themodelcitizen

Yeah, I think the issue with Celtic and Rangers in England is that it was asking for English ("nation", not "based nation") homegrowns in the CL. So "Spanish" homegrowns will be fine. Took ages but I got the inactive U19 division two going with 200+ teams, so that UE Olot's U19s can try and get promotion on the pitch. It's not 100% realistic as I can't find much info in English (and I'm not sure SI have the right team list anyway) but it's modelled after the U19 division one, just bigger. Testing now and then I'll upload it before I add Catalunya to make a fresh version of that file.

I wouldn't mind Russia to AFC as an editing project but I think it would mess with the Asian coefficients too much

If you add like 100 people, who can be 100-year-old "officials" and inactive (I think), with Corsican nationality and birthplace, it will influence the name pool. I wonder if that would interact with the Italian thing to get a nice half and half balance.

Cheers, I'm playing with it now. The changes are so voluminous and minute (like parceling out Spanish/Catalan villages in Murcia and Valencia) that I think starting from scratch is the way to go, I'll copy and paste some of the cup rules. Paging @rusty217, wasn't there something about a team's transfer rules defaulting to their "based nation"? I don't see any issues with squad registration or contracts from using an extinct "based nation" in the Spain leagues While I'm at it. The U19 second tier could definitely be activated to give Olot U19s some competitive games. I'll see if anyone's made a stable one, or if it's an easy job

That's with Olot's "based nation" set to Czechoslovakia? How do the newgens look, about the same quality (i.e. crap) as teams around them? Obvs you haven't touched Czech's youth rating or anything? I take it you can't click on Czech and they don't show up as a "days in nation" type thing under "eligibility" for anyone on Olot? Sorry for grilling you, I really appreciate the help testing. Crimea might have too much hard-coding to use here

OK yeah they should be getting a bigger intake, I must have seen incoming transfers and thought they were a small intake. Going to play with Catalunya's youth settings and see what happens. Worst case scenario we'll abandon the phoenix club thing and just do it as a self-imposed challenged with Olot (last resort). EDIT: Doesn't look like we can produce newgens this way with the old Crimea as "based nation." Might be possible with another extinct nation, but it might throw up other issues. If anyone has ideas let me know. Will take a break and think some more before rebuilding everything, still with Crimea but no Bermuda Hogges trickery

Just "eligible" should work as normal for your extra nation ("New Zealand (Realm)" or something), which will be included in the new "agreement" of Oceania/OFC (or if you don't want to create an agreement, add them as "nations treated as EU" to New Zealand along with everyone else in OFC). Players won't be called up to the new nation if it doesn't have a continent and doesn't play games.

Haha, I noticed that a few times in my testing. Sometimes they get 1. It seems to be uniform across teams in their division though? Do you see that in the transfer history for other teams nearby you? I figured it was intentional and supposed to reflect the small academies there, and how much those teams likely end up relying on youth castoffs from bigger clubs. Maybe I'll test with and without the changes to see. If they're supposed to get more, maybe I need to adjust Catalunya's youth rating, just not sure if it should copy Spain because with less overall clubs that might be skewed

The "invalid date range" for Spain's nation rules seems wrong, it's set to cover Christmas but it's Dec. 24, 2000 to Dec. 29, 2001. Second entry looks like it should also be 2000. The game can schedule around it but I think it's having knock-on effects elsewhere

Hit the same issue myself. You'd have to rebuild the Euro qualifying:

Added a bunch of the preseason friendly cups. We might be stuck with being unable to "add players to playable teams". But either way once I figure that out, I'll do a rebuild so there can be a "lite" version with all the cups but without the extra changes to UE Olot.

Poor guys. Russia had to invade someone to get banned, South Sudan just had to have a terrible club football scene

Who do you change continental cup nation for? Zanzibar into Tanzania or something like that, and then it frees up a spot because Zanzibar (or whichever clubs you change "continental cup nation" for) don't have any clubs?

Ahh OK, like to fill out the U19s? I never use "add players to playable teams" for default leagues but I can see the appeal, I should have ran a test that way. It doesn't seem to affect the youth intake every year. But I can see how this is gamebreaking for people who want the U19s filled out with fake players straight away, it must be from the club's "based nation" being Catalunya (the game must be set up for Crimean clubs to get Russian newgens that way). I should be able to rebuild it with United Arab Republic instead, give me a couple days. EDIT: Weird, using U.A.R. means the added players are ONLY Spanish, but they have Catalan as a nationality they can get via residency. This is also not ideal. While I think of a solution, try not to use that "add players to playable teams". I'm not sure if Olot have an academy in real life but I can add whatever players we find (at least one). Might also add all the Spanish preseason cups like the Gamper trophy in Barcelona, and this one for Banyoles, Olot and a couple others.

Some recommended viewing on Netflix to get in the Catalan spirit: Not sure why there's no trailer with English subs, rest assured the movie has them.

I don't think any continent is truly plug and play with a new nation. The closest I've got in Europe is adding them to everything except WCQ, but even then the club coefficients would be messed up unless you removed a nation completely. "Replacing" a nation (just writing over the same unique ID) works, but can result in weird newgens and other stuff happening. South America might be malleable to editing with the advanced editor, you could try to add an 11th nation (Falkland Islands maybe), the namepool seems hard-coded to be Latin though.

If you post your file, someone can take a look and let you know if they see anything

Oh ffs, for real? Which version are you using? Is the Russian league loaded or anything? I might have to switch everything to a different extinct nation. Crimea must have some weirdness like that hard-coded. I think we can get a different nation to act the same way (unclickable) if it has no continent set. Let me work on that today, a clean rebuild from scratch might be the way to do it EDIT: @CannonballAndre I'm looking at a save in 2023 and Barca's newgens are all Spanish, UE Olot only got one and he's Spanish (all w/ Catalan second nationality). Same deal at Espanyol. Here's Mallorca including a random Welshman (none of them have Russian third nationality): Maybe you've got more Russian players loaded than I do and it's drawing from that pool. Or this is unlikely but any chance you've got any other file running where they've touched Russians or Crimeans at all? Just brainstorming, I'm prepared to make whatever fix is needed, just trying to narrow it down. If you're using a version from a week or so ago, is Barca's "based nation" Catalunya or Spain? I changed it back to Spain at one point when I realized I wasn't sure what would happen to newgens.

Started a career thread as I run through a long term test with UE Olot. Anyone else can feel free to contribute if they get a save going, or we can start a challenge thread. I expect we'll be heavily reliant on Barça's academy (and other Catalan clubs) so will be keeping a close eye on their castoffs every summer

My first friendly was at home to AS Beziers from over the border in France. We started cautiously with a fluid counter attack before lone striker Ernest Forgàs rattled the post with a first half header. In the 35th minute, though, veteran midfielder Marc Castells took my instruction to get stuck in a little too literally, and lunged through one of the Beziers players' legs like he was a traïdor. Instant red card and no complaint on our end. The rest of the match was choppy and loaded with substitutions as we tried to get everyone some minutes. 0-0 the final, and while we would have preferred to get a goal ahead of a tricky away friendly and the Copa Catalunya, the players seemed happy enough with my post-match team talk: Onward, then. And straight to news that 36-year old winger Jordi Xumetra wants out at the end of his contract in June: Not a big deal. While Catalan talent will come at a premium, at his age we should really be looking for a replacement by end of season anyway. If we can magically get promoted then we might be able to convince him to stay and phase into a staff role. Anyway, he seems happy with the way I instantly capitulated to him and his “expressionless” agent. Scratch that, maybe. Immediate interest from the Middle East. I may be tempted to offload him sooner than June if there’s a worthy replacement available, like Barça loanee Saidou Bah - even if the little **** “believes the lack of support for the manager is fairly justified.” Moving on. We rang the changes for the away game against Girona B, hoping to get a winning formula ahead of the Copa Catalunya. Xumetra was benched after his little outburst, but the morale boost meant he came on looking lively. In the 71st minute, he sent a cross from the right wing for Forgàs, who forced a save out of the Girona B goalkeeper. Left winger Arnau Forés raced onto the rebound... and scored! The very first goal of my managerial career, and we're up 1-0. Six minutes later, Forgàs raced through on a long ball from goalkeeper Arnau Fàbrega to calmly slot home and make it 2-0. We held on, and a morale-boosting away win going into the trip to Lleida. For their part, the scouting team was getting a bit excited, giving me a report for the Barça friendly even before Lleida. The Board and fans seem slightly distracted as well: The front line picks itself for this game, with Xumetra, Forgas and Forés all having been involved in the goals at Girona B. In midfield, Marc Castells makes his return to the starting lineup after that red card in the first friendly. Let’s hope he learned his lesson, which of course, came with absolutely no punishment. In the meantime, we've added a Catalan-speaking Andorran coach who should improve our training set-up:

As I get stuck in and immerse myself in the save, you'll see a lot more information. Once I get going, the updates may be more of a roundup every few weeks or months, but for now, enjoy the extra detail (or not). Chapter 1: That's... Olot It was pouring as I pulled into the first day of training in Olot. I knew the volcanic Garrotxa region was the most humid in Spain, but summer was supposed to provide relief from the otherwise constant rainfall. Hopefully not an omen – or at least not a bad one. It hadn’t always looked so gloomy. When I was announced to the press the previous day, the sun had been shining, but without a calming ocean breeze – Olot sits 40 miles from the Costa Brava – I had felt it underneath my new suit. I had blown the last of my Euros on the new outfit, hoping to make a good first impression at my first head coaching job. The shirt was quickly soaked in sweat, though, and now the jacket was dripping from rain. As I sprinted from my rented car into the office, I realized I couldn’t afford to dryclean the damn thing until my first paycheque came through. If I made it that far, at least. The truth is, there was no real reason for pessimism. Although slightly underqualified, my efforts to speak Catalan at the press conference hadn't gone unnoticed by senior players, including capitan Albert Blázquez. With the transfer budget having been spent by the time I arrived at the club, these were the players I was set with until at least January, and to prevent an immediate return to the fifth tier Tercera we all knew we had to put egos aside and work together. These appear to be reasonable expectations in the first year, even if I had to do a double-take at the league finish – not top 3, but top half, which seemed to satisfy the players. The fans expect us to reach the playoffs, and we'll strive to accommodate that, but in truth promotion would be ahead of schedule. That said, our facilities aren't holding us back. If there’s one thing in Olot that benefits from the weather, it’s the famed Royalverd playing surface at the Estadi Municipal, which hosted Barcelona in a 2022 friendly. As part of a pre-existing affiliation, the Catalan giants are obliged to visit Estadi Municipal if we can squeeze the friendly in a gap in their preseason, which we've been able to do. The anticipated $50K windfall will be enough for a decent squad player's annual salary. Catalan solidarity FTW: First, though, was preparation for the existing friendly schedule and an away game to Lleida in the Copa Catalunya. Not a great draw, but we’ve managed to avoid any of the big ‘B’ teams or higher division Gimnastic and Cornellà. If we can somehow stay alive in the first three rounds, we’ll have cup football in November. As I familiarized myself with the recruitment setup, I told scout and ex-player Jordi Freixa to focus on Catalan players, if it wasn't obvious already. That didn't stop him from offering some interesting advice later on: Let's try and keep it balanced between realistic and impossible, Jordi. No transfers in the first window, but as we hope to add some international flavour to the squad, we’ll keep an eye on these lads including a free agent who doesn’t speak any Catalan but was born in Palma de Mallorca and qualifies for our purposes: Catalan newgens will all have a Spanish passport, but in terms of existing players there are Frenchmen from Northern Catalonia, Catalan-speaking Andorrans, and Alguereso players from Sardinia, like Dario Del Fabro. He's likely out of our price range for now, but at 27 we might yet cross paths.

OLOT, Spain (Aug. 1, 2022) — Catalan soccer team UE Olot were rocked this summer by head coach Manix Maniola’s failure to renew his deal after earning promotion via the playoffs. News of his replacement came even further out of left field, with a semipro Canadian manager named the club’s new manager today. The unknown coach has been in contact with club chairman Joan Agustí about promoting the culture and language of Catalonia abroad, and the two hit it off while discussing politics and football. Rumours that the Canadian had compromising photos of Agustí at a brothel in Barcelona are completely unfounded and have been strenuously denied by the chairman. Solidaritat Catalana In 2017, viewers were shocked at news images of Spanish police violently repressing a so-called illegal referendum in Catalonia. Nationalist feeling is stronger in the small towns, and nowhere more so than at UE Olot. A vanguard of Catalan identity, the club only signs players who have come through the Catalan Countries, which also includes Andorra, the Balearic Islands, most of Valencia, a couple of villages in Murcia, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia. I’ve used a self-made custom database to rebuild UE Olot with this transfer restriction hard-coded in. The plan is to build another Catalan giant to rank alongside FC Barcelona. If I reach a point where I feel that I’ve taken UE Olot as far as I can, I may consider jumping ship to another club with a strong Catalan identity like FC Andorra, Girona, or even Barça themselves – with an informal policy of promoting Catalans and even making it the primary language of the dressing room. If this garners some interest I might turn this into a challenge thread where you get points for winning competitions including the Copa Catalunya.

Cheers!! Will add those in. Yeah, newgens from Andorra and French Catalonia won't (necessarily) have Spanish nationality so I haven't touched their local regions in the UE Olot version. In that version, "Catalan" is to UE Olot as "Basque" is to Athletic Bilbao - no point having it visible if you can't actually sign them. For the meantime, you should be able to sign existing players from the Catalan Countries like Dario Del Fabro (not sure he speaks the dialect but he's from Alghero). So, I added both Spanish and Catalan to those players, to players from from French Catalonia, and to some (mostly already declared) Andorrans (but not all - not sure we want the knock-on effects of adding a second nationality to an entire nation).

What was the issue with having everyone amateur? Finances don't really work? I notice the default game doesn't have many teams set to amateur (that perhaps should be) so was curious Keep up the great work. Can't wait to get an island-hopping save started on Jersey

are you using Nik33's language pack?