[FM19] Alternative Scottish Pyramid V1.0

I've been working on and off this file for a few years and thought it's about I upload my work for others to critique/enjoy. In every addition of FM I tend to play a long term save in Scotland and after a season or two I quickly get bored of the repetitive fixtures/league structure. I've made a file with a new 16-10-16 structure within the SPFL which also includes the Highland, Lowland and East of Scotland leagues. My long term plan for this save is to incorporate the juniors into this setup and create a fully functional league pyramid. I'll now talk through the changes I've made to the SPFL with some justification as to why I've made certain changes. I have tried to keep a form of realism within this file where possible and I'm fully aware people may not agree with some changes in this pyramid.


My initial idea was to turn the premiership into a 16 team league where clubs play each other twice, giving us 30 games with no splits. However, the more I thought about this the more I released how unfeasible such a set up would be. While this system would take a away the monotony of playing teams 4 times a season in the league, losing 8 rounds of fixtures and 2 Old Firm games would be a financial disaster in terms of TV money and sponsorship. We also in Scotland have this bizarre belief that a bigger league would leave too many teams with nothing to play for. To make up for this shortfall in fixtures and to give all sides something to play for throughout the season, I've looked to the splits in Denmark and Belgium as motivation. Personally I have nothing against league splits and while this system will give at least 6 extra games, more importantly it will ensure each side has an equal number of home and away matches.


After 30 games the league will split into 4 groups, giving every team in the league an extra 6 balanced games (3 home & 3 away), which is an improvement on the current split where teams can play more home than away games or vice versa, or play 1 side 3 time away from home and 1 time at home, Like Hibs V Aberdeen this season. The top 4 teams make up the Championship group, teams 5th-8th make up the European Places Playoff group, teams 9th-12th the Relegation Playoff Group and the bottom 4 teams play in the Relegation group. After each group has finished team 4 will play team 5 in a 2 legged playoff for the final Europa League place and team 12 will play team 14 in the Relegation playoff semi final with the losing team playing the winner of the Championship Playoff. This gives us a 16 team league with 36 fixtures, every team will have something to play for and there is less fixture monotony as you will face 12 team's twice and 3 teams 4 times (excluding playoffs)



The Championship remains similar in terms of structure, the only real difference is two teams are automatically promoted to the Premiership. I have toyed about with various league setups for the Championship, however there is not really enough 'big' SPLF teams for a bigger league to work. Increasing the number of teams further would also significantly dilute the quality of the Championship and make the jump between the Premiership and Championship too extreme. Any team relegated from the Championship receives £60,000 in parachute money for 2 seasons.



The remaining League 1 and 2 clubs form a new look 16 team League. League One is a simple play each other twice, 30 game league. A higher % of TV money has been diverted to these clubs to offset the cost of losing 3 home games per league season. A 16 team 'semi-pro' league seems more feasible than the SPFL welcoming in 4 new teams to fill the gap in League 2. I've kept the relegation playoff as it is, as in reality there will be no automatic relegation from League 2 in till the standard of the Lowland League increases. In future updates I may look to change this to automatic relegation occurring after a few seasons. As in real life any side relegated to the Highland/Lowland league will recieve £40,000 in parachute money for 2 seasons.



The Highland league keeps its current structure and is designed to float between 16 and 20 teams ensuring regionalisation at this level remains correct. The following cups have also been added: Highland League Cup, North of Scotland Cup, Aberdeenshire Shield and the Aberdeenshire Cup. In terms of youth of development the North of Scotland U20 and the Aberdeeshire and District League have also been included, teams in each region can opt in and out of these leagues from the beginning of season 2.



The Lowland League starts as a 15 teams league as in real life and will expand to a 16 team league team in season 2. Like the Highland League it is designed to float between 14-18 clubs to ensure regionalisation, this may impact season 2's expansion. The following cups have also been added: Lowland League Cup, SFA South Challenge Cup and the Qualifying Cup. In terms of youth development the Lowland Development League, Challenge Cup, Knockout Cup and League Cup have been added, again teams in each region can opt in and out of these leagues from the beginning of season 2.



The East of Scotland League begins with this seasons conference system, the top team in each group progress to the Round Robin Championship Group where the top 2 teams win promotion the the Lowland League. The runner up, teams 2-5 across each conference and the 2 best 6th placed teams form a 16 team Premiership in Season 2 while the remaining teams form a North and South regioned Division One. The Following cups have also been added: East of Scotland League Cup, King Cup & Alex Jack Cup (Winner qualifies for next seasons Scottish Cup).

Other Changes:

- Added £3k in travel costs to any Scottish clubs playing away to English, Irish, Northern Irish or Welsh clubs in the Irn-Bru cup in line with current cup rules.

- Ticket prices added for 72 clubs

- Attendances updated for 69 clubs

- Stadium information corrected for 46 grounds

- Facilities info added to 48 clubs

- 112 staff members added

- 471 records added giving more depth the game

- 425 past winners added to newly created competitions

- 125 unique city pics added for clubs from Premiership to East of Scotland League

- 87 stadium pics added for clubs from Highland, Lowland, East of Scotland and some Junior clubs

- 15 trophy pics added

- Logos added for all senior competitions



Download

Installation instruction

extract to my documents/sports interactive

Any feedback/suggestions for further updates welcome

Can't wait to use this. I agree with your philosophies. Obviously they will never come to light because of the dummies in charge at the SFA. Does this file integrate well when selected as part of a batch? i.e., I have a tweaked German league setup to include the regional leagues that weren't included.

It's giving an error in the game setup because it's saying there are only nine teams in the Championship, even though in the editor ten are shown. Any ideas?

Upon further investigation, your file isn't the culprit. I have some digging to do apparently, because I have a raft of other files that are selected upon launch.