonians and Senegalese who play in Europe, compared to players from Guinea or Tanzania. Also, the teams taken into account had to play in the first league of the respective country (or also in the second, if the nation was to be represented by several clubs). I thus avoided the "historic" clubs that have a huge reputation but now play somewhere in the lower leagues.

Clubs distribution according to nation

Clubs distribution according to the league and the group in which they were assigned

Important : participating clubs in each league / group

*****

An aspect that is sometimes ignored, but which can prove to be very important: the distribution of money.

*****

Of course, the file was tested (until 2028) and it worked very well. If anyone wants to see how the 2028 competitions ended...

League1, League 2 and League 3 :

League 4

League 5

League 6

League Cups

League Trophies

African - West Asian Cup

Also, maybe someone wants to see how certain "trophies" progress from the group stages to the final stage :

African Trophy

African League 4 Trophy

*****

As I said, there are a number of clubs from the Persian Gulf area that are included in this file. These clubs participate in the African - West Asia Cup, but they also have their own competition, called "Gulf League". However, this competition is strictly "view only", the respective clubs not being part of the list of those that can be managed. What was the purpose of their inclusion? First of all, more competition in the African - West Asian Cup. Clubs that are not active do not have complete squads, their transfers are numerically reduced, sometimes the staff is insufficient and the players' development is incomplete. I needed the strongest possible opponents for the African teams. Another aspect: in real life, clubs from this area cooperate a lot with North African clubs on transfers, which gives North African clubs the necessary financial resources. Without these resources the North African clubs cannot fight with the richer South African clubs, and my goal was to create a balance between the South African financial strength and the financial strength of the Maghreb clubs.

*****

Reserve and U19 teams. Clubs from different countries have different second / B and youth team systems. It was necessary to unify these systems so that there could be common competitions. I therefore "established" two teams for each club (the Reserves team and the U19 team), both playing between 15 and 18 "official" games in the competitions reserved for them. Absolutely all clubs, even the smallest ones in the 6th league, have two such teams each and participate in these competitions. Example.

*****

Basic rules
1. 5 substitutions are allowed. In cup games, a 6th substitution in extra-time is also allowed.
2. there are no rules regarding the age of the players or their status. The number of foreign players is not restricted. If someone wants, he can fully use European or South American players only. There is no need to register a certain number of players.

3. There are no restrictions (age, status) regarding the transferred players. Transfer windows : June 9 - August 31 and January 1 - 31. Free players can be transferred between September 1 and December 31.

*****

Transfers. I tried to make the non-African transfer market more active, for which purpose I added additional options to several European and West Asian nations. Thus, clubs from these regions can now "see" more players (partial knowledge). Of course, most players are still transferred from one African club to another African club, but now there is somewhat more participation from non-African clubs. Example : June 2027 - July 2028.

*****

Another important aspect : since all the competitions were built on the structure of a single nation (Seychelles), there is a possibility that the newly generated players may also be of Seychellois nationality. No, that's not the case. Players have the base nationality of their club. A Nigerian club will generate Nigerian players, an Egyptian one will generate Egyptian players and so on. Of course, there are also "foreigners" as well as players who have dual nationality, and in some cases the second nationality is Seychellois. Curiously, there are only a few clubs that annually receive more players having this kind of dual nationality. Many other clubs receive none or only one at most. Example.

*****

Will more players be generated at youth intakes in the case of clubs managed by AI ? Normally the game generates quite a low number of young African players (between 400 and 600 every year) because it does not need more, these being used by clubs that only participate in continental competitions and by national teams. When there is an active league (or even a view only league), the number of newly generated players increases. So instead of 400 to 600, between 3500 and 4000 young African players will be generated every year, to which are added another 200-250 that will be generated by the clubs in the Gulf area.

*****

Did the game also generate top players between 2023 and 2028 ? I didn't increase the youth rating to an unrealistic level. Nigeria has a YR of 120 in the game and it seemed to me that such a level is enough to generate a large enough number of good players ... but not to generate an unrealistic number of top players. Most of the newly generated players have a good enough level to play in one of the African league divisions (or for an a European club with a not very high reputation). But were also generated some very good young players whose market value highly increased in just a few years. Example.

*****

Various useful information :

Since the database was built using Seychelles as a nation, it is obvious that to activate the league it is necessary to activate the "Seychelles" option in the nation(s) selection screen :

As can be seen, other nations can be also activated when this (database) file is used. The compatibility is certain regarding the nations from Europe, and it is probably also certain regarding the American nations (North and South). There may be some issues related to Asian continental competitions, so I do not recommend using this file in this case. South Africa can be activated, but I don't recommend it, because now the South African first league is made up of 3rd league clubs.
I have not checked the compatibility with other custom files and it is very possible that some may not work correctly if this database is used.

*******************

And, finally, THE FILE :

AfricanLeague 2022-11

[GreenTriangle]

Two more files, similar to the "African" one : the "Caribbean League" and the "Oceanian League"

1. Caribbean League. It's composed of 5 levels and includes 280 clubs belonging to 31 nations. It also includes a cup system : two league cups and two league trophies, plus a regional cup in which 16 teams from the Caribbean region, 8 teams from the Central American region and, starting with the semi-final round, a Mexican team participate.

The nation on the basis of which the competitional system was built : Anguilla

Selection of clubs, according to nation

List of participating clubs and their distribution by levels and groups

List of participating clubs according to the nation they belong to

Competitions :

Leagues system

Cups system

The file was tested for 10 years (until 2032). League rankings, cup results in 2032 :

League 1  /  League 2  /  League 3  /  League 4  /  League 5

League Cup  /  Lower Leagues Cup  /  League Trophy  /  Lower Leagues Trophy

Caribbean - Central American Cup

***

THE FILE : Caribbean League 2022-12

****************************************************

1. Oceanian League. It's composed of 4 levels and includes 144 clubs belonging to 16 nations (of which two nations, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, were "borrowed" from the Asian area). The cup system was simplified, there being only one league cup, one league trophy and one regional cup : 16 teams from the first Oceanian League, 8 teams from the Southeast Asian region and, starting from the semi-final round, an Australian team.

The nation on the basis of which the competitional system was built : Tuvalu

Selection of clubs, according to nation

List of participating clubs and their distribution by levels and groups

List of participating clubs according to the nation they belong to

Competitions :

Leagues system

Cups system

The file was also tested for 10 years (until 2032). League rankings, cup results in 2032 :

League 1  /  League 2  /  League 3  /  League 4

League Cup  /  League Trophy

Oceanian - SouthEast Asian Cup

***

THE FILE : Oceanian League 2022-12

**********************************************************

Some important mentions:

1. Both leagues start in DECEMBER 2021, with the season starting in January and ending in December.
2. There are special leagues in which the reserve and U19 teams play, so that all club's teams can participate in a competition. Example 1 / Example 2 / Example 3 / Example 4
3. There are specific awards for each competition. Example 1 / Example 2

...

4. Unlike the African League, which was designed to generate more young players having a high CA / PA (which is why the youth rating was set at the level of Nigeria, 120), the Caribbean and Oceanian Leagues can rarely generate very good players, their youth rating being set at 70. Reason : in the original database of the game YR is anyway very low in both regions, lower than 70. Consequence : these files will NOT generate extremely good players except, perhaps, some extremely rare cases. After 10 years, the Caribbean League has generated an exceptional player and about 4 good players, while the Oceanian League has generated only a few average level players.

5. All 3 files can be used at the same time and can also be used when European leagues are active. I tested these 3 files together with 10 active (and playable) European leagues. However, I don't recommend using the whole set because after 10 seasons the game becomes quite slow. Also, the Caribbean League only works because the North American Champions League has been disabled, so I practically don't recommend using this file together with the Mexican league, MLS or the Canadian league.

[endlessthunder]

These databases sounds absolutely brilliant! I love how it makes the smaller nations more relevant in FM world. Thank you for creating mods!

[oche balboa]

Another idea which i like