the edge

Hi guys

I want to use the Belgian league structure for a swap. However I've noticed that Div 2 has 19 teams (where Lierse has 'R' listed as some sort of note) and Div 3B has 15 teams..

Before I start the major work.. has anyone actually succeeded at this in FM 08? And can anyone explain the situation with the number of clubs?

Thanks

Towelie

I know this doesn't help you, but I'm just wondering what nation you are swapping? I'm planning on doing a swap myself with Belgium so I want to know the same thing.

FunnyBunny

There are 19 teams in 2nd division atm for real, cuz the Belgian Football Union has some stupid old people at their board who know **** bout football and only sit there to earn lots of money and do nothing. They didn't make any right decision bout the league problems.

1 team, Geel, which won the play-offs to promote with the champion to 2nd division, didn't have a license for 2nd, but they got it after appeal, a bit late, so the Union decided not to allow them into 2nd. so Namur who ended behind Geel wanted to go up. But the Belgian Football Union decided to start the competition with 17.

so Geel & Namur went to court to play in 2nd division. So after 4 or 5 matches in 2nd league they decided to add the 2, which played in 3th, to the 2nd league. So now the 2nd league stared with 19 teams!

BUT FIFA doesn't like teams who go to court and get their right in there. So FIFA wants to take measures against those 2 teams and against The Belgian Football Union. they all risk a ban now.
But atm the case is probably left to TAS, who will decide what to do...

Bout Lierse, they also have license problems, and will be relegated to 3th unless they will get fresh finances this season. But atm they don't have any financiers so still will be relegated.

So far the silly Belgian soap...
to be continued...

the edge

I want to di it with the Danish league as I like the Belgian structure as opposed to the Danish with only 12 teams in the top-level division.

the edge

What I'm worried about now is that this stuff is hard-coded in the game and probably linked to Lierse's Unique ID. So I'll probably have to delete Lierse and re-create them using a different UID and then re-create one of the Danish teams using that UID.

But I'll give it a go and get back to you all in case I succeed.

the edge

For those that may be interested...

The problem lies in the fact that the Belgian leagues can't handle B teams (which is something all Danish top-flight clubs have). That was the reason for my crashes even when I didn't assign the reserves to a competition.

I also did a test where I replaced Lierse with some other team, and I still made it through an entire season and had fixtures generated for the next season. So the hard-coding seems to lie in the number of relegations from Div II. The number of clubs goes back to normal in the second season..