[FM23] My big db project this year: The American Soccer League (ASL)

[Mikaelinho]

Hi all!

I've always dabbled with the editor since the early FM days, but it wasn't until FM21 that I really fell in love with creating dustom dbs. For FM21 I created the fictional former Soviet nation of Bordavia and for FM22 I created a caribbean nation called Paradiso. Instead of creating a new nation for FM23 I decided to take on a project that I've been thinking about for a long time. An American Football/Soccer league with a world dominating position, a parallel universe where the original NASL never folded, but instead thrived and developed into the same world dominating position as NBA for basketball, NFL for American Football, NHL for ice hockey etc.

This lead me to starting the creation process of the American Soccer League Database. The database consists of a 3 tiered "closed league" (no pro/rel) system set up like the traditional American major sports leagues:
-American Soccer League (ASL): The main league consisting of 40 teams divided into 4 regional divisions leading into a knockout playoff that ends with the "Soccer Bowl", the final game of the season. Min age 20.
-American Soccer League 2 (ASL2): A league with the same structure as the main league. Each team in this league is a feeder team to a team in the ASL. Min age 20.
-U20 American Soccer League (U20): A league with 96 teams divided into 16 regional divisions followed by a knockout playoff. Max age 20.

Most of the teams are completely made up while some teams, like the LA Aztecs and the NY Cosmos, have been revived. I've got the league system up and running the way that I want it, but there are a few things that I need a bit of help with:

-Youth intakes: Is there a way to prevent the teams in the ASL and ASL2 to have youth intakes and only have them happen for the teams in the U20?
-B team/feeder team system: I want the ASL/ASL2 affiliation between the teams to work like a traditional major/minor league affiliation, ie the main team in full control of transfers etc and lots of freedom of movement between the two teams. The main team pretty much uses the ASL2 affiliate as a feeder/reserves team, where the ASL2 team don't make any signings of their own etc. What's the best way to set this up?
-Max age 20 for the U20 league: What's the best way to set up the league with this max age restriction, while still keeping it as a standalone league with unaffiliated teams?
-Draft: At the end of the season there's a draft where the ASL teams draft from the U20 league. I got the actual draft to work, but it's the best players in the U20 league aren't added to the draft pool. How do I fix this? Is there a way to prevent ASL teams from signing players before the draft?

To clarify: I'm using the MLS UID for ASL to avoid any issues with hardcoded MLS stuff as far as possible.

I'll probably post more issues when I find them and I massively appreciate any help I can get here. I want to make the setting as "realistic" (=close to other American major sports leagues) as possible. Thx in advance. And I'll of course share the db with anyone interested once it's completed.

[lorenzopaniccia]

On 17/03/2023 at 11:47, Mikaelinho said:

I want the ASL/ASL2 affiliation between the teams to work like a traditional major/minor league affiliation, ie the main team in full control of transfers etc

 

If you want these teams playable, check the affiliation between Barcelona and Barcelona B and set everything in the same way.

Otherwise if you dont care if they arent playable check the Juventus and Juventus U23 (Obviously changing from U23 to B team; this is also the fast way because you can mass edit these teams).

On 17/03/2023 at 11:47, Mikaelinho said:

What's the best way to set up the league with this max age restriction, while still keeping it as a standalone league with unaffiliated teams?

You can change both the league's entry rules and the maximum age of individual clubs For the same questions, I've never read too much about the MSL universe and the draft so I cant help you but this is a really interesting project and I hope you will finish it. Good luck!