Football teams/leagues in your alternative world

Incasaurus

Ok so I’m an avid fan of football (soccer) and of the greatest football manager game of all time; Chanpionship Manager 01/02.

This game allows you to edit its own database create new players, stadia, teams and if you know what you’re doing - leagues. This makes it all the more fun imo.

Ok so in your alternative timeline /history what football teams would exist? Would Corinthians be still a dominant force in English football or would Legia Warsaw win the Pan Germania League? Would the Soviet Union still exist and therefore it’s League?

Would the USA have something different to the mls?

Would the British empire or Roman Empire still exist and if so what is the name of the teams in their pan empire leagues? Are Calcutta United a force to challenge Man City for honours or is Noricum Calcio the European champions...?

Over to you....(hopefully)
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
I don't go down to team level, but stop at league structure.
In England I'd have a FL where Division One has 20 teams, while Divisions Two and Three have 22 each. 64 sides - the perfect number for the League Cup :)
I'd like to use 20-22-22 wherever possible.
Top flight relegates three automatically, with Team 17 in play-off with teams 4th-6th from 2nd flight. The other Divisions relegate four directly, send up three automatically plus winner of play-off.Seven places to play for is not bad ...
In England I introduce Southern League and Midland or North Counties league as feeders to the FL c.1905. Each of the regional semi-pro leagues with a 22+2x20 structure. Two-up and four-down is the standard.
For small countries I like 12-2x10 - with the top flight playing either 3x11=33 game or (if the climate allows) using the Scottish system (33 games and split into championship and relegation group for 38 games total). Or the top flight has 14 teams playing a triple season for 39 games. A 12 team league relegates two automatically and third through a play-off, a 14 team - 3 automatically.
The 2nd level plays a double-double round bobbin for 36 games.
I also look at financial doping issues - but that would be a very long post :)
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

Joke Insurance said:
I've dabbled with expanding Major League Soccer to 32 teams. Does that count?
Click to expand...

I think it does; right now, the MLS has 23 teams, but a Miami team will join in 2020 and a Nashville (!) team will be included in the league later on. There also are proposals floating around for teams based in Cincinnati, Detroit, and Sacramento. Overall, the MLS seems far more willing than the bigger leagues to debut teams based on mid-sized (for US standards) cities, maybe because there are too many professional teams already in the big cities.
 

Riain

Banned
With Australian Football I'd like to see promotion-relegation bought in as the driver of the national competition in the 80s instead of fake interstate teams being invented. Surely Port Adelaide could slot in with the VFL at a high level without any problems, especially if they bought the 2nd best SA and the top 2 WA clubs with them.
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

Nomis Nosnibor said:
What I like about American teams are the names - they really have some great team names (if not great teams - sorry) such as Rochester Raging Rhinos!
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Here's how the Serie A would look like if it were franchise-based like an American league:

Associazione Calcistica Nazionale

Lega Centrale e Meridionale

Achei Messina
Ausoni Reggio Calabria
Carbonari Salerno
Elefanti Catania
Emiri Palermo
Fenici Cagliari
Filatori Prato
Giudei Livorno
Giudici Sassari
Gladiatori Roma
Grifoni Perugia
Guelfi Firenze
Normanni Bari
Spartani Taranto
Svevi Foggia
Tritoni Napoli

Lega Settentrionale

Aquile Trieste
Bizantini Ravenna
Capitani Verona
Duchi Parma
Leoni Brescia
Longobardi Milano
Marinai Genova
Mercanti Venezia
Motori Modena
Partigiani Reggio Emilia
Signori Bologna
Tori Torino
Estensi Ferrara
Stella Rossa Rimini *
Troiani Padova
Vipere Milano

* Romagna is full of streets named after Communist leaders, so... :p
 

Incasaurus

Neoteros said:
Here's how the Serie A would look like if it were franchise-based like an American league:

Associazione Calcistica Nazionale

Lega Centrale e Meridionale

Achei Messina
Ausoni Reggio Calabria
Carbonari Salerno
Elefanti Catania
Emiri Palermo
Fenici Cagliari
Filatori Prato
Giudei Livorno
Giudici Sassari
Gladiatori Roma
Grifoni Perugia
Guelfi Firenze
Normanni Bari
Spartani Taranto
Svevi Foggia
Tritoni Napoli

Lega Settentrionale

Aquile Trieste
Bizantini Ravenna
Capitani Verona
Duchi Parma
Leoni Brescia
Longobardi Milano
Marinai Genova
Mercanti Venezia
Motori Modena
Partigiani Reggio Emilia
Signori Bologna
Tori Torino
Estensi Ferrara
Stella Rossa Rimini *
Troiani Padova
Vipere Milano

* Romagna is full of streets named after Communist leaders, so... :p
Click to expand...

This is great I’m already designing the Gladiatori Roma logo in my head...
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

I wonder how would Prussian football in the TL by @Remitonov look like; given modern Prussia's origins as a military district and the small size of the nation, it's probably going to be a small league (8 teams in the top flight, just like in the other Baltic countries) made up of state owned teams descended from the Soviet ones, and teams strongly associated with one ethnicity in particular born after 1991, with names resembling those of actual teams from the old Reich:

The Soviet-descended teams...

Arsenal Pillau, formerly Arsenal Baltiysk, they used to owned by the navy but now in the hands of shipping magnate Vyacheslav Yakovlev; its supporters have no political affiliation in particular, but are derided as glory hounds ever since Yakovlev turned the previously struggling team into a local powerhouse, even managing to sign a few good players from abroad. Their colours are blue and red.

CSKA Kyonigsberg, formerly CSKA Kaliningrad, owned by the army and private shareholders; the only team from the former West Baltic SSR to make it to the Soviet Top League. The team's colours are red and yellow, and its supporters tend to vote for the right-wing Fatherland Front.

Dinamo Kyonigsberg, formerly Dinamo Kaliningrad, owned by the police and private shareholders; its supporters tend to vote for New Prussia, and the team's colours are blue and white.

Shakhtar Pal'mniken, formerly Shakhtar Yantarny, is a team founded by amber miners, and to this day its supporters tend to be quite left-wing when compared to those of the teams from Kyonisgberg, most of them being Socialist Left voters; true to their origins, they have adopted amber as their team colour.

...and the new teams.

AAI Kyonigsberg was founded by Prussians of German descent as heir to the old VfB Königsberg, the most successful East Prussian team in the Reich; it pursues an Athletic Bilbao-like policy of only signing people of German descent, not only from Prussia itself but also from other countries, from Switzerland to Kazakhstan. As a result, it's the team of German-speaking Prussians, and its colours are, of course, black and white.

Lituania Tilsit is another resurrected team; it doesn't have a lot in common with its predecessor except for the name, that inspired its owners to pursue a policy of signing almost only people of Baltic and Finnic descent. Their colours are black and white.

Prussiya Sambiya Kyonigsberg is Prussia-Samland Königsberg reborn; the team's colours are black and blue, and its supporters and players are mostly of central Asian and Korean descent; detractors of the team argue they should wear green uniforms instead, and rename themselves Al-Ittihad Kyonigsberg.

Stolypin Insterburg is a distant descendant to Yorck Boyen Insterburg; the team's players wear black and red uniforms, and there is an unusual concentration of people of South and West Slavic descent inside the team and their stadium.
 

Spens1

Riain said:
With Australian Football I'd like to see promotion-relegation bought in as the driver of the national competition in the 80s instead of fake interstate teams being invented. Surely Port Adelaide could slot in with the VFL at a high level without any problems, especially if they bought the 2nd best SA and the top 2 WA clubs with them.
Click to expand...

honestly the AFL could do that, then again if they did the lions would be in the amateur leagues by now.

 

Spens1

My ideal Premier league, i'd basically have Ireland (all of it) be under the model, yes they would have the separate F.A's but imagine if you had a set-up/premier league like this

1. Wimbledon F.C.

2. Manchester Unted

3. Newcastle United

4. Chelsea

5. Liverpool

6. Shamrock Rovers

7. Bohemian FC

8. Arsenal

9. Rangers

10. Linfield

11. Celtic

12. Tottenham Hotspur

13. Everton

14. Swansea

15. Leicester City

16. Manchester City

17. Southampton

18. West Ham United

19. Leeds United

20. Aston Villa

I can imagine the scenes though (old firm in the premier league, any republic team vs rangers, celtic vs any protestant team, cops would probably hate that actually). Still, it would be a damn good league.

Anyway for a backstory, countries are the same but they all agree to be under the same football body (think like MLS with Canada in it also). Wimbledon, i'd have them not be bought up by MK, instead they are bought out by a billionare and they go to the top.

Leeds do lose a lot of their prestige but are hanging on, as are Villa. Also Newcastle are bought up by Sheik Mansour instead of buying City (who goes to Mike Ashley and now probably Staveley).
 

Spens1

OldNavy1988 said:
Had the original NASL not over expanded, would they have still survived?
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funnily enough, i think our NSL is the same story, i think if you had enough TV i'm sure it could have. Nationally televised games on the regular and if you have the clubs in general not be basket cases it leads to a much healthier league.
 

Incasaurus

Some great responses! Ok in an ATL where Byzantium survives and flourishes into a powerful modern state encompassing modern day Greece,most of Turkey and areas of the balkans their football league becomes extremely competitive on the European stage. Here are my

Byzantine Super League teams;

Olympiakos Constantinople (colours red/black)

Romana Constantinople (colours purple/white a team based in the Latin quarter)

Nicaea Alexandria ( colours black/white)

Slavia Bellegrada (colours white/blue)

Kastro Mystras (yellow/black)

AEK Athens (yellow/black colours)

Sparta Laconia (red/white colours)

Athinaikos (colours yellow/red)

Limani Trebizond (white/black)

V.A.N (Vasilikos Athlitikos Nicomedia - colours red/white)

Edessa United (Enomenos)
(blue/yellow founded by English students in 1907)

Kyklobion Athlitikos (suburb of Constantinople)

Major rivalries between Nicaea and Nicomedia, all the Constantinople teams and Sparta Laconia and AEK. Current champions; Sparta Club (Laconia)

Promoted next season - Orestes Adrianople F.C
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Actually I'd expect Celtic and Newco to implode once placed in a different league. They would no longer be permanent top dogs and see their support outwith Glasgow erode.
Also, once TV Europe-wide audiences are entertained by songs about "knee deep in Fenian blood" or "Palestinians are cuddly, Israel murders babies", the powers that be will tel the Ugly Sisters to crack down on their supportes or they will be kicked out.
I don't see any RoI teams in the top flight of a UK-wide league, not without fantastic financial doping. You need at least 20K if not 30K bums-on-seat on a regular basis minimum to play with the Big Boys.
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

POD: Oscar I, King of Sweden, is crowned Emperor of Scandinavia in the 1850s; in return, Sweden has to give back to Denmark and Norway land those countries had lost in the previous centuries. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish are all official languages, with Finnish, Greenlandic and Sami being official at the local level, while Old Norse has been resurrected as a neutral state language.

Fyrirdeild - First League

1) Rosenborg (NOR)
2) Malmø FF (DEN)
3) København (DEN)
4) AIK (SWE)
5) Molde (NOR)
6) FC Midtjylland (DEN)
7) Strømsgodset (NOR)
8) Brøndby (DEN)
9) Norrköping (SWE)
10) Östersunds FK (NOR)
11) IFK Göteborg (SWE)
12) BK Häcken (SWE)
13) Djurgården (SWE)
14) Elfsborg (SWE)
15) Nordsjælland (DEN)
16) Odds Ballklubb (NOR)
17) Brann (NOR)
18) Vålerenga (NOR)
19) Sarpsborg 08 (NOR)
20) SønderjyskE (DEN)

The Fyrirdeild is either the smallest of the big leagues or the biggest of the small leagues, and the national team has punched well above its weight in more than one occasion, winning two World Cups (1950 and 1958), an European Championship (1992) and a Confederations Cup (1995).
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Does the climate allow for a 38 game season up there? Even with summer football? Even with lots of scheduled games on midweeks?
Remember - you lose dates to internationals and FIFA/UEFA will demand several weeks every two years for the World Cup/Euro.
The Allsvenskan (or is it Superettan? I always get my Swedish divisions mixed up ...) plays a 30 game season today.
I'm not saying that a 20 team league cannot be done - but please look at available matchdays.
August to late May - 42 weeks or so (with no break)
Mid March to late November - 36 weeks
 
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