Panda's Global Football League w/ 20 Tiers and 480+ nations

Ever wanted to climb the most monumental task possible, something so Sisyphean in caliber that it makes managing an actual football club look easy? Or maybe you're just looking for the thrill of having to actually get PSG promoted from a second division, we've got that too! Join today, with the:

GLOBAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

So what is the Global Football League I hear you ask. Well, it's a 20-tier football "pyramid" (more like a straight line) with either 487 or 480 teams depending on whether you prefer the 480 highest-reputation clubs battling it out for supremacy across 20 24-team levels of football, or (and my personal suggestion) 487 teams with at least 2 coming from every non-extinct nation in the game. In the 480-club "Super League Reputation" file, the clubs are sorted into tiers solely based on their, you guessed it, reputation.

The 487-club "Super League 64" file, the clubs are sorted into tiers based on a handy Google Sheet I made. From the very bottom tier, the Cosmopolitan Proving Grounds, all the way up to the fourth tier, the World Soccer Championship League, the league is set up as a double round-robin, meaning you'll have to play against 21-23 teams TWICE over the span of the 10-month season (August 1 to May 31).

Don't worry though, this isn't the only thing you're fighting for, because you'll also have a shot at winning the Global Mega Cup, a senselessly large 480-club cup that, you guessed it, covers every single tier.

For the sake of me not really knowing how to set it up another way, the first round of the cup is a 20-group group stage where only about half the teams will proceed. Yes, this absolutely destroys your schedule, but the money and reputation you recieve from making it to the knockouts will be a little treat to try and smooth things over.

Now, I want to make this clear, this is my first ever database, which is why it's a bit of a mess, and I really need your feedback/help to make the Global Football League as good as possible. With that in mind, here's some key points:

• Despite the league truly being global, it is technically in Liechtenstein for the purposes of it being a playable league. HOWEVER, the teams are all still based out of their home countries, and play in the stadiums they normally would for all matches, so travel is probably going to be quite costly.


• You have to pick ONE of the two databases to play. If you put both into your editor data folder, the game WILL NOT WORK unless you either remove one or go to start a new career and uncheck one of them in the top right.


• League rules are pretty simple. If you're in the 487-team setup, the top 3 tiers have 33 teams a piece with 6 promotion/demotion places (tier 3 has 5 demotion instead), tiers 4-10 have 24 teams with 4 promotion/demotion places (tier 4 has 5 promotion instead), and tiers 11-20 have 22 teams with 4 promotion/demotion plcaes. There's no playoff (yet) so all of those are automatic promotion/demotions. 480-team setup is just 4 promotion/demotion at each level.


• Substitutions are currently 6 from 9 for most tiers, except the top 3 where it's 5 from 9 + 1 extra time (which won't really come into play until I set up playoffs). If I get enough feedback saying it's too restrictive I'll bump it to 7 from 9 all the way up. The Mega Cup on the other hand is a very generous 9 from 12, since I wanted to make sure teams weren't totally destroying their players due to the heavy schedule as a result of a lengthy group stage. Blame SI for not letting you have more than 20 groups.


• Prize and TV money seemed fine when I tested it with simulations, but again, if I get enough feedback that teams don't have enough money, or maybe even too MUCH money at some levels, I'll adjust it.


• I made sure that the teams representing certain nations were actually based out of that nation, and not just playing there. For instance, The New Saints and Derry City are not representing Wales or Ireland respectively, nor is Toronto FC representing the USA. So if you're confused about why a certain team isn't included, that's probably why.

Now, for a quick FAQ that is just me spitballing on some questions I THINK you might ask:

• Why? I got tired of wanting to play small nations but them having absolutely no form of international competition to strive against.
• Can you add (insert team)? Only if you have a good reason for them to replace one of the existing teams.
• Why does Japan suck so much even though they're in the top tier? They don't have any pre-made players on their teams, sadly, so the game either leaves the team empty, or chocks them full of really sub-par generated players. If anyone knows how I can fix this, please let me know!
• No youth/reserve leagues? I tried, trust me, but it tremendously slowed the pace of the simulation, and I figured it wouldn't make much sense for every single tier to have youth/reserve league anyways. Plus, I was having some game crashes/bugs when the database used them that I haven't had since.