UEFA REBOOTED - Alternative Continental, Intercontinental, and International files

The past few months has seen me rewrite my https://sortitoutsi.net/content/64380/80s-style-european-competitions-fm24. I have decided to compile the files I am using to be available under a "UEFA REBOOTED" banner. I completely dislike the way modern football is heading, and particularly the change to the European competitions next season, is something I am not looking forward to. So, I hark back to an era of Continental knockout football, which I will detail below.

The major changes of this version compared to my previous ones, are that the nations are dynamic, and change each season depending on the national team world rankings. This is the case for all 3 European competitions. The other major change is that I have rewritten the European Cup Winners' Cup over the ID of the Europa Conference League. This means that all 3 competitions will have the intro music and graphical content that comes with the vanilla version. I have adjusted graphics for ad boards and logos, and I may put these up for download if others are interested. I am also providing downloads for Welsh Cup, an annual 6 team Club World Cup, a Belarus nation file, a Russian nation file, and an International file allowing the 2 latter nations back into all competitions and playing on home soil.

And so to business...

1.   UEFA REBOOTED - 80s Style Continental Competitions Version 2 released on 20th April to stop fixtures clashing with the new International calendar from 2026 onwards

European Cup: 54 team tournament. League Champions only plus the holders of the competition from the previous year. If the holders are also their nation's champions then an extra nation is invited to take part.

European Cup Winners' Cup: 54 team tournament again. Domestic FA Cup winners take part. In the event that a team has done a league and cup double, then the runner-up takes their place. Holders from the year before are invited back if not in the EC. 

UEFA Cup: 112 team tournament, with a 2 legged final. A nation can have between 2 and 4 representatives depending on the ranking of the nation. Qualifying teams are based on league positions, and in England and Scotland, the League Cup winners qualify as they used to back in the day, however this is now dependent on how high up the world ranking the nation is. The holders are also invited back if not already partaking in European competition.

Here is the breakdown for the UEFA Cup team allocation:

Nation ranking  Number of Qualified Teams  Teams in R1  Teams in QR

       1 to 4                              4                                       1                       3

       5 to 8                              3                                       1                       2

       9 to 16                            2                                       1                       1

      17 to 50                           2                                       0                       2

      51 to 54                           1                                       0                       1

European Super Cup: The winners of the EC play the winners of the ECWC in August.

      NOTES

• All matches are played over 2 legs, with the away goals rule included. The exception to this is the finals in the EC, ECWC, and the Super Cup.
• The Euro/SAM club challenge is disabled.
• The squad selection rules has been a complete pain. Thanks to @kingrobbo  for the excellent advice and online tutorials. I have mirrored the match day squad rules of the real life UEFA tournaments. There is no squad registration date as it is just bugged, and caused all sorts of problems.
• Financial Fair Play now included to match the current rules. This is bugged though and doesn't seem to do anything as I've never seen a team fail FFP!
• Liechtenstein get a representative in the ECWC, as despite no domestic league, they do have a domestic cup.
• Russia and Belarus are included. I'm not making a political statement here, I just prefer to see the teams competing. It's still a game after all!
• Club coefficients are included but I don't see a screen that uses this info. Thus the reason I chose to use world rankings to create dynamic changes.
• Some European leagues have European playoffs at the end of their season. These are rendered useless now as the UEFA Cup takes the league placings for the qualifiers. Belgium and Romania spring to mind. If the league splits into a Championship group the final placings in this mini league is what counts.
• You will notice at the end of the season that the league champions have a 'C' next to them in the final league table. There's no visible information from the league table screen to say who has qualified for what. This is not a bug. It is because I did away with the Europe > Continent > Teams tab in the editor. You can find out who has qualified for what by clicking the team overview and then competition to see what they're involved in in the new season after the reset day on the 10th July.

Other files that I have included

2. UEFA REBOOTED - Dutch file   

Please use the Dutch file attached along with this file if you want the Dutch FA Cup to work. This just removes any link to the now defunct Europa Conference League.

3. UEFA REBOOTED - FA Cup (This is an optional file) Added 18th April 2024

In response to the FA's decision to scrap all replays next season, I have released my FA Cup file which puts them back. This version has replays in each round from qualifying to the final. The fifth round is played at the weekend and not midweek. You will also see the reintroduction of neutral club grounds being used for the semi finals. Wembley is still used sometimes but then again it was in real life too. If the match goes to a replay it is played at the same ground as the first match (I couldn't alter that). There's no geographical consideration involved for what teams play where, so you may see 2 northern teams play in the south or vice versa. And one final finger up to the FA is I have the Cup Final as the last game of the season after the league season has finished.

4. UEFA REBOOTED - Welsh Cup    (This is an optional file)

This file makes the 5 English based Welsh teams available to play in the Welsh Cup (Swansea City, Cardiff City, Newport County, Merthyr Town, and Wrexham). This used to happen in the 80s, and was open to a few more border teams than I have entered here. Each year didn't necessarily have the same border teams playing. What makes this interesting is this type of thing becomes possible, where Third Division Newport County made it to the quarter-finals of the ECWC! The difference in this version is the 5 teams are playing under the English flag, therefore they are more likely to get a bye to the first round of the ECWC, as opposed to a Welsh league team, who would have to go into the qualifying round. This of course would change if Wales moved up into the top 16 nations in Europe, or England move down.

5. UEFA REBOOTED - 6 team Club World Cup   (This is an optional file)

This is played annually each December. It is based on the 7 team Club World Cup, just minus the host nation. It involves the 6 continental winners to determine the club world champions. The new 32 team tournament that runs every 4 years is scrapped.

6. UEFA REBOOTED - International file   (This is an optional file)

This file reintroduces Russia back into International competitions. I am not making a political statement, I just want to see all nations playing in the competitions. This also allows both Russia and Belarus to play their matches on home soil. I have not altered how the competitions work, so the formats are the same as the vanilla version. Gibraltar has been sacrificed and won't play any of the Euro qualifiers or Nations League matches. They do play World Cup qualifiers and friendlies.

7. UEFA REBOOTED - Russia file   Use this file in order for the international file to work. This also allows the Russian clubs to play their continental matches, in the 80 Style file, on Russian soil. I have added over 4000 Russian regens to the database, I think you would need to load players from that nation to really see the effect of that. (the original Russia nation (ID 791) is present as 'y' in the game)

8. UEFA REBOOTED - Belarus file   Use this file in order for the international file to work. This also allows the Belarusian clubs to play their continental matches, in the 80 style file, on Belarus soil. (the original Belarus nation (ID 758) is present as 'x' in the game)

I recommend using the the International file with the Russia and Belarus files, to ensure the Internationals work correctly. If you don't use them all together you will see 'y' or 'x' appearing as nations in your game! 

Place the files in the 'editor data' folder, and tick them when you start a new career game. To change the nation flags to the new ID's for Russia and Belarus you will need to adjust the config files. Replace all ID's that have 791 to 583, and 758 to 574 in the following folders that i'll detail. If you have no graphics folder in your My Documents > Sports Interactive folder then use the Resource Archiver to extract the graphics fmf. In there you can find the config files in the following folders to change the ID's mentioned above:

FOR FLAGS

graphics > pictures > flags > large

graphics > pictures > flags > medium

graphics > pictures > flags > small

For Awards, and Competition name changes that my file hasn't addressed, use a downloadable name fix and adjust the config xml. For example change any reference to the Champions League to the European Cup. I have used the real name fix file from here, and used the search function to weed out and change any references to the Champions League etc.

For other graphical changes to ad boards, and logos that relate to these 3 competitions click this link and download the zip file using something like winRAR.

Plans for the future ... 

• Update the file when SI do their final update for FM24 No need to do this as the database remained at 24.3
• Change International competitions to get away from the 48 team World Cup idea
• Release an FM24 version of my FM23 FA Cup file that includes replays for all rounds, and reintroduce neutral club ground semi final venues. Released 18th April 
• Return clubs to home grounds that they played in back in the 1980s.

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If you wish to have Russian teams back in the modern day Champions League format, Belarusian & Russian teams playing matches on home soil, and the Russian National team playing in International competitions again, then You can use the following 3 files: 

• UEFA REBOOTED - International file
• UEFA REBOOTED - Russia file
• UEFA REBOOTED - Belarus file

(Domestically Russian teams won't appear in Europe until the second season of your save.)

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Thanks of course to the whole community for using this mod, I hope you enjoy it. 

If you like my files then feel free to support me at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/appy.ammer1980.

As usual just raise any issues you have on here, or on X / Twitter https://twitter.com/AppyAmmer1980. You can also download my files from My Workshop on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198014497223/myworkshopfiles/