Little Miss Lump Kicker

I've updated the Database on the Steam Workshop and the Download here for the 24.3.0 version with the April update. Even though there were no database changes made it did need to be re-verified to enable all funcationality. The Steam version/download version here is now the only available version and is for The Main Data Update 24.3.0 database. It is the recommended experience. I've removed the other versions, and the original Steam link as a hodgepodge of databases is a mess to maintain and people could use them with the wrong data, etc. If you have any issues I'd suggest downloading from Steam. Download for the (hopefully) final version for FM23 Celtic Nations League.fmf And a link to the Main Data Update 24.3.0 Version on the Steam Workshop https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3223131358

Is there a way you can enter in your lineup/predicted depth to the Squad Planner and it can tell you what your squad registration situation would be for the current season, and even better for next season? My idea would be it takes the current season's squad registration situation/requirements for the leagues you're in, or you can set it to calculate it based on a league or a competition, and it spits out back to you that you have too many foreign players, or not enough homegrown players. Or not enough homegrown at club players, not enough u23s or u21s, etc. It'd really add a lot that could be done very quickly with computer power that's extremely difficult with the classic pen and paper, or whiteboard, or spreadsheets. I don't know if it can do this at the moment but if it could in the future it'd be amazing. It'd really let you plan out how you're attacking your transfers over the off-season and team building, etc.

Part 4 of my Celtic Nations League blog, with Athlone. We get a decent run of league games and a few cup games in, and some thoughts about an injury prone player.

Edited to update The Original Database Version to Version 1.2.2 and to update the Main Data Update Version Bug fixes in both versions include changing Wrexham's minimum club attendance. Bug fixes in the original data version already in the main data version includes updating the Irish manager's end of contract dates to the correct end of season date. Edit: There could have been issues with this update and verifying the database. Read the next post for details on where to get the new files.

Post number two is up on my Lump Kickers Anonymous site Celtic Nations' League - Starting With Some Bangs. It features the pre-season in the Tunnock's League Three with Athlone, as well as our first three competitive games; two games in the League and one in the Irish Cup/Kingspan Cup, which is competed for between all the Irish and Northern Irish teams. There's another cup in the DB competed for between all the Scottish and Welsh teams — The New Parliament Cup. Enjoy reading!

I'm Little Miss Lump Kicker and I have a website Lump Kickers Anonymous where I blog about my saves — a little bit of creative writing mixed in with Football Manager. There's been a few saves up there, and elsewhere, that I've since taken down. I've started a new save to document my time in my Celtic Nations' League. This is a custom database where all the Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Northern Irish teams are put in one tiered system. You can find out more about it — and download it — in the Editors Hideaway, as well as on the Steam Workshop. All the usual stuff like youth recruitment works like normal. There's leagues and various cups. There's youth cups and youth leagues (and of course youth teams.) All the teams qualify for Europe out of this one league system. The teams involved range from Celtic and Rangers, the ugly sisters, and other Scottish teams, all through Bohemians, Waterford and Galway United in Ireland, Glentoran in the north of Ireland, down through Wales with Bala and TNS, to the very lowest levels with Abertillery Bluebirds. In my save I — Stephanie Wolle — have taken over Athlone, as a 30 year old, new manager. Athlone are in the Tunnock's League Three, the fifth tier in the Celtic Nations' Leagues. They probably have the most cups to take part in outside of teams in Europe — if they can go far in them. The board wants automatic promotion the first season, and another promotion again within another few years. Money is tight, and not all positions are covered. And I'm sure our favourite Aritificial Game Intelligence that is Football Manager will throw up other problems. You can find the first episode in the story here — New Beginnings For Four Nations — and a continuing blog showcasing my time as manager as well as giving insight into a database I put a huge amount of work into.

That's the most helpful thing I've ever read. A fudge for my DB, but still.. Incredible!

A realistic request... About when things are confirmed for the new FM. There's a lot of people making skins who currently don't think they'll be making skins for the new UI with the shift to Unity, and there are database editors wondering what changes there will be to the pre-game editor, even to the underlying data. There's going to be a lot of new interest in editing the game, especially with the women's game coming in with what I assume will be relatively fewer women's leagues, so giving database editors information early about what we can expect with the new launch would be amazing. I spent the entirety of FM23 testing my Celtic Nations' Leagues database by myself and with one or two others before releasing it fully for FM24. I don't know if there's currently a point in preparing a database for FM25 given there could be massive changes. Big database edits are a huge amount of effort. Not necessarily for FM25 but something I've noticed from creating my own custom leagues; the AI isn't very good at using its resources. If a club is focused on developing through their youth system the AI manager should be playing youth more, and the chairperson/board should be using financial resources to develop youth facilities, the same for training grounds, even for stadiums. This currently doesn't happen fast enough. Even if there were personalities for chairpersons where some are more risk taking it'd be nice. And you could scout your chairperson before you sign to a club. Say you sign with a risk-taking chairperson. They're faster to approve things, but they're equally quicker to fire you. A pie in the sky idea brought up by LooneyHoon, the streamer, yesterday... If you get your AI ass-man to lead a friendly a report on why he or she subbed someone, or something like that would be nice. If it could be extended out for skinners who incorporate a "Simulate Match" option to their skins even better. All in all new graphics, women's football and the usual tweaks is all I really expect, apart from telling the people who work on skins and databases what we can expect at the same time anything is said about the actual game.

Hrrm, so I could get rid of the lowest ranked European nation and add in my own one? Is it possible to just "disappear" that nation and not move them to another continent? Or incorporate them into another nation? I think I have an idea that'd work for the "backstory" if I could do that.

Is there a way of adding a nation to Europe? Both from a UEFA club and nation qualification standpoint, and a FIFA standpoint? Or is this going to land me in a world of hurt? I'd like to add a new nation, kind of like adding Sealand, or something, create a domestic league and tournament, and enter them into international club and country contests. I don't know if the editor/game can balance that automatically, with stuff like how many places there are in Euros groups, and Conference League and Champions League qualifiers. I can imagine creating the league domestically as being easy enough but balancing it internationally could be hard, or potentially impossible.

Ha! Thanks for this! It's her* though, a rare enough beast in FM, although hopefully getting better with the next release. I think all the ideas about stories and motivations are right. What I didn't say about DeeBoi's stream is that there's just something cool about visiting nice cities all around the med. Maybe manage in towns or cities you've been to, or want to go to? Go on a tour of the Baltics. Spend your time in the sun somewhere? Go between teams that have the same sponsors? Try to win all the top level cups in South America? Or in Britain and Ireland?

There's a good streamer called DeeBoiyPlays who's doing an around the Mediterranean save on twitch. It kind of always stuck with me, but especially stuck today when he talked about going to a new team, and I looked it up on wikipedia and it was in a beautiful city (Valencia.) I think you're correct that you need to roleplay it. You need a reason for your manager to go to new places. Apart from that I'd say give up easily. If something isn't challenging you or entertaining you after 3 months of the season decide then and there you're leaving at the end of the season, and stick to it. I do get the urge to stick to one club, though. It seems some people are built that way. Maybe don't fight it? FM is a game you play for yourself, and there's lots of ways of playing. Do what you enjoy, but equally try new things in case it turns out you like them.

SiMaggio did a video on youtube running through decades of simming the Celtic Nations League. It's a look at what's going on with the DB, at the least. I had slightly different results when I ran the league on full detail in the details setting but it's a broad overview of what's happening.

Just edited my original post to include the database .fmf file for the Main Data Update (the one for the February/March update with the new transfers for this year.) Again, I don't know how this works with any other "Game Mode" other than "Original" so I would highly recommend you use the "Original" mode, not "Real World" or "Your World." All teams should start the 2023/2024 season with the players they signed in the January window in real life. That's just the way the database has to work with the Irish leagues being integrated into a winter league from a summer league. Anything else would really mess them up. Some other edits include that the cup finals, especially the New Parliament Cup (between all the Welsh and Scottish teams), will be played at a more appropriate ground. As well as the Causeway Cup final (between the bottom three tiers.) Another update is that managers of Irish teams, the AI teams, have their starting contracts changed to better reflect the new season schedule being a winter league. I'm going to try to get the Main Data Update file uploaded onto the Steam Workshop, so try finding it there in maybe a day or so, maybe sooner, if that suits you better? If anyone has updates on how their save in this DB edit is going I'd really appreciate them. And I already appreciate the many comments about how interesting the DB is, and the praise for the work I've put into it, which has been quite bit. <3 to you all! We probably have a little over seven months before the big fancy new FM is released, so plenty of time to dig into a save with the Celtic Nations League!

I don't know when, or if, I'll be updating the database to the new Data Version, the last transfer window version. It's a bit of work. The original version will always work with the standard FM DB, and the only real issue would be updating the Irish teams for the new DB, it's just a little finnicky. It'll take a bit of effort but I'll get there, at some point. I'll also update one or two small mistakes I've found (like where one cup final is played, something I spotted in SiMaggio's video on youtube highlighting the Celtic Nation's Database.) I wanted to post this now because I just saw the Italy v Scotland Six Nations match, and some of the inspiration for this Celtic Nations Database came from the original Celtic League where Scottish, Welsh and Irish rugby teams played against each other. At the moment, for now, the big rugby nations (Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa (but not France)) are run with the good of the sport in the nations at the centre of the sport. Italy have taken this first win in the 6N, in a long time, after focusing their rugby game on improving their domestic game. That's at the heart of this Football Manager DB edit. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland, in this DB edit, are all focused on improving themselves as footballing nations. Their focus is across the game, from the lowest levels, all the way to European success. I felt now was a good time to remind people of that, and include an update on likelihood of the DB getting an update to the latest SI/FM DB version. I most likely will get to it. If anyone could point me to a guide about uploading to the Steam Community (which I believe is allowed by SI/FM) I'd also appreciate that. And any tips on what I could do to help visibility.

No file was rolled over to the FM24 editor, it's entirely from scratch. What I did in FM23 was create the basic structure and then did hundreds of hours of simming, tweaking starting positions/leagues for teams to try and find a balance for where they began. I wanted to give the best mix of a spread of teams from across the individual footballing nations, while allowing the bigger clubs from the likes of Wales and NI to take advantage of a quick injection of money. If you only went on something like reputation I think you'd see the entire top division with only the Scottish teams and Cardiff and Swansea (which technically came from the English league system.) Yeah, the footballing importance is something like "game importance" can't remember specifically. Scotland was already on very high, I think the other three were on high and switched to very high. There was no change in the numerical value of their youth rating. This is supposed to reflect the increased interest in the game with the new league system. Good luck with making your own DB. I think what I found with making it twice was that when I came to do it with FM24 I found a little of little tricks to save me from switching to the advanced rules editing. It makes things a lot simpler, but there's still a lot of power available in the basic rules.

I don't know how to find out which particular moderator holds most responsibility for the Editors Hideaway sections of the forum, so don't know who to really PM, or a better place to ask. (If someone can tell me who to PM I'm more than happy to.) The basic question is that a content creator (decent, family friendly FM content creator, a well known streamer and youtuber) has made a video about my Celtic Nations League database, and I was wondering if it's OK to link to it in the thread I have for the DB? I know there's rules about promoting you own content, but I'm unsure about content others have made about your DB. And I didn't ask him to make the video. I shared the DB with his community a while back and he asked me if I minded him making a video. And the only link on the youtube page is to the SI Forums.

Haha! That's brilliant! I'm tempted to include that as the co-efficient in the next update, but only if it's greater, in general, than what's in there. If you don't mind? At the moment the Celtic Leagues are using Scotland's ratings, and the Northern Irish, Welsh and Scottish leagues that were left in are using Wales's. Across FM23 and FM24, including devising rough starting positions for teams in the leagues, learning how to use the editor, actually working in the editor, then testing/simming and iterating over what I did then I'd say hundreds of hours. Probably close to 500 hours. If you include the save I did in the FM23 version of this then probably about 1,000 hours, all in. Things were a lot easier this year because I had a rough idea of how the pre-game editor worked, I just had to re-familarise myself with it. And I had a lot of the groundwork laid from FM23 in getting the raw data ready, and a few balance changes I needed to make. With FM24, across the editor and simming through leagues for tests it's probably about 100 hours. Then about another fifteen or twenty hours writing about it and talking to people about it. It was all enjoyable, though. And my next save proper will be in it. The save I'm currently doing is where I moved one of the Irish teams to the Vanarama South and have been seeing how high I can take them. I've been in the Championship for a few years, now in my fourth year in it and tearing my hair out. I'm due to get a new stadium at the end of this season so I've got at least one more season in that save before I do something new. I've never had a stadium built for me in any FM and I want to get that done. The increased attendance should help my finances and it looks like my sponsorship income is finally starting to catch up. So I might finally have some money.

Taking over any team in any league will be fine. It's just Kerry are too good for that league, in reality. It'd makes things easy. I figured if you wanted to try a bottom to top save a good team like Kerry might make things appealing to some people, or if you're doing a youth only save. Abertillery Bluebirds are absolutely A-OK to take over. The reason it says R, etc. next to their names is just some database muckery with how the teams were technically in a "higher tier" league the season before, but it was the Welsh leagues, not this new Celtic Leagues. It'll give some stuff about "Lowest ever position" in the news at the end of the season but board expectations about finishing position, etc. should all be fine. And I'm glad people are pleased with the DB. I really do hope you have fun with it and post updates about how your save is going.

There's a couple of reasons I won't... 1. It's a lot of effort. This has taken me two "game" years. One half-year of testing starting league position of various teams in FM23, learning how to use the editor. (The starting league positions are partly based on how teams would perform if given the opportunity to start at a higher league because they're "The Only Welsh League Team Strong Enough To.") Then the rest of that year of playing a team through the ranks and failing to beat Celtic and Rangers in the top division. Now I'm recreating it for FM24, with balance corrections. And I've still had little feedback on what is there in this version, although the feedback I have received has sorted out some major issues. This is a learning effort for me. I've never released something so publicly. Although I think most will have fun. 2. I don't think the effort it would take to add lower leagues pays off. I think FM at the really low levels is just going through the motions, albeit it's a different skill. All teams are interchangeable at a functional level. You'll come up against a terminal problem for your team at some rise through the ranks. The team will inevitably succeed (I'm already pushing that too far with the teams at the low levels of this DB.) Or else the game isn't designed for leagues full of players on amateur contracts. The game is already unbalanced and no-one in SI has really tested—from the evidence I can see—a league lower in tiers than such as the Vanarama Regionals. And even then it's often only the top league or European competition that's really a problem. In Europe, at least. It's basically a balance, and team individuality and special-ness issue. 3. I want to keep the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish leagues working. At the moment they should be, but I haven't tested them. They certainly provide teams for Europe. Taking even more teams out of Wales, Northern Ireland, etc. could cause real problems in the viability of those (shadow) leagues. If you want to try a lower league save I suggest trying a team in the Titanic Conference. Set yourself some reasonable rules. Don't try Kerry in the Welsh Lamb League—the league below the Titanic leagues and the lowest—that team is actually a mistake by me I can't fix. They could easily get to Tunnocks League Two within a few years, and should probably be in the Tunnocks League 3. Although I'm thinking of doing a Youth Only save with them. The money is already very generous. I'd be interested in what your experience was in your FM21 edit was, though? I don't think this is a massive edit. It took a lot of testing and a lot of grunt work—and hopefully now feedback—but all the rules are the basic "Nation" rules. I haven't gone into the advanced system at all. Much to my joy, surprise, and delight.

There's been a lot of focus in the English Premier League about charity efforts. I saw this today about autistic children. ‘Sensory room opens the door to so many people’ (premierleague.com) and Mascot with autism gets support from Slough Town Football club - BBC News about another player (of a few so far) wearing ear defenders with a mascot to show an autistic child it's OK to show they're autistic in public and need certain things. I believe in Football Manager a club's social media followers, fanbase make-up, supporters' influence on the board, etc. are recent changes. And the different ways to affect them. I also know the training schedule option of Community Outreach has been there for a while. Sending your team out to meet the public, and charities, etc. I've read—somewhere—this can affect your attendance. If feedback was occasionally given into the manager's inbox that a particular training session of Community Outreach had a particular effect on some particular group it'd be nice. And text on potential influence on fan culture. (Or a nicely written letter from an inspired child, or an old woman who felt less alone.) It's plain to see businesses of any size care about Corporate Social Responsibility, of which football clubs are very corporate, at some levels. There's already Rainbow Pride flags in stadiums (although not the Progress Pride flag, from what I remember, which highlights inclusion of different races as well as trans people beyong LGB people, as featured at Leicester's stadium, and the colours in Sky Sports' broadcasting, among others.) If Football Manager created an extension to include underprivileged, disadvantaged and minority groups as part of occasional feedback on Community Outreach sessions it could be a very nice flavour touch. And could be integrated into a stronger, community based approach for building clubs' fanbases.

Some images of the loaded Celtic Nations League Database. - The top two leagues and a lower down league. - Then the rules in the top three leagues. - Then the squad rules in the top league. - Then the transfer windows in the second bottom league. (No squad registration but there are matchday squad rules.) - Then the league simulated to three years in, on full detail for the matches, with the results in the top two leagues and the previous three results of the FA Cup.

Details of the Celtic Nations Leagues. Celtic Nations Premiership -18 Teams - Champions - 3 Relegation places to the Celtic Nations Championship - Prize money for every position bar last. - Parachute payments. - TV money Celtic Nations Championship - 18 Teams - Champions - 3 Straight Promotion Places - 3 Relegation Places - Prize money for the top positions. - TV money -Celtic Nations League One through Three - 20 Teams in each - Champions - 2 Straight Promotion Places - 4 teams play off for a third promotion place - 3 relegation places to the league beneath (including 3 to the Titanic Conference) - Prize money for the top positions - TV Money Titanic Conference - Two divisions at the same league level containing 20 teams in each. - Champions in each division are promoted to Celtic Nations League Three - 2nd and 3rd Placed team play off against 2nd and 3rd Placed team in the other Titanic Conference league in a semi-final and then final for one promotion place. There’s a total of three promotion places including the champions from the combined divisions. - Bottom place of each division is relegated to the Welsh Lamb League. - Prize Money for top positions - TV money Welsh Lamb League - 12 Teams play each other 3 times. - Champions - Top 2 teams get promoted to the Titanic Conference - No relegation as there’s no league beneath it - Prize money for top positions - TV money CUP COMPETITIONS FA Cup - All 148 teams in a knockout competition - Teams seeded based on ranking. - Prize money for wins. - Most prestigious Cup New Parliament Cup - All Welsh and Scottish teams play in a knockout competition - No seeding, the draw is totally random. - Prize money for wins. - Winner enters the Celtic Nations Playoff at the beginning of the next season Kingspan Cup - All Irish and Northern Irish teams play in a knockout competition - No seeding, the draw is totally random. - Prize money for wins. - Winner enters the Celtic Nations Playoff at the beginning of the next season Ballygowan Cup/Celtic Nations Playoff - Season Opener for the entire league. - Winner of the New Parliament Cup with the best Welsh or Scottish team plays the winner of the Kingspan Cup with the best Irish or Northern Irish team in a once off curtain raiser. Causeway Cup - Lower league cup competition - Teams from the Welsh Lamb League, Titanic Conference, and Celtic League Three all play each other - Prize money for wins YOUTH TEAMS - All teams have an u19 team. - There is a competitive league system for all u19 teams, across the season - Promotion and relegation between all u19 leagues - TV money to help fund u19 teams Youth FA Cup - The same as the standard FA Cup except without prize money, but played between all u19 teams. RESERVE TEAMS - Some teams, depending on starting reputation, have a reserve team playing in one of three random reserve team leagues. - Due to something I can’t figure out some Northern Irish teams have a reserve team playing in a Northern Irish Competition, my apologies. WALES AND SCOTLAND - The original/old Welsh and Scottish leagues should still be working - These leagues are filled with amateur teams from non-playable leagues in the FM database - Theoretically these teams should be playable but the quality of team is extremely low - Not all competitions beyond the original leagues still exist in these nations - These leagues will have teams qualify for European competition and could, theoretically, grow themselves back to their original status. However it’s unlikely. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, even just letting me know how your save is going.

Some things to note about the Celtic Nations League. - These leagues are supposed to present as a rival in English language football to the English footballing system. Their setup is similar if not identical, and some conventions have been carried over. The money in the league is probably somewhere between Portugal and a low-level of France. The idea would be if you could establish the league as a real rival to the English Premiership. - Due to the nature of setting up multi-country leagues, while still keeping European club competition places, the entire league is run under the auspices of the Irish FA. Teams qualify for Europe via the Irish placing (with coefficients having been edited in the DB to better reflect a league system of this caliber.) - Teams will still get youth intakes based on their actual geographic location. Welsh teams will mostly get Welsh players in their youth intake, Scottish teams Scottish players, etc. - The Footballing Importance in each nation has been set to “Very Important” to reflect the interest such a new league system has generated. The various countries’ Youth Rating have not been changed. - Equally reflecting the excitement about the league, attendances in all clubs bar Rangers and Celtic, who couldn’t really grow, have increased. - When picking a team choose from the Irish league system. That’s where all the Irish teams along with the other nations’ teams like Aberdeen, Motherwell, Bala, TNS, Glentoran, etc. are set to play. - You should play on Original Game Mode in the game options. The leagues haven't been tested with any of the other modes. With Ireland changing from a summer season to a winter league there could be some problems for players in Irish teams coming in on contracts I didn't manually edit, unless you've signed them in game yourself, which, of course, is not an issue at all. - Brexit rules don’t apply to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish teams. - Real Name Fixes should work but will change some of the custom titles I have for the leagues, so I wouldn't suggest it unless you absolutely want it. Logo packs and face packs won't be affected and should work as normal as well. Have fun! Any feedback would be appreciated. A rough version of this system was made for FM23, with a lot of simming of leagues to establish starting league positions. It’s been simmed a fair bit in FM24 and a couple of people have taken a look, but updates will continue, hopefully.

Around the turn of the millennium, with rugby having recently gone professional, the Welsh, Scottish and Irish rugby unions realised they couldn’t compete with the money in the English and French rugby leagues. The three nations banded together to create a united Celtic League with professional rugby clubs from the three countries all playing each other in an attempt to compete against the French and English financial powerhouses. Now, in 2023, in the shadow of the English Premiership, the Welsh, Northern Irish, Irish and Scottish Football Associations see merit in a similar competition for association football. With financial backing—some silent, some public—from major businesses, and proud and wealthy private individuals, the Scottish, Northern Irish, Welsh and Irish FAs have established a new seven tier system, with promotion and relegation, where all 148 main teams from those countries compete. The four FAs have set out an ambitious goal, a top league—or two—that can compete at the highest levels of Europe, while the lower leagues focus on developing players from the nations themselves, and growing these players into the best footballers they can be. Not only that, keenly aware other leagues have created a system where teams risk everything to get to the top, for the financial rewards, the four FAs have decided their cornerstone will be sustainability. They want competition at all levels, with no teams forced to go to the wall. It will be better for everyone. And so the leagues have ensured TV deals, prize money and publicity for all levels. The new system is designed to both celebrate and grow football across the 148 teams in Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Welcome to the Celtic Nations Leagues! Have fun! And see if you can topple Rangers and Celtic with a smaller team. Download for the (hopefully) final version for FM23 Celtic Nations League.fmf And a link to the Main Data Update 24.3.0 Version on the Steam Workshop https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3223131358 --- Edited: Updated the Database on the Steam Workshop and the Download here for the 24.3.0 version with the April update. Even though there were no database changes made it did need to be re-verified to enable all funcationality. The Steam version/download version here is now the only available version and is for The Main Data Update 24.3.0 database. It is the recommended experience. I've removed the other versions, and the original Steam link as a hodgepodge of databases is a mess to maintain and people could use them with the wrong data, etc. If you have any issues I'd suggest downloading from Steam --- SiMaggio's video simming through 30 years of the database, if video is more your thing than text.