It’s time for this year’s version of the Concacaf and US databases! Because of some conversion issues this is an entirely new database that has a few key differences from the last few years, but I’m excited about this new version.
US Database
The top 7 levels of the us database are now split into an East and West division, with each team playing twice in division. The 8th and 9th levels have 4 divisions, and the 10th level has 8 divisions. For the top seven divisions it's split into an opening and closing season (February-May and July-October (or December in the MLS Championship.)) In June and July there are a series of tournaments, including the US Open Cup and 19 regional cups happening in June, and league level cups happening in July (The Leagues Cup between MLS championship and the Liga MX, the MLS cup for teams in MLS 1-3, the USL cup for teams in the USL leagues, and the Amateur cup for lowest level teams.)
Most leagues have two promotion and relegation spots, and have between 12 and 16 teams per division. In Divisions 2-7 the winners of the stages win automatic promotion to the next league - if the same team wins both stages the next two teams in the overall table have a two game playoff. There is also a championship between the East and West overall table winners, and the top division has a 16 team playoff to determine a champion and continental cup competition slots. I also reduced the amount of money available to the us teams, so hopefully that addresses some concerns from previous years. There should be less fixture congestion than previous years (teams play between 25 and 60 games depending on how far you go in competitions.)
A few notes:
As you may remember, this database used to be based off of Michael Danger’s US 2030 project. This years I pulled out those teams - I figured they weren’t needed since a lot of those cities have (or will have) lower league teams, so I raised all of those up a few tiers. Most of the current USL expansion teams are present, along with the independent MLS next pro teams - so all of the usl championship teams are now in the second tier instead of the fifth. I also added the MLS expansion franchise in San Diego and kept
Part of why it took so long to put out this db is that I needed to wait for extinct teams to be made playable. I kept our dearly departed San Diego Loyal and Rio Grande Valley FC. I also brought back some of the extinct teams that were in the original Raysox database (like the San Antonio Scorpions, New York Cosmos, and Atlanta Silverbacks) to round out the league.
I added 10-15 players (including at least one goal keeper) to each team in levels 2-7, so you should have a decent starting group to choose from.
Finally, this year’s known lower level CTD issue is as follows:
In every database I’ve made there is a ctd date that impacts some lower levels. It’s a bug in the game that I can’t fix unfortunately, but you can add to the big thread found here: (I'll update it when I actually reported - I'm traveling right now and can't get a decent signal to upload the files). If we get enough critical mass they may address it. The bug this year impacts the 8th level and below and happens on the 4th Wednesday in May. If you quit your job, sim past the day, and then retake the role you will be able to play for another year.
Concacaf Club Competitions
I remade the CONCACAF competitions to mimic the new CONCACAF format. There are still four cups (Champions, Gold, Silver, and Bronze), but like the new format US, Mexican, and Canadian teams are immediately sent to the round of 16. The Group stages happen in the summer, and the knockouts in the fall, in order to ensure that US and Canadian teams that qualify play the year after they get into the tournaments.
The qualifiers from Latin America (20 teams, with the top 3 for most competitions except for Belize (which gets 2) and the Caribbean (42 teams, with the top 2 from the 10 best nations and the solo competition winner for the other 22) will be entered into a group stage, and the top four teams from each group will qualify for the corresponding competition.
There are no coefficient points in order to maintain this structure, but each nation has at least one slot (minus Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, because you only have three teams and are off the coast of Canada and you messed up a previous version of this db, so I and sending you into exile!)
Canada (and other nations)
In previous versions of this database I made a Canadian pyramid. Because of some of the vagaries of the game (including the way the Canadian Championship is coded) I decided to forego building one this year and instead modified the roster rules and money in the advanced rules for the Canadian Premier League. It’s a closed shop, but You should be able to build a more competitive team than you would otherwise for the international club cups. Similarly I changed the Mexican money and schedule to help keep them competitive.
Finally, to provide a new way to do a journeyman save, I made database files for 39 of the other nations in CONCACAF. All nations have at least one slot in the Concacaf Club competitions, so you can start out at a Sint Maarten or a Belizian or a Jamaican side and work your way up the ranks. I made all of the rules in the basic mode, so some of the special rules for each division (especially the opening and closing structures of the Latin American and Haitian/Dominican leagues) are not present. It should replicate roster rules, schedule structure, and transfer windows of each nation, so it should give you a starting point for each competition. I’ve also attached a quick start so you can easily add all of the Concacaf competitions quickly.
*UPDATED: 3/1: Logo and Kit Pack*
Like last year I made a logo pack for all of the lower league us teams, along with logos for all of the leagues and competitions added here. There are actually two kit packs this year - I put together one here: USA Concacaf EUD Kit Pack. Forum User DonJohn (see below) also put together a mega kit pack that you can find here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cexphgjqb6imzbg/Test+Kit+Megapack.zip/file
24.3 Updates
I made a few adjustments for the 24.3 version that are listed below:
- I properly activated the reserves (levels 1-4) and U19 (levels 1-7) leagues.
- I added kits and stadiums for each US based team, so teams won't randomly build new stadiums after season 1.
- I made some tweaks to the later stages of the July tournaments - they now run into Wednesdays in August, providing a bit more space and hopefully reducing fixture congestion a bit.
- I brought the CONCACAF cup knockouts into the fall, so teams that qualify will get to play in the tournament the year after (instead of waiting two years.)
- I adjusted some things to make sure the correct teams qualify for the Central American group and the Champions League knockouts.
- I renamed awards that had the same name, and thus were not showing up in game. These and a few other minor cosmetic changes were made throughout the DB.
24.4 Updates (4/11)
- The big one this time - levels 1-7 now have formal opening and closing stages. The winner of the stages win automatic promotion - if the same team wins both stages then 2nd and 3rd in the overall table have a playoff to determine who goes up. Relegation is based off of the overall table.
- I gave each team a modest starting budget, added managers to most teams, and added players to teams in levels 2-7, so you should have some players at an appropriate level for the league when you play a team lower down the pyramid. You will still want to check the add players box though.
- I made levels 1-7 playable by default because of the lower league bug.
- I added a lot of local media to the US database - you should have 10-15 outlets at your news conferences going forward.
- I registered the appropriate clubs from the US, Canada, and Mexico for the Continental Cups.
- I tried to add a CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup in the spring, but I couldn't get the game to set it up. So, we will call it good for this year and try again in FM 25.
Happy Concacafing all!
Comments
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TheGhostyBear
Amazing work as always. Looking forward to getting into the DB.
Tragic Bronson
I think I'm misunderstanding, but do you need to use the country databases provided or can I use any along with the club competitions file? Regardless, great work, have loved climbing the pyramid every year.
Chris Nielson
I believe you have to use the the US file with the club competitions file because of the changes I made to the US League structure. I didn't make changes to Canada or Mexico this year, so I think (in theory) you could use the vanilla version of those leagues with club competitions if you want to try to compete in those leagues. I hope you enjoy the climb up the pyramid!
Chris Nielson
Enjoy GhostyBear! You'll have to let me know what you think about the changes.
Bartosz2005
sorry to bother, but where should I exactly put club competitions and logos? i dont wanna mess up my game.
Chris Nielson
you need to create a graphics folder in the (in windows) documents/sports interactive/football manager 2024/ file directory. You can then place the logos and kits in there and it will show up in game.
Bartosz2005
thanks a lot, and what about competitions? (i mean continental ones), in the same place as USA, Canadian and Mexican?
Isak Kim
every time i play this database
thank you so much
DonJohn42069
Okay, in terms of the teams unis i have used kitbasher to make one divisions uniforms i am in tier 10 great plains I chose Denton Diablos. 11/14 teams i was able to put custom unis. I found an issue where alot of the bottom teams dont have jersey settings so you have to go add jersey short and socks for the skin to reload with the custom jerseys. 3 of the teams Shreveport, Tulsa, and i cant remember the 3rd I was unable to put custom unis. I am willing to go through every team and upload a custom kits for them. Just need any info on how to fix the 3 teams without unis before i take it to a bigger scale
Chris Nielson
Hi DonJohn - usually when a kit doesn't show up in game, its either because there is an error with the id, or the team doesn't have a kit in game. You need to use the pre-game editor to add the kits for the missing teams if the id is correct.
ALSO - I am in the midst of making a few quality of life adjustments, and am kitbashing my way through the game as a part of that process. I'll send you a PM and we can discuss more how to tackle this.
Kraig Lutz
This database is amazing but I notice it is missing the new Spokane Velocity team that is starting in USL League One this season. It's strange though because Santa Barbara Sky is in there but I don't think they start until next year. Any plan to add The Velocity soon or tips on how I can add them myself? I'm not experienced with the editor but willing to give it a try.
Bret Piechowski
Appreciate the work you've done on all of this. Question about the youth and reserve teams…..why are there no league games scheduled for them? Your players can't develop if there are no league game in their respective divisions. I was playing as a mls2 team but my U-19s and reserves have no league games scheduled.
Chris Nielson
Yes! I realized there were some oversights (including Spokane and Antelope Valley) that will be added in the next version. Usually there's a big database release from SI in March, so I'm aiming to have that update (with a few quality of life improvements) ready by then.
Chris Nielson
Hi Bret! I tried to do a simpler version of the youth leagues that didn't work this year. I probably need to do a more extensive build on the youth leagues in the editor - I'll work on that for V2.
Azrael
Thanks a lot for your time and effort! Keep it up!
Chris Nielson
Quick note for those following along - I finished an update that addresses a few of the above issues (like the youth set-up and an issue with Central American teams not getting into the proper round in the club competitions) and some other quality of life issues, including kits and stadiums for all of the US teams and adding in Spokane and Antelope Valley. Since we're close to the winter update I'm going to hold off on releasing it until after that drops. Thanks all!
Chris Nielson
Hi Everyone! I wanted to let you know that the files have been updated for 24.3, including the kits and the logos. There have also been several changes from the initial version, including setting up Reserve and U19 leagues for the US database, adding in some missing teams (Antelope Valley FC and Spokane, most specifically), and making some tweaks to the schedule to ease some of the congestion in July. I also switched the CONCACAF club competition schedule a bit - the group stages happen in the summer, and the knockouts in the fall, so that teams that qualify for the competitions do get to play in the following year. I've done some light testing, so I think it should be stable and ready to go!
Azrael
Hi and good morning over here! Thank you for this brilliant work! I noticed that the download link for the file “CEUD Activated Nations.zip” is duplicated. Is there any difference between both of them or is it just a mistake?
Azrael
Just another question! Do both kit packs complement each other or do they have the same content?
Chris Nielson
Hi Azreal! First question - I forgot to turn off the mirror for the original version of the databases. The one that is still active is verified for 23.3. And as far as the second goes, no, there isn't a real difference - they provide kits for each of the teams in game. My file also has the templates and sponsors I use, so if you want to use kitbasher to make your own kits you can do that. Otherwise we have some different kits (the kitbasher app lets you produce kits from 1000+ templates. We both ran it independently, so while the teams have similar colors they may have different kit options.)
Chris Nielson
Also, a quick note (as I just loaded up my save from 24.1) - it looks like there is a bug in the newest data update that wipes out homegrown statuses of players in long term saves. You can post your experience in this thread to help highlight the issue for SI: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2024-early-access-bugs-tracker/all-other-issues/all-players-lost-their-homegrown-status-r22164/.
George Rodgers
new bizare rule mls gets 8 too us open cup!!!! the fa cup of us soccer! https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/us-open-cup-revamp-to-feature-just-8-mls-first-teams/ar-BB1jbnUl
Chris Nielson
HI everyone - quick 24.3 related update. It appears that there is a bug that has wiped out homegrown at nation and club data in custom databases. I remade the US, Mexican, and Canadian dbs and removed the homegrown eligibilities. You can find them below:
Jameson Rehm
Quick question, in the US, folks will only accept 1 year deals (both extensions and new signings). Is there a fix I don't know about?
Thanks for doing this! Makes my home country playable!
Bret Piechowski
Chris - Just a thought….you could limit “foreign” players to compensate for the loss of homegrown status.
Side note- Did you have any issues getting the 1846 Brigade 3d kits loading? I had a very strange issue, 2d loaded fine but 3d in game and load up screen defaulted to the SI vanilla. I had to mess around with it for a while to get it work…but only with new kits that I made with Kitbasher. I had to go into FMRTE and change the home kit from 48 to 1….but I liked the sponsors you had on your kits (Harley/Miller) so I then tried again to get them to load…no love. Same issue. I wasn't sure who I was going to play as, Milwaukee or Las Vegas….started a save for both….hated the new red kits for Vegas…liked the older ones…..So I remade their in the old style…..no issue at all loading them into the game. So I'm not sure what happened with the 1846 kits.
Chris Nielson
Hey Jameson! I think that has to do with club reputation. I've found in my saves that the lower level US teams get 12 mo contracts to start, but that by the time I make it to the top tier I can get 3 year contracts. I think that's the issue there, and once you start a save you can't adjust the team reputations. Glad you're finding it fun though - what is your home country?
Chris Nielson
That's a clever workaround Bret. If SI doesn't post a hotfix by the next iteration I'll probably implement that.
Also, I'm attaching the kits I used in game that I think worked - let me know if this fixes your problem.
Rimmshot1973
Is this a fantasy file?
Chris Nielson
Yes. The clubs are the same as we have in real life, but they are split geographically and in different divisions (and obviously it has pro/rel, which the United States doesn't utilize in real life.) If you're looking for a realistic database I'd point you to @themodelcitizen's to level 4 US db: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/64052/fm24-usa-to-d3-with-mls-next?page=2#comment_769366
Adzter
I don't know if I am being stupid but the trained by a club in the nation for 3 years before 21 seems to be bugged and not counting people. even using the ingame editor to add my club and also trained in nation it isn't counting anyone as trained in the US before 21, I assume youth intake players would eventually work but I haven't got that far yet