2026/27 League Updates - FM24 & FM26 - Official / Ongoing Status Thread

The continental competition qualifications remain on the ‘to do list’ to get tackled fully. There is an explanation in the opening post about the challenge associated with getting this completely right.

 

I've been doing some testing and I think I now have a sense of what the configuration is to get it to work - but I need to find the time to do it; it's time-consuming, as it requires configuring the advanced rules, saving, testing, simulating and iterating that process. Also, just to be honest, I've been short on time due to work/family commitments in the last week or so…but it's not fallen away completely. I'm hopeful of making progress this weekend - or, at least, finding time to dedicate to the effort.

 

With respect to the EFL Trophy qualifications - that is an oversight that I didn't really think of. I will add that to the to-do list - hopefully it's a straightforward correction within the England file.

 

As an aside, I have started to (in parallel) turn my attention to building out the files for in-game start dates of 2026. I am focusing on FM24, whilst other staff members are working on FM26 (we're co-ordinating, though). The plan remains to target a release ASAP and, realistically, I think this will be some time in August - perhaps towards the end. The key thing is that in order to get a sensible/proper in-game experience when activating multiple nations, all of the files need to be prepared and released together.

Just as a point-in-time marker of progress - I have already proven the concept and, in FM24, have the entirety of South America working with a 2026 start date. However - and this is important - the amount of time to ‘make it work’ for each given nation can vary. Sometimes, there are hardcoded rules that result in the ‘standard’ approach not working - and so that bogs us down. A good example of that is England which, as we all know, is a core, popular nation and so the idea of not having England working is a non-starter.

 

In other cases, the actual structures/promotions/relegations/history entries haven't been updated previously so the starting point is a bigger deficit. My overall point is that the actual, end-to-end workload is significant to get it done and we are cracking on but we need some time.

 

As I have always maintained - I am a keen FM player just like everyone else and I commit my time to this because I enjoy it; but it is just a volunteer role and so the time I can give to this is variable. But I am as keen as anyone to get this done.

The continental competition qualifications remain on the ‘to do list’ to get tackled fully. There is an explanation in the opening post about the challenge associated with getting this completely right.

 

I've been doing some testing and I think I now have a sense of what the configuration is to get it to work - but I need to find the time to do it; it's time-consuming, as it requires configuring the advanced rules, saving, testing, simulating and iterating that process. Also, just to be honest, I've been short on time due to work/family commitments in the last week or so…but it's not fallen away completely. I'm hopeful of making progress this weekend - or, at least, finding time to dedicate to the effort.

 

With respect to the EFL Trophy qualifications - that is an oversight that I didn't really think of. I will add that to the to-do list - hopefully it's a straightforward correction within the England file.

 

As an aside, I have started to (in parallel) turn my attention to building out the files for in-game start dates of 2026. I am focusing on FM24, whilst other staff members are working on FM26 (we're co-ordinating, though). The plan remains to target a release ASAP and, realistically, I think this will be some time in August - perhaps towards the end. The key thing is that in order to get a sensible/proper in-game experience when activating multiple nations, all of the files need to be prepared and released together.

Just as a point-in-time marker of progress - I have already proven the concept and, in FM24, have the entirety of South America working with a 2026 start date. However - and this is important - the amount of time to ‘make it work’ for each given nation can vary. Sometimes, there are hardcoded rules that result in the ‘standard’ approach not working - and so that bogs us down. A good example of that is England which, as we all know, is a core, popular nation and so the idea of not having England working is a non-starter.

 

In other cases, the actual structures/promotions/relegations/history entries haven't been updated previously so the starting point is a bigger deficit. My overall point is that the actual, end-to-end workload is significant to get it done and we are cracking on but we need some time.

 

As I have always maintained - I am a keen FM player just like everyone else and I commit my time to this because I enjoy it; but it is just a volunteer role and so the time I can give to this is variable. But I am as keen as anyone to get this done.