As you will probably have noticed, the Red Star updates both on this blog and on Twitter have dried up lately. This is somewhat because as the first season came to a close, the ease with which we had won the league really bored me, and sapped my interest in Season 2. However, the second (and main) reason why I’m not playing the Red Star save is because I have stumbled upon what is quite probably my favourite save so far on FM16. Where is it? Honestly, you’ll never guess.
Those of you who have known me for a while will know that I broke into the FM scene through my early writings on the once fantastic site known as The Dugout. One of the better known members of that site went under the username of Ben, and had several fantastic saves, many of which I used to read as a guest before properly signing up and actively contributing to the board itself. When an exodus from The Dugout occurred in order to create Football Manager Now, Ben went too. On last year’s version, Ben wrote about his club save in Luxembourg, where he attempted to improve the standing of the Luxembourg national team and Luxembourg as a footballing nation by focusing on signing and nationalising Luxembourgers. It isn’t a Club and Country save because the AI retains control of the national team, but it is With Club, For Country. I stumbled upon these updates, and it has motivated me to attempt the same style of save, and I’ll be playing in Luxembourg as well.
Of course, this is going to be a long term project. I’m not going to be able to turn the Luxembourg league, and the Luxembourg national team into world beaters in the space of 5 seasons. However, I believe that it provides me with the challenge that I feel I’ve been missing so far on FM16. Firstly, there’s the fact that at this level, the quality of players is not good to say the least. Secondly, the clubs in Luxembourg are semi-professional, meaning that players are largely signed on ‘non-contracts’ which are effectively pay on appearance contracts, with a few bonuses for goals etc. added on. There’s therefore a challenge to turn my chosen club into a full-time professional football club, and start to make progress on the continental football scene. But who am I going to be playing as?
Well, the club I’ve chosen are Racing Luxembourg, or Racing FC, or Racing (LUX). I have no personal connection whatsoever to any of the clubs in Luxembourg, so Racing were largely chosen because they wear all sky blue, and it looks nice, especially in game. What more superficial reason do you need hey?
Racing are actually a club with a lot of history, despite technically only being formed in 2005 through the merger of three other clubs, CA Spora Luxembourg, Union Luxembourg and CS Alliance 01. Those clubs combine to amass a large number of league wins between them, meaning that despite being a young club, Racing are a club with a lot of history and pedigree behind them. However, that history means little at the moment, as despite finishing as league runners up in 2007-08, they were relegated to the Division of Honour in the 13-14 season, before coming back up at the first time of asking as the runners up in that division. This means that I’m taking charge of a side just promoted into Luxembourg’s top division, so it’s a challenge immediately.
I’ve already reached the end of the first season, and for this save, I’ll be breaking from my usual format of Pre-Season, Mid-Season and End of Season updates, instead doing standard full season updates. The reason I’m doing this is because Luxembourg league seasons don’t take a long time (there’s only 26 league games to play in a 14 team league as well as cup games) to play, and unlike the bigger leagues, there’s not a crazy amount of activity regarding transfers. Usually, clubs make contract offers to your players, and it simply takes a renewal to persuade him to stay at your club. I’ll cover any signings I’ve made over the season, any progression with the club’s status, and obviously the club’s results. I’ll also include a quick look at the national team, and the status of any Racing players in the national team.
If you want to know how I’ve unlocked the Luxembourg league system as a playable nation, it’s through the help of claasen on the SI forums, who has created many league systems for the unplayable nations on FM16. Should you wish to take a look, and perhaps download one (or many) of these league structures, the links to the nations themselves are available here.
I hope you enjoy reading about this save (I do believe this one will be a keeper), and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me through this blog, or via Twitter (@JLAspey). As always, thank you very much for reading.
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That’s a real challenge! Are you planning to move on to another club in Luxemburg after Racing is established as a professional club to help the league that way or do you want to achieve this by sticking to one club (and maybe distributing good players to the other clubs)?
Ideally I’d like to stay at Racing and eventually distribute players, as well as helping the nation improve through increasing reputation as well. It’s going to be a learning process though.
I’m doing a similar thing in Scotland, though yours sounds like the grander challenge! Be interested to see how you go about this and maybe compare notes.