Holy Kyivan Rus

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FM26 Fictional Leagues

=== The fictional scenario description ===

The war is over.

Russia has been absorbed into Ukraine, and a (old) new country emerges with Kyiv at its centre. Everything from Russia is moved into the new country. All stats and records are reset at both national-team and division level so everything starts from scratch. Naturally, clubs’ and players’ histories remain untouched.

The league structure features 5 professional leagues with 20 teams each, with promotion and relegation, but no relegation from the bottom tier.

The same structure is mirrored for U23 youth teams, except U23 divisions have their own promotion/relegation and are not tied to the main leagues after the first season.

Both levels also have their own Cup competitions.

=== Installation instructions ===

Download the zip archive and unpack it. Move the graphics and the editor data folders from its main directory into your C:\Users\????\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 26 folder or its analogue. Watch for file conflicts if you use logo packs — remove their versions so this mod’s graphics are used.

=== Other features ===

Slightly increased facility and stadium scores — purely cosmetic, just to make the experience nicer.
Increased the stature of Ukraine (now Holy Kyivan Rus) and made naturalisation easier to make things more interesting.
The 100 clubs selected for the new leagues are mostly chosen and ordered by reputation, but not exclusively.
Ticket prices significantly increased across the board while staying realistic and still lower than in more advanced European leagues — needed for financial viability during a nation-building save, since prices barely adjust in the base game.
De-sovietisation of the most obvious/important names and toponyms.
All leagues use 5 out of 11 substitutes.
All Ukrainian clubs are restored to their proper stadiums/cities.
FC Tosno is restored in place of Leningradets.
The national team and cup finals will now rotate stadiums instead of always using NSC Olimpiyskyi.

=== Possibly FAQ ===

Q: Russian clubs are overrepresented in the divisions / I want to see fewer of them.
A: This is tricky for two reasons.
First, reputation is the only attribute usable for distribution, and Russian clubs have significantly higher average values, so it took a lot of effort to avoid an even heavier Russian skew. I included at least 15 Ukrainian clubs ahead of more “reputable” Russian ones to compensate.
Second, since I’m Russian myself and not deeply familiar with Ukrainian football beyond the more well-known teams, I might have overlooked some Ukrainian inclusions in favour of Russian ones I simply know better. I’m happy to consider feedback.

Q: Why U23s? It’s an awkward threshold — most people prefer lower.
A: It’s just my personal (possibly weird) preference. I like having one youth team that’s as broad as possible. You can change this in the editor fairly easily, although it requires a lot of tedious work: updating every club’s reserve setup and then adjusting the competition settings. But it’s completely doable even without being an expert editor user.

Q: I’m wary about bumped facility scores, stadium attributes, and/or ticket prices. Are you sure this won’t cause imbalance?
A: I can’t guarantee anything, but here’s the reasoning:

Facility scores: Increased very mildly — “5–10% across the board” would already be overstating it. It doesn’t meaningfully affect anything unless you’re doing a nation-building run, in which case it just saves clubs a season or two of upgrades. Youth-related attributes got the biggest bump so regens are slightly more interesting, but even that is minor.
Stadium attributes: Capacity, pitch deterioration, stadium condition, surroundings, and creating missing training-ground stadiums for clubs. The only major change is increased attendance across the board — sometimes quite significantly. Everything else is minor. Higher attendances improve financial stability (which I consider a positive) and reduce the number of depressingly empty stadiums.
Ticket prices: These are massively increased. Two reasons:

Financial stability, so the league ecosystem isn’t permanently broke.
Without this, it’s almost impossible for the nation’s clubs to financially catch up with leagues like the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, etc. If you want a realistic chance at building a nation that can challenge the top 4 in Europe (beyond just your own club boosting coefficients), this increase is essentially required.

=== The fictional scenario description ===

=== Installation instructions ===

=== Other features ===

=== Possibly FAQ ===

Download

Holy Kyivan Rus mod.zip

Comments

Basic changes, the easy part

Deciding on the updated league structure, the first hard part

Second (and potentially breaking) issue: Belarus & UEFA

Basic changes, the easy part

Deciding on the updated league structure, the first hard part

Second (and potentially breaking) issue: Belarus & UEFA