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As ever, I'd like to start by thanking Graaa, the mad genius behind this custom USA database from FM15. This edit includes a lot of his work on the Extended Club World Cup that was part of that file alongside the changes I made, and I only posted it because he chose not to continue that mod or update it, but left its details as fair use for others, and I thought the idea was too awesome to let it vanish.
This database edit replaces all club continental competitions and the Club World Cup with three worldwide club tournaments: the FIFA Champions League, World League, and Youth League. All domestic leagues are left untouched and will run alongside the intercontinental tournaments: fancy midweek trips to Argentina to play Boca between your league matches? I BET YOU DO.
The FIFA Champions League and World League are senior-level tournaments that mostly work how you expect: Champions League has better competition and better payouts (though the difference between the two isn't as derisory as in real life), finish high enough in your domestic league or win your major domestic cup and you get a ticket (if your league of choice doesn't use a single table or has some other continental qualification shenanigans, it SHOULD work properly depending on how SI or your database modder of choice coded that specific league, but I can't be certain.
There are qualifiers (the Champions League winner, World League winner, and champions of 30 specified leagues do not have to go through them, and instead get automatic group stage places), and a group stage, and a knockout stage, and Big Fancy Neutral Site Finals. There is now also goal line technology and VAR (in CL/WL group stage games and onward).
The FIFA Youth League uses a similar format and replaces the Viareggio Tournament or whatever it is called for people that aren't using the Susie Real Name fixes. It pits the U19/U18 teams of CL participants (and, where not enough teams are available strictly from the CL clubs, additional elite youth teams from around the world) against each other.
There is also a a FIFA Super Cup between the Champions League and World League winners, scheduled after qualifiers finish (since neither of those teams participate in them) but before the September international break and the start of the group stages.
News:
1 May: No update to the main file, but I've completed compatibility patches for the bug affecting Canadian MLS teams that's described in Known Issues. The Mini version is based on SI's vanilla Canada nation rules, the Mega version is based on @yellowsweatygorilla's Canadian megapatch, with his permission and my deep thanks. The files are attached to the OP, further details in this post.
9 April: This update is for compatibility with 22.4, and includes the following changes:
-A change to the final stages of WL qualifying. Instead of the three team group stages, the 96 winners of WL Q3 are drawn into a fourth phase, and those 48 winners plus the 16 "best losers" of that round enter a one-leg final phase at the higher seed's home venue for one of the 32 remaining spots in the main WL group stage.
-The CL qualifying playoff is renamed "final phase" for consistency, but otherwise has no changes.
28 February: This update is for compatibility with 22.3, and includes the following changes:
-A fix to the reported bug where teams that drop from the CL to the WL cannot register squads for their playoff.
-A change to the spot allotment in response to feedback, in order to create a more gradual progression in slots as you go down the rankings. The details are below but tl;dr is that nobody gets 7 slots anymore, only the top 9 leagues get 6 spots instead of the top 30, and a lot of smaller countries get one more spot in qualifying as a result.
24 January: This update contains a (apparent, anyway) fix to the longstanding issue that would occasionally (always in the first year of the game for start dates before 1 July, and unpredictably afterwards) cause a crash dump in the first week of July when the World League was created.
It also contains tweaks to the coefficient system, detailed below.
Release: The FM21 version is unlikely to receive any further updates.
There are two changes in functionality from the FM21 version:
-All competitions now allow 5 subs from 12, with three stoppages. Any fixtures that allow for extra time allow an extra sub in extra time.
-The file now uses the "coefficient" functionality included in the FM22 editor to rank nations in the setup and allocate qualifying slots dynamically based on the past 5 years' results.
Downloads:
The FM22 version of this mod is available as an attachment to this post or on the Steam Workshop.
Known Issues
FM will crash dump in the first week of July 2021 if you use this file with a start date before then. Start dates after that work fine, as do subsequent years of the competition. I still have no idea why this happens but I assume it has something to do with the first year of a new save and whatever unique things happen there. Nonetheless I'll keep trying to fix it. I think this one has been fixed but please let me know if it persists.
Squad registrations may disappear upon loading a save game - this is apparently due to an SI bug, but on a CL/WL matchday you will still be able to select ineligible players even though they have the Unregistered flag, the game will register them, and they appear to remain registered for future matches until the next reload, where they disappear again - so this is annoying but not fatal?
Canadian MLS teams do not have a path to this competition, since Canada's domestic cup is not considered a "national domestic cup" by the game, and they do not play in the CPL so are not picked for those spots either. To fix this, please use one of the attached compatibility patches: details in this post.
If you need more details, they're below. Let me know if there are any other bugs or if you have any suggestions, and otherwise have fun!
Qualifiers:
Thanks to a new feature in the FM22 editor, rankings now shift dynamically based on results, but I haven't found where the game actually shows "coefficients" for custom continental competitions, even though I've seen these allocations change in my simulations. Suffice to say over time some very unexpected countries may end up climbing to earn group stage slots, and I may have to refine this system over time this year.
UPDATE: I appear to have figured out how to control the distribution of coefficient points, but since the game does not show them we'll all just have to take my word for it. At the very least there seem to be fewer deeply unexpected countries climbing into the top 30 and getting automatic group stage spots than there used to be.
In any case, here is how I expect things to work:
Nation/Association Coefficients, as in reality, are the average of points earned by a nation's clubs per year in both the CL and WL. Nations are ranked based on the sum of these averages over 5 years. Here is how nations earn points:
A win in the CL or WL from the group stage onward is worth 2 points. A draw is worth one.
Wins in the CL qualifiers are worth 1 point. Draws are worth 0.5.
Wins in the WL qualifiers are worth 0.5 points. Draws are worth 0.25.
Bonus points are also awarded for reaching certain stages of the competition as follows:
Reaching the CL group stage is worth 4 points. Reaching the WL group stage is worth 2 points.
Reaching the CL knockouts is worth 6 points. Reaching the WL knockouts (not including the playoff - so you have to win your WL group or the playoff between a second-place WL group finish and a third-place CL group finish) is worth 3 points.
Reaching each subsequent round in either competition is worth 1 point.
Nations are ranked based on the sum of these average points over the past 5 years (as far as I can tell this starts at 0 so there may be some dramatic shifts in the first 5 years from my initially set list to what results create), and the number of spots is laid out as follows:
CL and WL holders: automatically qualify to the group stage and instead play a Super Cup. There is no limit on the number of qualifiers for each country, so it is possible for up to 9 teams from a country to qualify, if the CL and WL are won by teams from the same top 9 country.
Leagues ranked 1-9: 6 spots (champion gets an automatic CL group stage spot, cup winner and 2 more spots in Q5, 2 spots in Q4. )
Leagues ranked 10-30: 5 spots (champion to group stage, cup winner and 1 to Q5, 2 to Q4.)
Leagues ranked 31-57: 4 spots (champion to Q5, cup winner to Q4, 2 Q3.)
Leagues ranked 58-89: 3 spots
(For 58-66: champion to Q4, cup winner and 1 to Q3.
For 67, champion and cup winner to Q3, 1 to Q2.
For 68-89: champion to Q3, cup winner and 1 to Q2.)
Leagues ranked 90 and below: 2 spots
(For 90-115, champion and cup winner start in Q2.
For 116 and below, champion and cup winner start in Q1)
The initially set ranking shakes out as follows:
5+1 (1 automatic CL group stage place, 2 places and the cup winner in Q5, 2 places in Q4):
Spain, Germany, England, Italy, France, Brazil, Russia, Portugal, Argentina,
4+1 (1 automatic CL group stage place, 1 place and the cup winner in Q5, 2 place in Q4):
Ukraine, Mexico, Belgium, Turkey, Czechia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, USA, Austria, Croatia, Chile, Denmark, Colombia, Paraguay, Poland, Sweden, Israel, South Korea, Japan, China.
3+1 (1 place in Q5, cup winner in Q4, 2 places in Q3):
Uruguay, Scotland, Romania, Ecuador, Cyprus, Norway, Bulgaria, Peru, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Slovakia, Australia, Hungary, Nigeria, DR Congo, Morocco, Qatar, UAE, Belarus, Canada
Countries that are playable in the base game that start with 3 spots include:
Iceland, Finland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland
Countries that are playable in the base game that start with 2 spots include:
India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore
Format Details:
The Champions League has five qualifying rounds, with two-legged fixtures starting in June. All CL qualifiers are seeded into these rounds depending on how high they finished and which league they qualified from or won the domestic cup in, as above. The 96 winners in the final qualifying round (August) go to the CL group stage along with the 32 automatic qualifiers, the losers go to the WL group stage along with the 32 teams that survive the WL qualifiers, below.
The World League has four qualifying rounds, beginning in July after the first two CL qualifying rounds are complete.
- Teams that lose in the first 2 CL rounds start in WL Q1.
- Teams that lose in CL Q3 are drawn into WL Q2.
- Teams that lose in CL Q4 are drawn into WL Q3.
- The winners in WL Q3 advance to WL Q4. The 48 winners of WL Q4 and the 16 "best losers" (not sure how this is calculated honestly) play a one-off WL Q5 game for the 32 final spots in the WL group stage.
Each group stage features 32 groups of 4 (so six games each). CL plays on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, WL on Thursdays, from September through December.
CL: The top 2 in each group qualify for the knockout rounds. Third place teams fall into the World League knockouts.
WL: The top 2 in each group qualify for the knockout rounds. The 32 second place teams will be drawn against the 32 3rd place teams from the Champions League groups - World League group winners will receive a bye to face the winner of those ties.
Everything goes as you'd expect from there.
Prize Money (all amounts in Euros)
Qualifying Phase:
1st round: 75k for CL, 35k for WL
2nd round: 75k for CL, 35k for WL
3rd round: 150k for CL, 150k for WL
4th round: 250k for CL, 150k for WL
5th round: 400k for CL, 300k for WL
CL Group Stage (WL pays about half these amounts)
20M for all Group Stage participants, 1.5M per victory, 750k per draw
CL Knockout Rounds (WL pays about half these amounts, Super Cup final pays approximately half of World League final):
7M for all knockout round participants, + 4M for reaching second knockout round + 6M for reaching QF + 10M for reaching SF + 20M for winning final or 15M for losing final
Comments
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Jonathan Stevens
Oh man, been looking for a DB edit like this for years! Not a world league but a proper world champions league in the same format we have in europe normally.
Will be loading this up next save! Awesome cheers for this!
Alexander Johnsen
Could be interesting to try.
One way of avoiding the registration rule would be to simply remove it?
Dallan
It has been frustrating enough to deal with over the years that I have absolutely thought of just getting rid, but I do like the idea enough to keep it - particularly since I've gotten it to a point where either it works or it breaks in a way I can live with.
Hiken Ace
Hello. Will you be making any update in this month? Because I am thinking of starting a new save at the end of the month and if a new version is to come i thought it better to wait it out.
Jarl-Erik Sandberg
Nice work.. I´m playing this at the moment.. Will there be any Podium version for this?
Dallan
I'm not sure what you mean by Podium version, but at the very least the 22.3 update is up!
Jarl-Erik Sandberg
Well.. When you win the league or something there´s an podium for the players to walk on and lift the title etc..
Gagarin1977
can you test it on 22,4 patch please?
Jarl-Erik Sandberg
I get this when I test it in the Editor with 22.4 update.. @Dallan
Dallan
I didn't do a custom one, no. I THINK those use the Trophy Type setting in the database editor, which is set to Continental Cup 1, same as the UEFA CL - and the underlying competition I edited was the existing Club World Cup. If there's a specific in-engine trophy presentation, it would likely look like one of those.
I've updated this file for 22.4, new file is in the OP. The editor still makes working in Canada annoying so my side patch for the Canadian MLS bug will be a while longer while I consult with some other editors, but if you don't care about that feel free to start!
Of note: my tests indicate that Russian teams are still included in these tournaments, despite the changes in 22.4. I am fine with this and will not be trying to change it.
Julian Shaw
Can you make it compatible with 22.3. I accidentally updated the fmf without thinking about this and i wanted to start a 22.3 save
kingrobbo
you can do it yourself in the editor read the FAQ thread if unsure
Julian Shaw
After installing this the reputation of leagues don't change in the save anymore.
Julian Shaw
After installing this the reputation of leagues don't change in the save anymore.
Dallan
This is a known bug affecting all custom continental cup systems as far as I can tell, including this one.
In other news, I've finished creating and testing the compatibility patches for the Canada bug reported upthread (Canadian MLS teams not qualifying for this tournament), with much thanks to yellowsweatygorilla on the SI forums for his advice and permission to use his excellent Canada megapatch as a base.
There are two versions of the compatibility patch attached in the OP, choose only one:
In both versions, Canadian-based teams qualify for the WCL in this order:
Any remaining spots are filled in order based on the CPL regular season table. In the Mega version, if a Canadian team wins the Leagues Cup, they qualify in Canada's top spot and remaining teams are pushed down one spot.
Please keep me posted of any issues and otherwise have fun!
Julian Shaw
For leagues that start in Winter, like Japan, Korea, the qualifying spots aren't based on the previous season but take a snapshot of the current season to allocate spots. Can anyone confirm they run into this too?
reynaldi dio
I'm on my second season and suddenly i keep getting these crash dump while try progressing the date or opening inbox while using this database. The older save where i didn't use this db doesn't experience the same occurences. Any idea to fix this error?
Julian Shaw
For leagues that start in Winter, like Japan, Korea, the qualifying spots aren't based on the previous season but take a snapshot of the current season to allocate spots. Can anyone confirm they run into this too?
silverlux
Any way to keep both uefa champions league and fifa club world cup in the game?
Francoss
Nose si se puede pero es muy difícil, creo que lo mejor es que adaptes las ligas a fechas europeas
Dallan
I have to apologise for missing so many comments: I'm not on these forums a ton and I clearly need to fix my email notification settings. I am doing this edit for 23 as well - it's already up on the SI forums but I'm happy to post it here too, either in this thread or a new one (not sure what the etiquette is)
The main difficulty here would be scheduling both, since this competition uses all the CL matchdays (and the calendar is crowded enough!). Julian had the idea to turn the old CLs into regional qualifiers instead (essentially replacing the summer qualifiers), but you'd need to change the UEFA CL and the others so much to fit them into that that it would be unrecognisable.
I do all my games in MLS, which is another winter league, and qualifiers there are based on the results of the last season, even though the CL resets in June. I'll keep an eye on who's qualifying from Japan though - but at the end of the day, all I do in this version of the edit is tell the game “tell every country to send its cup winner and X number of teams from its top division” - how it determines who those X teams are is in its nation rules, which I don't touch.
This used to happen on specific dates in July but I thought I had fixed this. If this is still happening to you, please let me know what date it happens on and I'll see if I can figure out what might be causing it.
Julian Shaw
Hello, I tested out FM23 with it and it seems in 25/26. Japan only had 2 teams get into the qualifiers instead of the normal 4. And this is before the 5 year coeffecient takes into place. Then in 26/27 they have 3 teams. There might be an issue from when coefficients take effect that you may need to test.
Dallan
It's hard to tell how coefficients work because the game doesn't show them for custom competitions, and there's no way to test in the editor.
BUT my testing makes me pretty sure coefficients actually take effect quicker than the 5 years - I just can't answer how the game accounts for them in the first 5 years of the system. I THOUGHT that it just started everyone from zero and sorted them every year based on their results, so things would be a bit chaotic for 5 years but settle after that, but I can't cvnfirm.
Lex Rarog
Hello. And can you tell me how to add a fantasy country to these cups?
primeprover
Have you considered trying to get this working in FM23? - nethermind. I have found it on steam