[Ultimate_Red_Devil]

Originally posted by Gundo:
Welcome to ‘Gundo's FM08 Small club from a small nation European adventure challenge’. It consists of the following:

The Aim
Take a small club who where previously unplayable in the game from the lower leagues to their domestic league title and Champions League crown (doesn’t have to be in the same season). I realize it’s not an easy challenge, but should be a lot of fun trying.

The Set-up
Leagues you can’t use: England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, Romania, Russia and Scotland.

League reputations for eligible nations in this challenge:

Austria 12
Belarus 9
Belgium 13
Bulgaria 11
Croatia 11
Czech Republic 11
Denmark 12
Finland 8
Greece 14
Hungary 10
Iceland 5
Ireland 10
Israel 12
N. Ireland 6
Norway 11
Poland 11
Serbia 11
Slovakia 10
Slovenia 10
Sweden 10
Switzerland 11
Turkey 14
Ukraine 11
Wales. 7



The nations you are allowed to manage in have been selected using the Official European Nations Coefficients Ranking Table (irl). Apart from Scotland who don’t currently have a season by season promotion to and relegation from the Scottish Third Division.

Getting started
Load a game with all the available divisions within the nation you selected only (only one nation is allowed).

A large database should be ticked (although you are free to choose a medium or small database option if you wish).

Attribute masking should be enabled.

No additional players from any nation should be loaded.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed Manager, the details are not important at all.

Then go on holiday until the new seasons teams are generated (each country will be different. If you usually play in that country you should know the relevant dates). An example: Norway’s is, 20th January. (Hint - saving the day before on 19th January for Norway, should give you a better choice of teams by saving and reloading the game). This shouldn't take that long either.

Then retire your original manager profile.

Add a new manager, the options/details are up to you but 'past experience' must be set as 'Sunday League Footballer'. I understand that choosing your nationality may have an effect later on, but I trust people will be sensible with this, I would expect people to use their own nationalities/second nationalities.

Take over one of the newly promoted clubs to the lowest playable division within your selected nation. If you are not sure about which clubs have been promoted simply check last seasons league table and the new clubs will obviously be the clubs not on their. To make completely sure that the club is eligible, check the club's history of league positions, it should be blank.

It is completely up to you which club you choose, although please appreciate that some clubs may be easier to manage than others (eg. Some clubs will have a full squad of players and staff, while others won’t. Also some will have higher reputations than others making it easier to sign players). So chose carefully. The nation you chose to manage in will affect difficulty too.

It is now up to you to manage your chosen club to their domestic title and to win the UEFA Champions League crown.

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked. If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that meets the original challenge criteria (check the club's league history), or just quit your current game and start over.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

There are no restrictions on assigning feeder/parent clubs.

Scouting Guidelines
You can only sign players that you are able to scout or trial at the club first, so in short the player must have the “Get scout report” button on his profile screen. The one exception to this is when you ask a current squad member to recommend a new signing, It is then ok to sign him as the player who recommended him knows of him anyway.

No external utilities such as FMScout should be used and the database should be un-edited. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed. It is advised that people should update using the latest patches as they are released.

Rules for this Thread
Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Discussion on tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Screenshots for anything are encouraged.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the date you take control at your new club. It should look like This.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread. We want to hear the story of your club all the way through (success and failure), So please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including the minimum of a screenshot of the league table. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier for others to pick out.

There is no winner or points system here, but I will try and keep an updated list of all people taking part in the challenge. Please do not update this list yourselves, I will take care of it and update it at least once a week.

How to Post a Screenshot

1. While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).

2. Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image

3. Save the file as a JPEG

4. Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack

5. Post the direct Url to the image here.


Remember it’s not a competition against other users, as long as you’re enjoying this challenge that’s the main thing.

Best of luck! :thup:

Let the challenge commence!

A big thank you as always to dafuge. :thup:
Thanks also to Jimbokav1971 and cookie15, for their support and encouragement in taking this challenge to the next level. :thup:
All you guys who took part in last seasons challenge, who have made it what it is today. :thup:

*This challenge is sponsored by the great Patrik Burda (an FM legend!)*

I went on hols for a season and took over the almost-broke Jevnaker IF (Norway).

And no, even though it says "small club" you can't take over Chelsea or City.