FM 2016 Competitions Preview: England, Part II

Hi guys, today we continue to show you a preview of the remaining leagues from England, starting with the 5th tier which is the National League. In case you missed our first episode, you can find it here: FM 2016 Competitions Preview: England, Part I

Tier V: Vanarama National League

• 46 games (teams play each other twice)
• Squad Registration: Emergency goalkeepers can be signed at any time during the season
• Match Rules: No player restrictions
• Promotion: 1 team promoted, 4 qualify for playoffs
• Relegation: Bottom 4 teams are relegated

The National League (currently named the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is the top division of the National League in England. It is the 5th-highest of the overall English football league system. While all of the clubs in the top four tiers of English football are full-time professional, the National League has a mixture of full-time and semi-professional clubs. The National League is the lowest nationwide division in the English football pyramid.

Vanarama Clubs (Ordered by Media Prediction)

[table “22” not found /]

Tier VI: Vanarama National League North

• 42 games (teams play each other twice)
• Squad Registration: Emergency goalkeepers can be signed at any time during the season
• Match Rules: The match squad must have no more than 5 loan players
• Promotion: 1 team promoted, 4 qualify for playoffs
• Relegation: Bottom 3 teams are relegated

The National League North is a division of the National League in England. Along with the National League South, it is a Tier 2 of the National League System and the 6th overall tier of the English football league system. It consists of teams located in Northern England, Suffolk, the English Midlands and North Wales.

Vanarama North Clubs (Ordered by Media Prediction)

[table “23” not found /]

Tier VI: Vanarama National League South

• 42 games (teams play each other twice)
• Squad Registration: Emergency goalkeepers can be signed at any time during the season
• Match Rules: The match squad must have no more than 5 loan players
• Promotion: 1 team promoted, 4 qualify for playoffs
• Relegation: Bottom 3 teams are relegated

The National League South is one of the second divisions of the National League in England. Champions are automatically promoted to the National League. A second promotion place goes to the winners of play-offs involving the teams finishing in 2nd to 5th place. The three bottom clubs are relegated. Teams from this division, as well as from the National League North, enter the FA Cup at the Second Qualifying Round.

Vanarama South Clubs (Ordered by Media Prediction)

[table “24” not found /]

The Cups

• FA Cup — knockout tournament open to all clubs
• Capital One Cup — knockout tournament open to clubs from Tier 1 to Tier 4
• Johnstone’s Paint Trophy — knockout, open to clubs from Tier 3 (League One) and Tier 4 (League Two)
• FA Trophy — knockout tournament open to clubs from Tier 5 to Tier 8
• Community Shield — single match between the Premier League champions and FA Cup winners

Next time we’ll take a quick look at some other playable nations in the game. Below are some of the conventions I took in order to show more information in a compact view in the tables. Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave any comments or feedback. Happy managing!

Table Conventions

• Under INT — CL, EL = Europe during first season / (p) = promoted club / (r) = relegated club
• Under Finance — asterisk sign (*) = club is under transfer embargo due to breach of financial regulations
• Under Estimated Value — loan debt is shown in parenthesis ().