Creating your own leagues
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All settings at a glance
Every line you can use in league files, grouped by where it belongs. The column “#@cs” shows whether the line is written with the #@cs prefix: “recommended” means that the current game also understands the line without it, “required” means that the line only works with it.
| Line | What it does | #@cs |
|---|---|---|
| Country part (after ! Country, before the first league) | ||
! Country "Footlandia" | Starts a country and creates its national team. | – |
! AdditionalCountry "Otherland" | A country without leagues, mainly in the international file. | – |
! Names "…_1st.txt" "…_2nd.txt" | First-name and surname lists for generated players. | – |
! TempNames "…_1st.txt" "…_2nd.txt" | Name lists that are only loaded when needed, typical in the international file. If a country has both, the Names line counts. | – |
! Reputation 15 | Reputation 1–20 of the clubs without a league in this country part. Usual value 15. Also written + reputation 15. | – |
# PlayerPool "Otherland Player Pool" | The next line is a pool of players for the national team, not a club. | – |
#@cs reserve-minimum-division 3 | Reserves of this country may not play above this level. | recommended |
#@cs reserve-minimum-offset 1 | Levels between a reserve and its first team. Usual value 1; 0 allows the same level. | recommended |
#@cs reserve-relegation counted | How a forced reserve relegation counts: counted, counted-last or additional. Usual value counted. | recommended |
| League | ||
: Footlandia - Premier League | Starts a league with this name. | – |
+ division 1 | Level of the league; 1 is the top. Required. | – |
+ promotions 2 | Clubs moving up after the season. Usual value 0. Also + promotion. | – |
+ relegations 2 | Clubs moving down after the season. Usual value 0. Also + relegation. | – |
+ reputation 12 | Standing of the league, 1–20, one decimal place allowed. | – |
league-rounds 4 | Meetings per opponent and season, 1–4. Usual value 2. | recommended |
league-weeks 7 20 | Preferred season weeks for the matchdays, 1–52. Usual weeks 7–46. | recommended |
! intro, ! goal, ! metar | Entrance music, goal anthem and weather station reference. | – |
| League – regional leagues | ||
regions "North" | Home areas this league accepts. | recommended |
region-match any | With several areas: any (usual) or all of them. | recommended |
regional-allocation fixed-regions | Switches regional sorting on: fixed-regions or annual-geography. | recommended |
allocation-group "Second level" | Leagues of one level that share clubs. Required for regional sorting. | recommended |
target-teams 18 | Ideal number of clubs, 2–24. Usually the starting number. | recommended |
preferred-team-range 16 20 | Sizes you are happy with, 2–24. Usually the ideal size ± 2. | recommended |
promotion-relegation compensate-team-count | A normal league joins the balancing of club numbers with the regional leagues. | recommended |
forecast off | Switches planning ahead off for the country's league system. Usually on. | recommended |
allocation-branch "South" "Coast" | Position in a region with its own lower levels. | recommended |
allocation-fallback-regions "Moose Valley" | Second-choice areas, most important first. | recommended |
allocation-centre-gps 50.6 2.0 | Centre of the league on the map. | recommended |
#@cs allocation-centre-place "Namur" | Centre of the league as a town. | required |
#@cs allocation-centre-country "Belgium" | Country of that town, if different. | required |
| League – reserve teams | ||
reserve-teams false | Closes the league to reserves. Usual value true. | recommended |
reserve-minimum-offset 2 | Gap for reserves playing in this league; replaces the country rule. | recommended |
reserve-relegation counted-last | Counting of forced relegations from this league; replaces the country rule. | recommended |
reserve-promotion-max-rank 3 | Replacements for a blocked reserve must have finished at this rank or better. | recommended |
| Cup – before the first round | ||
* Footlandia Cup | Starts a cup with this name. | – |
+ Country "Footlandia" | Country of a national cup. | – |
+ reputation 10 | Importance of the cup, 1–20. | – |
+ international | International cup for clubs. | – |
+ nations | Tournament for national teams. Also + nationalteams. | – |
reserve-teams true | Allows reserves in this cup. Usual value false. | recommended |
regions "North", region-match any | Stored, currently without effect on the participants. | recommended |
| Cup – after a round line | ||
+ round 1 "First Round" 1-32 12 | Starts a round: number, name, places that play, week. | – |
+ week 30 33 | Further match weeks; two in total mean home and away legs. Also weeks, match, matches. | – |
+ draw 8 | Week of the draw. | – |
+ groups 8 | Group stage with this many groups. | – |
+ year 2026, + offset 4 | First year and interval of the tournament. | – |
+ exclude "Footlandia Champions Cup" | Skips clubs of that cup, round or league. | – |
+ exclude venue "World Nations Tournament" | Skips the hosts of that tournament. | – |
+ venue "Footlandia" | A host of the tournament. | – |
+ pool inherit 44 | Takes over only the first places of the previous round. | – |
+ add 4 from "Footlandia - Premier League" | Clubs from a league, a country, several countries or everywhere; also team, venue, cup-winner and rank rules. | – |
+ <32 add 1 from "Footlandia" | Only carried out while fewer than 32 clubs have entered. | – |
+ noexclude add … | One entry rule that ignores the exclusions. | – |
| Club file – at the top, before the player details | ||
regions "North" "Fjord Coast" | Home areas of the club. | recommended |
location-place "Brugge" | Town of the club. | recommended |
location-country "Belgium" | Country of the town, if different from the league's. | recommended |
location-gps 50.63 5.58 | Map position of the club: latitude, then longitude. | recommended |
reserve-of "Polar Bear United" | Makes the club a reserve of this first team. | recommended |
! Reserve class "Under-23" | Description of a reserve, without any rule. | – |
! Minimum division 2 | Highest level this reserve may reach; 0 means no extra limit. | – |
kit-design | Kit designs of the club (see Editing game data). | recommended |
| Country, league or club – sounds | ||
fansounds-folder, fansounds-mode, fansounds-sources | Fan chants (see Music, weather and sounds). | recommended |
sound-folder, sound-crowd, sound-mute, sound-original, sound-volume | Match sounds (see Music, weather and sounds). | recommended |
No setting matches your search. Try a shorter word.
Lines marked “recommended” are shown here without the prefix to keep the table short. Write them with #@cs in front, as in all examples of this guide.
Limits and numbers
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Clubs per league | 2 to 24 (with fewer the league stays inactive) |
| Meetings per opponent | 1 to 4, usually 2 |
| League weeks | 1 to 52, usually 7 to 46 |
| Levels | from 1 upwards, no small upper limit |
| Reputation of a league | 1 to 20, one decimal place |
| Reputation of a cup | 1 to 20, whole numbers |
| Reputation of clubs without a league | usually 15 |
| Home areas of a club or league | up to 256 |
| GPS coordinates | latitude −90 to 90, longitude −180 to 180, decimal point |
| Ideal size and preferred range | 2 to 24 |
| Gap between reserve and first team | 0 or more, usually 1 |
| Town lookup | a postcode narrows the search to 15 km around it, GPS coordinates narrow towns of the same name to 25 km, for an unknown town the nearest town within 100 km of the GPS position supplies the regions, and a town more than 50 km from the GPS position is ignored |
Testing your world
- Run the Check. Open your world in the Team Editor and choose Check. It finds missing club files, clubs listed twice, very small leagues, missing name lists, incomplete regional settings, broken branch connections, reserve problems and invalid values. Click an entry to jump to it. Information, warnings and errors are listed separately. See Team Editor.
- Run a Dataset test. Hold Ctrl and Shift while you click Team Editor in the main menu: the button then starts the Dataset test run. Choose your world and the levels to load. The quick test plays only leagues, cups, tables and season changes, without transfers or finances, and is therefore fast. The full test plays complete careers. 20 seasons are preselected. The report shows every problem, the smallest and largest league sizes and the promotion and relegation places of every season.
- Start a normal new career with exactly the leagues you want to check. Switch Always create fantasy players off if you want to see your own players. Read the messages shown when the world is imported, then play at least into the next season.
- Test different selections. For regional worlds also test a career that loads fewer levels than your regional leagues need, and one that loads all levels.
RememberExisting careers never take over changes from your files. Every test needs a new career or a new Dataset test.
Messages and what to do
The Check, the overview shown when a new career is created and the Dataset test report use the same messages. They usually start with the words shown here; the dots stand for the names of your leagues, clubs or cups.
| What you see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| Movement counts repaired between … and … | The relegation places of the upper league did not match the promotion places of the league below. The game used the number of the lower league. Correct your file and the message disappears. |
| League movement boundary … promotions=0 repaired=0 | The lowest league of the country had relegation places. They were set to 0. Write 0 there. |
| Selected league depth ends at … | Only information: this career loads fewer levels than your file contains, so this league relegates nobody. |
| League movement boundary … shown as an error, and the career cannot be started | Parallel leagues of one level use different numbers, or the numbers are larger than the leagues. See Several leagues on one level and Switching regional leagues on. |
| … separate league blocks with overlapping divisions … | The leagues of one country are split into two parts of your files, for example by another country's leagues in between. The two parts never exchange clubs. Keep all leagues of a country together. |
| League has fewer than two teams and remains inactive | Add clubs or remove the league. |
| League exceeds the 24-team career fixture capacity | Split the league into parallel leagues. |
| Duplicate league assignment repaired | A club is listed twice. It stays in the first league. Remove the second listing. |
| Invalid league-rounds hint; using two meetings per opponent | Use 1, 2, 3 or 4 meetings per opponent. Until then the league plays 2. |
| Invalid league-weeks hint; using weeks 7 to 46 | Use two weeks from 1 to 52, the first not after the second. Until then the league uses weeks 7 to 46. |
| Invalid football reputation … ignored | Use a number from 1 to 20: with at most one decimal place for a league, a whole number for a cup. |
| Unknown participant sources | A cup rule names a league or country that exists nowhere in your world. A correctly named league that is only not loaded in this career is fine. |
| … Participants have been assigned to the correct round for this career | Entry rules stood before the cup's first round. The game moved them for this career only. Write them after the round line. |
| … Some rules precede the first round and their intended assignment is unclear | The same, but the game could not tell which round was meant. Move the lines below the right round line. |
| … needs the winner of …, which finishes after the planned draw | A cup round is drawn before the competition that supplies its clubs has finished. Move the draw week after that final. |
| Regional allocation needs attention | A note about the town or the home areas of a club. The test report gives the details (see Towns and GPS). |
Messages about regional leagues are explained in Regional leagues, messages about reserves in Reserve teams.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need to write #@cs?
The current game understands most extra settings without it, but write it anyway: older versions need it, and two settings only work with it (see What #@cs means).
Why is there suddenly a club called “+ promotions 2”?
The line was indented. Every line must start at the very left (see Mistakes to avoid).
My relegated clubs always go to the “wrong” parallel league.
Without regional settings, clubs are handed out in file order. Use regional leagues.
Can parallel leagues promote different numbers of clubs?
Only as regional leagues, and only if the league above has #@cs promotion-relegation compensate-team-count. Otherwise the career cannot be started.
My regional league grows and shrinks every season. Is that a mistake?
With fixed regions this is normal. A preferred range, the compensate line in the league above, larger leagues or yearly regrouping keep the sizes closer together (see League sizes and next season's places).
Do clubs need areas for leagues they are not in yet?
Yes – for every regional level they could reach by promotion or relegation.
Does a GPS position or a town switch regional leagues on?
No. A league needs its three switch-on lines (see Switching regional leagues on).
Why do my changes not appear in my career?
A career keeps the world it was created with. Start a new career to see your changes.
Can a reserve play in the same league as its first team?
Only if that league has #@cs reserve-minimum-offset 0, or for one season as an exception when no lower league is available.
Do cup places follow the league table?
In later seasons mostly yes: + add … from a league takes clubs in an order that is mainly based on the final table. In the first season level, reputation and chance decide.
May I use real town names?
Yes, towns are geography. Please invent the club names, as all examples in this guide do.