The birth of super-national leagues: Adopted by FM?

by Tom Schelfhout  29/07/2013 | 10:36 0 Posted in Competitions, Opinion, Possible Features 

How realism and fantasy can meet one another in Football Manager

UEFA is becoming more supportive of the idea of supranational leagues. This idea is not new, because some European leagues were already investigating the feasibility of a competition grouping several countries: Belgium, Holland, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark. You can mark them as countries with a glorious past in European club football, that have slipped away in the last 20 years. So why is UEFA now positive towards these international leagues?

The answer seems clear. UEFA wants to have more balance between the different leagues in Europe. At this moment, there is a rather big gap between the big money leagues (Premier League, Primera Division, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1) and the other competitions. If some of these smaller countries and leagues bundle their forces into one competition, this could increase the quality level and the budgets for the clubs that play in them. So only a positive story, or not? And how can these leagues be formed in Football Manager?

 United = Stronger

Nations that unite will be stronger. That was also the starting idea for the BeNe League, that is to say the BeNe League for women that kicked off in the season 2012-2013. Eight Belgian teams and eight Dutch teams played the in first part of the season games in their country, after which the four best teams of both countries challenged each other in the BeNe League A. Dutch team Twente defeated Belgian team Standard in the last match to win the BeNe league, but both clubs became champion of their respective countries. In other words, no representative for European football was lost. And all clubs of the league attracted larger budgets and more spectators. Finally, the quality of play for the Belgian teams, at this time the lesser of both countries, was increased. In the long-term, this is a win-win situation for all clubs and supporters. So why was this example not yet followed by their male colleagues

Supporting the idea

Simple, there was still too little support by smaller clubs of both countries: fear of being left outside, holding on to traditions, rivalry between neighbouring countries,… Too many obstacles. So we will have to be patient for another few years, but the creation of supranational leagues seems inevitable. Because it is the only way of ever competing against the European top clubs with a reasonable chance of actually winning those games. Not only for Belgium and Holland. But think also about a possible Scandinavian league, a Balkan league or Central-European league. It’s all about removing the obstacles and keeping an open mind.

Superleague: step too far?

Just to be clear: a supranational league is not the same as the superleague that was proposed. This is the idea of some big European clubs, leaving their national league and getting together in some kind of everlasting Champions League. The result would be devastating on different levels: for the league they leave, for the other clubs that already can’t close the gap and for the present European competition. It would mean a revolution within modern football and a total change of the landscape. So who knows, are we evolving in 10 years to one big European competition with different divisions? With clubs as Anderlecht, PSV and Celtic somewhere stuck in a third or fourth division? No thanks! Although we have to respect that some football supporters would just love the idea and already fantasize about it.

So why not develop this fantasy features in FM?

Limitations

However, the FM editors amongst us know that league creation was somewhat limited up till FM 2013. The gamer can only edit existing leagues or create new leagues within one specific country. And more, this country can only be one of the official states.

First, this means no type of BeNe league or other league that unites countries, because you can’t select two or more countries in edit league mode. If we select one country to insert all the clubs (e.g. all Belgian and Dutch clubs into a BeNe League with one of both countries indicated), we will face problems with home-grown player rules and other regulations.

Secondly, the supporters of fantasy leagues with top clubs of different countries have presently no option to create this. So no luck for fantasy players or those fans that support the idea of European unification.

Finally, there is no way of creating leagues for new nations. So no strange fantasy league in a faraway galaxy… Yes, I know. Not the typical FM gamer profile, but it’s all about finding those future extra’s that will increase and entertain the FM audience.

So dear FM developer, please increase the league editing abilities for the creative FM fans.

Tom Schelfhout