Football Manager 2005 League List

[dfisher]

I really can't wait for this.

From SIgames.com:

FM 2005 Statistics Snapshot

Playable countries 51

Playable first-team divisions 158
Playable first teams 2,351

Playable reserve-team divisions 70
Playable reserve teams 1,000

Youth-team divisions 117
Youth teams 1,651

Total league divisions 345
Total league teams 5,002

Maximum number of playable international teams 94
3 Levels of international team (First, Under-21, Under-19)
Under-23 teams (Olympics) 16

Total of playable international teams 298

Total number of playable teams 5,300


Country Levels Divisions

Argentina 2 2
Australia 1 1
Austria 2 2
Belarus 3 3
Belgium 3 4
Brazil 3 18
Bulgaria 2 2
Chile 2 4
China 2 2
Columbia 2 2
Croatia 2 3
Czech 2 2
Denmark 3 3
England 6 7
Finland 2 2
France 3 3
Germany 3 4
Greece 2 2
Holland 2 2
Hong Kong 1 1
Hungary 2 2
Iceland 2 2
India 1 1
Indonesia 2 3
Ireland 2 2
Israel 2 2
Italy 4 7
Malayasia 2 3
Mexico 2 2
N.Ireland 2 2
Norway 3 6
Peru 1 1
Poland 2 2
Portugal 3 5
Romania 2 4
Russia 2 2
Scotland 4 4
Serb&Mont 2 3
Singapore 1 1
Slovakia 2 2
Slovenia 2 2
Sth Afr 2 2
Sth Kor 2 2
Spain 3 6
Sweden 3 8
Switz 2 2
Turkey 3 5
Ukraine 2 2
Uruguay 2 2
USA 1 1
Wales 1 1

[Eaglesfan27]

I really hope MLS is simulated well in this game.

[cartman]

What, only one US league??? That's entirely unacceptable. I'm not gonna buy it unless it has all US teams included, all the way down to the Austin Men's Soccer League Over 30 Div. A team that I'm on...

[Chief Rum]

Heh...while just having the MLS is great, I do wish they had the toher two lower divisions, or at leats have something simulating our college leagues, which provide the MLS with a lot fo talent. I, too, will be hoping the MLS is done well.

What has me frothing at the mouth, though...

England 6 7

Woot! Going to the Conference feeder leagues baby! That's right, we can start even lower than we were before!

CR

[skrath]

Alright! Carshalton Athletic, here I come.

[MizzouRah]

I'm going to need some help once this one comes out.


Todd

[ice4277]

Extra points to the first person to win a Champions League title with a team that starts in the Belarus third division

[druez]

I can't wait

[ArlingtonColt]

:drool: I've been playing the hell outta 03/04, can't wait for this one... I'm just hoping that when the game gets into the later years there are more superstar young players.

[Ramzavail]

I can't pull away from 03/04

ive been crazy glued...brought Hull City from Division 3 up to Division 1, got fired after one bad season - which was B.S.
now Ive brought Hayes (somehow got a couple of my young Hull City studs to come to Hayes for just 20-30% of sale proceeds) up from Conference to Division 2, trying to keep it going.

At the same time, I am super excited for FM 2005, and I even entered my picture to be in the game!

[Crapshoot]

Meh - Id rather they improve the gameplay- other than the Big European and South American leagues, I never run a damn thing- and so I dont really care. The conference could be cool however.

[ArlingtonColt]

I took cheltenham from the third to the first division... then Blackburn offered me their head coaching job in 2011/12 so I took it. After a few seasons England came knocking. After a dismal EURO run though I was quickly canned. Im in the year 2016 with 5 days and 2 hrs played and still looking for my first Champions League trophy..... wish me luck

[Ajaxab]

Is one of the things that makes FM (and other Euro football management sims) so compelling the number of trophies one can aim for in a given season? I have found other sports sims to be somewhat bland in comparision. One can only compete for the Front Office Bowl, the Stanley Cup, the World Series, etc. Once out of playoff contention, there's little to play for. That's my biggest frustration with EHM and it's not the game's fault. With European football, there are always a bunch of competitions to look forward to competing in. Of course, it's no fun to be mired mid-table in Div.2 after being knocked out of the FA and League Cups, but the mere presence of those competitions makes the game that much more enjoyable than the one trophy sports. I have fond memories of CM 96/97 in winning the Scottish League Cup with Berwick, beating the Old Firm in the process. The Euro football system made that possible. Something like this just isn't possible with North American sports. I guess the closest thing to it would be college football with all its bowls, but it's a slightly different system.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Isn't FM suppose to come out next month?

[SirFozzie]

December. I think the initial beta is out next month (beta demo, then when it goes gold, the Gold Demo)

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Dang! Oh well that will have to wait, But Rome Total War will keep me entertained till then.

[samifan24]

Anybody know how we can preorder FM2005? I see it listed on Amazon.co.uk, but I'd prefer to order from Gogamer, but I don't even see it listed on their site for preorder.

[Sharpieman]

I can't wait to play manager head games, I think this is a really cool addition to the new game.

[andy m]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Woot! Going to the Conference feeder leagues baby!

about time too! this has been my most wanted addition to CM for years.

i wish there was a version available that just simulated the english leagues in extra detail, going even lower down the scale, i'd pay extra for it. i don't really care about the other european leagues, they just waste my HD space.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Aadik

Meh - Id rather they improve the gameplay- other than the Big European and South American leagues, I never run a damn thing- and so I dont really care. The conference could be cool however.

The teams here is split between gameplay programmers and a few people who concentrate upon the league structures, generally speaking the league code is our 'entry' point for developers - any new programmers learn our systems via. implementing/updating the competitions in the game. This works really well because the competitions are encapsulated so they can learn how things work without risking screwing up anything (the game code is horrendously complicated in that its largely based on 'chaos theory' a small change in one area can make a wheel fall off somewhere else, this means you need a lot of knowledge to work upon it BUT its also essential if the game is to operate correctly (eg. for instance an example of knock-on effects: you don't stick up for your star striker when the media crticises his, this affects his mood and morale (possibly affecting his relationship with you), the rest of the team may react to your lack of response (possibly affecting their relationship with both you and the player in question), his value may drop because of the negative press surrounding him and your lack of defense, rival teams might start sniffing around him (either to try and unsettle him or simply because they want to purchase him), the media might decide to comment upon the fact that you're not happy with him and finally in FM rival managers might make sarky comments .. now I've probably missed out on some of the possible 'knock-on' effects, but hopefully from that you can see what I mean by the 'ripple' that occurs when something happens in the game).

For FM's development we managed to expand the leagues without affecting any gameplay improvements by taking on two very talented work-experience students to help with the competition improvements (hello Nicky and Gavin) ... they've done a stellar job and I was very happy with how things worked out

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by andy m

about time too! this has been my most wanted addition to CM for years.

i wish there was a version available that just simulated the english leagues in extra detail, going even lower down the scale, i'd pay extra for it. i don't really care about the other european leagues, they just waste my HD space.

One of the reasons it took a while to come in was simply that I had to rip apart the finance code and rework large chunks of it to cope with that level of football ....

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

The teams here is split between gameplay programmers and a few people who concentrate upon the league structures, generally speaking the league code is our 'entry' point for developers - any new programmers learn our systems via. implementing/updating the competitions in the game. This works really well because the competitions are encapsulated so they can learn how things work without risking screwing up anything (the game code is horrendously complicated in that its largely based on 'chaos theory' a small change in one area can make a wheel fall off somewhere else, this means you need a lot of knowledge to work upon it BUT its also essential if the game is to operate correctly (eg. for instance an example of knock-on effects: you don't stick up for your star striker when the media crticises his, this affects his mood and morale (possibly affecting his relationship with you), the rest of the team may react to your lack of response (possibly affecting their relationship with both you and the player in question), his value may drop because of the negative press surrounding him and your lack of defense, rival teams might start sniffing around him (either to try and unsettle him or simply because they want to purchase him), the media might decide to comment upon the fact that you're not happy with him and finally in FM rival managers might make sarky comments .. now I've probably missed out on some of the possible 'knock-on' effects, but hopefully from that you can see what I mean by the 'ripple' that occurs when something happens in the game).

For FM's development we managed to expand the leagues without affecting any gameplay improvements by taking on two very talented work-experience students to help with the competition improvements (hello Nicky and Gavin) ... they've done a stellar job and I was very happy with how things worked out

That was a lot more than my flippant response deserved Marc- thanks. hey, I skipped 03-04, so Im really looking forward to this one- and the media management is one of the big things for me. the bug or the fact that defenders used to run away from the ball in their own halves was the one thing that really bugged me. As for the rest of it- I dont doubt the competency of your team - I just wonder sometimes if the focus on additional leagues is really worth it to the vast majority of people. I do understand that it helps sales in a country if you can simulate its leagues, and its purely selfish on my behalf to hope that it would be rather limited in its focus (then again, Im Indian, and I'd never play the Indian leagues - meh).

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Anybody know how we can preorder FM2005? I see it listed on Amazon.co.uk, but I'd prefer to order from Gogamer, but I don't even see it listed on their site for preorder.

bump

Anyone?

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by samifan24

bump

Anyone?

I dont think you can even get if from amazon.uk- they wont ship software to the US. Honestly- no clue.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Aadik

I dont think you can even get if from amazon.uk- they wont ship software to the US. Honestly- no clue.

Curses! Foiled again!

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by Aadik

I dont think you can even get if from amazon.uk- they wont ship software to the US. Honestly- no clue.

You can't. I bought CM 03/04 from here:

http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/webstore/...ctCode=RM00999

[ice4277]

http://reserve.co.uk

Better than the rest. DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Desnudo]

BTW, what's the difference between "Levels" and "Divisions" in that first post.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by ice4277

http://reserve.co.uk

Better than the rest. DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is it better than the rest?

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

BTW, what's the difference between "Levels" and "Divisions" in that first post.

Well I know as far as levels go that the "6" after England means that FM will have the Premiership, First, Second and Third Divisions as well as the Conference and then the 6th level I'm assuming will be a conference feeder league. As for divisions, I'm confused as well.

[Crapshoot]

For Levels, you can have multiple divisions- I believe in Germany, their are about 4 regional leagues right below the second division- all of whom get one team promoted to the second division. I might be wrong on the specifics, but Im fairly certain as to the general differentiations.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Well I know as far as levels go that the "6" after England means that FM will have the Premiership, First, Second and Third Divisions as well as the Conference and then the 6th level I'm assuming will be a conference feeder league. As for divisions, I'm confused as well.

With the English league the 6th level is split into two regional leagues (The North Division and the South Division) that both feed into the Conference, so there are 6 levels, but 7 divisions.

Which means that the Brazilian Leagues must be crazy, 3 levels and 18 divisions.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Why is it better than the rest?

I've ordered from them at least 3 times, and have found the service to be consistently better than other options.

[SplitPersonality1]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

What has me frothing at the mouth, though...

England 6 7

Woot! Going to the Conference feeder leagues baby! That's right, we can start even lower than we were before!

CR

Simply awesome.