Northern Ireland Extended League System v1.1 (Final Edition)
A full roster of 495 1st teams available to play across 52 active divisions in 18 leagues (although there are an additional 100(ish) B/Res/II/2nd teams riddled throughout the lower divisions so in some instances you can play 2 divisions with the one team which can be a bit of fun!)
Leagues included:
Northern Irish Football League
Northern Amateur Football League
Mid Ulster Football League
Ballymena and Provincial Football League
Northern Irish Intermediate League
Fermanagh and Western Football League
Belfast and District Football League
North West Junior Football League
North West Saturday Morning League
Newcastle and District Football League
Carnbane (Newry) Football League
Lonsdale Football League
Belfast Sunday Morning Football
Ballymena Saturday Morning Football League
Coleraine and District Football League
Down Area Winter Football League
Hutchinson Tiles Winter League
South Antrim Football League
League Pyramid
Most people will be aware there isn't much of an official pyramid past tier 4 although the tier four divisions do have extended structures underneath its a bit sketchy with qualifying rules etc. on how to get teams up and down the pyramid. So with this in mind I will be taking a little bit of artistic license on how to get it to operate in the most logical way based on regions.
I've attached an image of the full pyramid structure I've managed to put together. I'll give a quick explanation of reasoning behind it. In reality NI only goes down to level 4 although it is difficult for level 4 teams to get into the top tier due to regulations of pitches and operating status. I have removed these restrictions to allow a decent flow of teams.
In level 4 there are 4 main regional divisions 3 of which have their own league structures, NAFL, MUFL and Ballymena & Provincial. The 4th league is the Intermediate League (essentially North Western) which is a little bit of a remnant of a previous structure before the Championship was split into 2 a few tears back.
With these 4 main regions defined I have kept that leg structure and extended further down using smaller divisions that are based closest to the main regions (This is partly because it was the simplest way of getting a promotion/relegation system using the basic rules but also because there is no defined 'level' for the other leagues)
There is an exception to this where I have allowed 3 leagues to gain promotion through the Down Area Winter League into the NAFL system, this is because there are a lot more leagues based around this regional scope and if I were to just have each league eventually come through each other it would go down to level 25 which I felt was a bit much JUST for this region!
Promotion and relegation is fairly simple with a 2 up 2 down method in most cases. The promotion/relegation play off between Danske Prem and Championship still exists, there is a play off between the 4 region divisions in Level 4 with 2 teams promoted into the Premier Intermediate league. The last play off is between the 3 divisions into the Down Area Winter league with 3 teams going from the playoff.
Cups
Were a little more difficult due to some being based on region and this option isn't available in the basic rules.
Irish Cup is essentially as is with a slightly more rigid divisions included rather than 'paid intermediate entry or invite' for lower teams. I've dropped reserve teams from Intermediate Cup and Steel & Sons cup for simplicity, Regional FA cups exist in a manner but please note I had to select specific teams so promotion/relegation of teams wont make much of a change here for senior cups like CA Shield etc.
All NAFL and MUFL cups are included with as best as I could, Ballymena and North West Cups exists but I had to drop some of the lesser cups due to fixture congestion and the season never finishing/overrunning
All lower leagues have at least one cup competition again a lot were dropped due to fixture congestion and season ranges.
I have also dropped the Danske Premier European playoff system again due to fixture congestion and over running season dates.
Testing
Obviously there could always be some tricky things in extending league, i have run this file for 5 individual single year test and 2 three year tests without any issues.
Things to note
Most teams are amateur and do run on very limited budgets so all are around equal in the Clubs > Finances section and after a couple of years you might find some of the bottom tier teams are suddenly worth similar to the 3rd/4th tier teams, this is because the boards have either bought , moved into or built stadiums so this isn't something I could control.
The pyramid structure beyond 4th tier is best guess and logical to the regional 'boundaries' for example Carnbane and Lonsdale feeding into Mid Ulster as the majority of their teams are from the region, or Coleraine feeding into Ballymena and Provincial league etc.
Cup have been trimmed back due to some complexities but all league do have a cup to enter into.
Thanks and please enjoy. Any feedback is welcome and if i get the time I'll try and fix things where I can.
Radz
Northern Ireland Extended League System (FINAL)_13B7DA97-3467-4102-8E12-97B1E7B360FB.fmf
Northern Ireland Extended League System v1.1 (Final Edition) A full roster of 495 1st teams available to play across 52 active divisions in 18 leagues (although there are an additional 100(ish) B/Res/II/2nd teams riddled throughout the lower divisions so in some instances you can play 2 divisions with the one team which can be a bit of fun!) Leagues included: Northern Irish Football League Northern Amateur Football League Mid Ulster Football League Ballymena and Provincial Football League Northern Irish Intermediate League Fermanagh and Western Football League Belfast and District Football League North West Junior Football League North West Saturday Morning League Newcastle and District Football League Carnbane (Newry) Football League Lonsdale Football League Belfast Sunday Morning Football Ballymena Saturday Morning Football League Coleraine and District Football League Down Area Winter Football League Hutchinson Tiles Winter League South Antrim Football League League Pyramid Most people will be aware there isn't much of an official pyramid past tier 4 although the tier four divisions do have extended structures underneath its a bit sketchy with qualifying rules etc. on how to get teams up and down the pyramid. So with this in mind I will be taking a little bit of artistic license on how to get it to operate in the most logical way based on regions. I've attached an image of the full pyramid structure I've managed to put together. I'll give a quick explanation of reasoning behind it. In reality NI only goes down to level 4 although it is difficult for level 4 teams to get into the top tier due to regulations of pitches and operating status. I have removed these restrictions to allow a decent flow of teams. In level 4 there are 4 main regional divisions 3 of which have their own league structures, NAFL, MUFL and Ballymena & Provincial. The 4th league is the Intermediate League (essentially North Western) which is a little bit of a remnant of a previous structure before the Championship was split into 2 a few tears back. With these 4 main regions defined I have kept that leg structure and extended further down using smaller divisions that are based closest to the main regions (This is partly because it was the simplest way of getting a promotion/relegation system using the basic rules but also because there is no defined 'level' for the other leagues) There is an exception to this where I have allowed 3 leagues to gain promotion through the Down Area Winter League into the NAFL system, this is because there are a lot more leagues based around this regional scope and if I were to just have each league eventually come through each other it would go down to level 25 which I felt was a bit much JUST for this region! Promotion and relegation is fairly simple with a 2 up 2 down method in most cases. The promotion/relegation play off between Danske Prem and Championship still exists, there is a play off between the 4 region divisions in Level 4 with 2 teams promoted into the Premier Intermediate league. The last play off is between the 3 divisions into the Down Area Winter league with 3 teams going from the playoff. Cups Were a little more difficult due to some being based on region and this option isn't available in the basic rules. Irish Cup is essentially as is with a slightly more rigid divisions included rather than 'paid intermediate entry or invite' for lower teams. I've dropped reserve teams from Intermediate Cup and Steel & Sons cup for simplicity, Regional FA cups exist in a manner but please note I had to select specific teams so promotion/relegation of teams wont make much of a change here for senior cups like CA Shield etc. All NAFL and MUFL cups are included with as best as I could, Ballymena and North West Cups exists but I had to drop some of the lesser cups due to fixture congestion and the season never finishing/overrunning All lower leagues have at least one cup competition again a lot were dropped due to fixture congestion and season ranges. I have also dropped the Danske Premier European playoff system again due to fixture congestion and over running season dates. Testing Obviously there could always be some tricky things in extending league, i have run this file for 5 individual single year test and 2 three year tests without any issues. Things to note Most teams are amateur and do run on very limited budgets so all are around equal in the Clubs > Finances section and after a couple of years you might find some of the bottom tier teams are suddenly worth similar to the 3rd/4th tier teams, this is because the boards have either bought , moved into or built stadiums so this isn't something I could control. The pyramid structure beyond 4th tier is best guess and logical to the regional 'boundaries' for example Carnbane and Lonsdale feeding into Mid Ulster as the majority of their teams are from the region, or Coleraine feeding into Ballymena and Provincial league etc. Cup have been trimmed back due to some complexities but all league do have a cup to enter into. Thanks and please enjoy. Any feedback is welcome and if i get the time I'll try and fix things where I can. Radz Northern Ireland Extended League System (FINAL)_13B7DA97-3467-4102-8E12-97B1E7B360FB.fmf
