80's Style European Competitions FM24

Here is my 80s Style European Competitions database for this year's iteration of FM. I have released this over the last few years, and for those of us old enough to remember, this was an era where it was knockout football all the way. Here is the link to the FM23 version: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/61898/80s-style-european-competitions . This year I have reworked the stadium hosting from the way I had it before. This means you will no longer see Murrayfield hosting (although it has hosted football, for me it will always be a rugby venue), and small stadium hosts are now a thing of the past. The bigger grounds will host the EC finals with lower capacity grounds being available for the ECWC and the Super Cup.

The competitions in order of importance are as follows....

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. The holders are also invited back if not already partaking in European competition.

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.
• I have made a Welsh Cup file available to download for use with this mod. This file makes 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 squad selection rules have been amended to match the current European continental squad selection rules. (added 29th Dec)
• Financial Fair Play now included to match the current rules. (added 29th Dec)
• 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!
• I added club coefficient points for drawing and winning matches in the fm23 version. This is based on how it was in the 80s. I cannot get the coefficients page to show in the game as I had to keep the rules as fixed, and they only show in flexible rules. However if you look at the League Reputation page, in the Europe tab, you will see that the top 16 leagues are the countries that will be receiving byes to the first round of the EC and ECWC. This does change over time. I have tested into the next century and I can confirm that this part of the game is dynamic. I don't know if my allocation of club coefficient points effects the league rankings but it is something I will explore further in future releases.
• The Club World Championship works in the game, but I have haven't got my head round how teams are picked. I have paid no attention to it as I use my own Club World Cup file. It will work with other files as well. The winners of the EC are instructed to qualify for it.
• 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.
• 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.
• Place the files in the 'editor data' folder, and tick them when you start a new career game.

Thanks to those who downloaded and enjoyed it last year. I hope you enjoy this one even more!!