England level 7 & 8 + New Championship playoffs from 2026/27

1,465 3 306

FM26 Real Leagues

Championship playoffs from 2026/27 expanded to top 8 teams per the expected real life rules (one-leg QF/eliminators with 5 vs 8 and 6 vs 7 for right to play 3rd and 4th over two legs)
“Trident" (Isthmian, Northern Premier and Southern) Leagues activated
(Step 3 and 4 of English non league aka levels 7 and 8 overall making 87 (88) extra teams playable in the former + 176 in the latter
includes putting the level 7 leagues back to full quota in 2026/27 (one of the NPL teams went bust during the season and also have tried to make regional settings realistic by setting correct promotions from County leagues to level 8 but not gone to lengths of setting regional leagues for each individual team etc as just too many)
FA Trophy and FA Cup updated to real life (teams from different levels entering at right rounds plus prize money added for previously missing rounds)

Tested for several seasons with no crashes or obvious issues but any problems please raise.
(There are other English databases out there with more depth, but level 8 as far as I've gone as mitigates risk of crashes and potential compatibility issues with other files)

EDIT 1 June: alternative version added with real results
(down to Conf Nth/Sth only, not Trident leagues. Note also play-offs and Cups will continue to be randomly generated)
(with thanks to @marcodoglio94 's excellent files https://sortitoutsi.net/content/75040/fm26-2025-26-real-fixture-results-6-11-2025 )
The real result file includes 1 June start date, so you don't need to combine with another country file that has a late start, e.g. Seychelles
Please note, don't select both the original 26.2 files and the real results version- they will conflict with each other, choose one or the other depending on whether you want real results or not