I have created a fourth UEFA European competition to run alongside the other European competitions. It is called the “UEFA Alliance League” and it mirrors the “UEFA Conference League”. It was based on the 'Mitropa Cup" ID and created from there.
It picks the losing teams from the third qualifying and play off rounds of the UEFA Conference League which is approx. 18 teams. It then picks up to 2 teams that finished in their respective leagues just outside of European qualification for the top coefficient leagues in Europe. These nations are as follows, England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkiye, Norway, Greece, Austria, Poland, Scotland, Denmark, Cyprus, Sweden and Croatia. The competition picks approx. 18 teams from these leagues. The higher the coefficient the more teams get to qualify. So for example, Bournemouth and Brighton have qualified because they were the top two teams in the Premier League in 2025 just outside the normal European placings.
The tournament is based exactly the same as the other European competitions with a Swiss 36 team format with each team playing 6 matches. However, there is no knockout round between teams finishing 17th to 24th, the top 16 teams go straight to a knockout round before the Quarter Finals. The competition follows the exact same fixture dates as the “UEFA Conference League” [Barring the 17th to 24th knockout round] but the final is played one week before the “UEFA Europa League Final”.
I have lowered the host nation format to include Nations that would host a final for this competition, so you would be looking at Nations like, Wales, Austria, Poland, Republic Of Ireland, Scotland etc. The coefficient points are gained within this competition, but there is no effect to the other European competitions. The prize money and competition ranking is slightly lower than the “UEFA Conference League” and it gives teams who don't qualify for Europe in the normal way a chance to play in a European competition.
I have added screenshots of the teams that have qualified in my save and to be honest, this competition has a better selection of teams than the the “UEFA Conference League”. Teams such as RB Leipzig, AC Milan, Lazio, Werder Bremen, Bournemouth, Brighton and AZ Alkmaar have qualified due to the qualification process.
I have to be honest, trying to create the Swiss format was really hard and trying to implement the 17th to 24th knockout round before the next knockout round was nearly impossible. I have updated this file a few times so this is why you will find it as V3. I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions please ask.
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Zebron100
Hi,
I wanted to ask how you managed to create the competition. I tried to do it myself, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to.
If possible, could you please send me the screenshots of both the basic rules and the advanced rules? That would really help me understand the process better.
Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards,
DrewJS66
It was hard work TBH. I used a Mitropa Cup template which was already in advanced rules. it was st to Europe anyway so I built it from scratch in advanced rules. I tried my hardest to create a knockout round between the 17th to 24th placed teams but it wouldn't work So I had to use top 16 places only. You have to add the fixtures section manually so so team 1 using -1, 6, 10 etc and you have to do that for all 36 teams in the fixtures section. The teams qualification was easy, ignore all 36 teams from the other European Competitions that have qualified and then pick from the play-off rounds of the Conference League and best teams from the other leagues. If you need help try and create a file with what you want and I will update it for you to work in the game.
Zebron100
Thank you so much for your help! What you shared is exactly what I'd like to create, but I got stuck. If you could help me update it, I would be very grateful.
Zebron100
THIS IS FOR FM24
DrewJS66
No FM26
Zebron100
Ah ok ok so is possible change your file Could you expand this competition by adding additional countries and qualification rounds, and restructure it from a league table format into the classic group stage system (like the old Champions League format)?
DrewJS66
I wanted the competition to mirror the others. I can/t use qualifying rounds as it might disrupt the other qualifying competitions. I do have other files a FIFA Club World Cup that runs every two years instead of 4 and other competitions.
Zebron100
My idea is to hold this fourth European competition with 128 teams with two preliminary stages, the group stage, then the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, but I'm stuck in these two situations that I'm sending you because I can't understand how to set it up. Could you give me a hand to understand how I should proceed? Please i need help
Zebron100
this is my file please control this file and search problem
DrewJS66
The file is not working because it is not in advanced rules and you haven't created the right amount of teams. If you are looking for 128 teams in a European Competition to run alongside the other 3 it will not work, as you will have duplicate teams from other competitions in the one you are creating. In my Alliance League I am only using teams that have qualified that are not in the other 3 and the best teams in their league that did not qualify for Europe the normal way. You would also have a conflict in fixtures which would mess up the normal calendar.
Zebron100
I actually needed to get to the advanced rules but I can't figure out how to do it. What if I did it with 64/80 teams instead? Would that work?
DrewJS66
I can give you an advanced rules template to work with but as I said, because your structure is 128 teams for a new European competition if the teams are in other competitions like the Champions League etc, it will almost certainly mess your calendar, as you will have multiple teams in different competitions.
When you create the competition, in the teams section you have to list the 3 European Competitions and tick ignore all teams. But by doing that, you still have to find at minimum approx. 64 teams. To do that you will have to pick the best teams from each of the leagues in Europe. I chose the top 10 Coefficient Leagues as I only needed approx. 18 teams for my competition. So it was the best two from each league.
Zebron100
If you can provide me with how to get to the advanced rules, you would do me a huge favor because I still don't understand how to get there, even if you send me a video tutorial or screenshot with explanation, you would do me a huge favor if you can also use my file and do it with 64 teams and no longer 128.
I would like to use the teams that do not qualify for the conference league of all the UEFA nations
DrewJS66
OK so please find attached a different version of my Alliance League which is 8 groups of 4 teams. Then the knockout section round of 16, quarter finals, semi finals, final etc. Please use as you want, it is in advanced rules already. If you want a knockout round system then change the group section to cup and just add qualifying rounds to the round of 16. The teams are already listed for you but if you want to increase the number of teams in the list of teams available change the maximum from 2 to 4 or 5 etc. to make up the numbers you need. Don't touch the European competitions I have entered [Ignore teams etc]. Just change the group to cup and enter it into rounds. So you already have a round of 16, so you would only need one more round for 64 teams or two for 128 teams. The more teams you have you would have to increase the maximum number of teams from each league. But just remember the more teams you pull the lower the league finishing position you would use. So for example if you used a maximum of 5 Premier League teams, you could be pulling 14th position in the league for qualification. Just remember when creating the rounds you have to make sure the team structure qualifies for each round, so for example the round of 16 pulls the teams from whichever round beforehand you have created. Give it a go and if you need any help give me a shout.
Zebron100
I my friend I can't open the file in the editor. Can you save it as a file from the editor?
DrewJS66
Hi I enclosed it as an xml file, so you need to import it and not load it. You can save it as an .FMF file from there. However, at the moment the pre-game editor for FM26 is broken as it does not test files. So to make it work you will have to wait for it to be updated.
Zebron100
Hi my friend, you know what my difficulty is is in the basic rules that I can't do it in order to move towards the advanced rules that always gives me problems and I would like to understand how you did it because I'm really going crazy I can't go on