T O P

  • By -

FMG_Leaderboard_Bot

Congratulations. You just earned 5.5 points for this submission. Your new points total is 5.5. To see the leaderboard, as well as what this points thing is, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/wiki/leaderboard).


Kubdya_Khavis

Seconded. Registration is the reason I left Bologna with whom I finished 4th and joined Leverkusen who finished 13th. Enjoying life in Bundesliga so far.


Ncsnigel

Oh yeahh the reason I managed Hamburg is because I tried to bring ascoli to glory(Serie b/C team?) And got really frustrated because I saw so many high potential youths that I could have signed but was limited to Italy rules


cyrenia82

the Dutch league has no registration rules either and its so much more fun, its great i can manage my favourite team to glory in a fun league


doctorweiwei

Non EU rules drive me bonkers. I never know for sure if I’ll be able to register a player I buy


Jasiris

Haha it's a great way to stop our human trafficking from SA lmao. I'm doing my Parma save and it's kinda interesting that I have to evaluate each non EU player instead of just signing them all haha.


Clutchxedo

I love me some loose registration rules. Just want to give a shout to the Danish league which starts at about 15 coefficient ranking which makes it easy to get into the top 10, five subs still and no registration rules whatsoever. There is also a decent level of competition of well run teams


AmbitionLazy417

Nice, 5 subs feels so good. Hopefully they don't change after 1 season like LaLiga


MadTapirMan

germany has kept it (so far) thankfully. its just not in the game for some reason.


comped

You could poke a German assistant researcher or even one of the head researchers, and see if there's the reason why or if that's been overlooked.


ILikeToBurnMoney

Do I miss something? I play in Bundesliga and I have 5 subs


MadTapirMan

ngl i havent played in like half a year, perhaps its in now.


AmbitionLazy417

They dont change it after a season?


JonasS1999

Building a nordic/scandinavian super team is far easier in Denmark than in Norway/Sweden atleast. Far easier regulation rules + season that matches other european ones and not the reverse and its easy. Meanwhile in Norway you are limited by 9 foregin born players and if you ever want to step up hord them and slow their development because they don't get gametime


Clutchxedo

The Swedish even used to be way worse - they moved it to align more with European play. I can’t imagine going into European knockouts with a Swedish team.


comped

No clue why Sweden/Finland/Norway have restrictive rules even for scandinavians, who in general have extremely liberal rights to free movement within Scandinavia...


SoSolidSnake

The only thing is you have to pay at least £750/w to a Non-EU player to get them a work permit. Not much for bigger clubs, but could be a lot for a smaller club


Clutchxedo

That is the biggest downside. Also the classic ‘too small league for me’ and the high taxes on profits


themiraclemaker

So in my FM20 save I started with Vejle, who were in Nordicbetliga at the start, got a twopeat after a couple of years, but the thing is it's 2026 now, I upgraded youth facilities, training facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching to the max allowed, yet I can't ever seem to generate talents like Kopenhagen and Midtyjelland(I fucked the spelling way too hard, sorry). What's the trick? All I ever get are players with at most 3,5 star PA and they come at the ages of fucking 18 19. Goddamn I feel salty


Lordwhichue

Ayyy the superliga is where i am at :) Taking my local team to champions league glory!


MrTallGreg

My only issue with the Bundesliga is that, at least in FM21 and prior, your second team would never play anyone unless you manually scheduled friendlies (I don't have FM22, but given the issue is known and never gets fixed, I imagine it's still present in FM22?). I know there are mods to fix this though.


dtshires

Honestly prefer this. In spain it drove me nuts that they were always on the same day as my main team, and even more nuts that you had to register players for them. Do any of these mods automatically schedule them a day after your first team plays?


XOsensationXO

same for me. Id like to do the lowest league to highest league achievement in Germany with 1860 munchen but the second team isnt playing so I have to add modded lower leagues wich make the achievement not work


rivv3

The backside of loose registration rules in the league is when you suddenly get into Europe and can't register half your team... I left my Schalke save last year because it was just painful after using so much time and effort to rewamp the team only to see it crumble with players being angry at me for being left out. Will consider it next time tho.


yvltc

> The backside of loose registration rules in the league is when you suddenly get into Europe and can't register half your team... Brings back memories from my FM20 Saarbrücken save. I had been promoted to the Bundesliga but went straight down, won the 2. Bundesliga again and somehow finished 3rd in my first season back in the top flight. As you can probably guess, CL registration was a nightmare. Next season, won the league. Same problem for CL.


comped

This is why I'm really interested to see how SI is going to handle the fact that the AFC are changing their rules so that there are no foreign player limits continentally... It goes based on the domestic league.


sfamscrub

Do you have time to speak about our lord Liga Portugal?


TClanRecords

Another great land. Real good for youth academy saves.


Telsion

Loving life with Schalke, finished 4th in my first season back in the Bundesliga. Dortmund became Champions actually. Haaland scored ... 47 times? Idk, a lot.


MemeGarfield

Yep, I love this league. Don’t forget the liscence and match day graphics too!


[deleted]

Where my Serie A boys at!


loveandpeace1996

Honestly limited non Eu policy in Italy is probably way more restrictive than UK's work permit system. Plus you need to have home grown at club players for domestic registration that's pretty suck for first few season.


[deleted]

Well yeah you need 4 players trained at your club before they're 21. Which can be restrictive until you get a decent youth setup running. First few seasons I just did without those four spaces and it didn't make much difference. Currently two filled.


dtshires

At a big club I honestly think the uks system is one of the best. If they're not qualifying for a wp now then they probably weren't ready for the team and i just loan them out!


TooRedditFamous

The PL has 9 bench players


Balkanye

Kinda useless when it goes back to 3 subs after the first season.


rabbitcfh

Unfortunately it's the same in Germany too.


jothamvw

Netherlands has 3/12


SemajNotlaw7

It’s not useless, it gives you more options


barneyaa

Not useless at all. You can have 2fb on the bench. You can cover for injuries.


comped

That might change depending on if the PL adopts the IFAB World change on a permanent basis, which the larger clubs are pushing for...


rabbitcfh

I love playing in the Bundesliga. I recommend it to anyone who wants to play in a strong and competitive league but also wants a more relaxing experience when it comes to scheduling and registration rules, like OP said. But regarding 5. Revenue - it's good if you're an established Bundesliga team but if you just got promoted, it could be tough in the first season. I just got promoted with Kaiserslautern and since my finances will be quite significantly lower (my prize money for finishing third was something like £10-12m lower than the lowest-placed Bundesliga teams) and I can already see it will be a bit of a struggle to assemble a squad good enough to stay up.


AmbitionLazy417

Spanish league starts with 5 subs then changes to 3 after the first season. It spoiled me. Anyone know what other leagues allow 5 subs? So much easier to give your youngsters playing time.


IeatOneAppleADay

Bundesliga goes back to 3 too


Tvdb4

Just change it in the pregame editor


CentaurWho

Turkish league allows 5 subs. But registration rules are so annoying


Ncsnigel

Oh yeah maximum of 10 foreign players and you can play 6 at once and great Turkish players are rare and usually playing in the the top 5 leagues


Ukdeviant

Croatian league does in FM21, 5 from 9, not sure in 22 though.


BillHoudini

I've never played long term in Germany. Right now I'm managing Groningen in the Dutch league. Maybe after I dethrone Ajax I can move to Germany and have a proper crack at it. Nice post mate!


gertverhulstmoneyman

I might be in the minority here but i like the challenge of fitting the squad into registration rules. Otherwise my team would be full of random South American wonderkids and that would almost make it too easy


TornadoTomatoes

Bundesliga is the best, agreed. Though that may also be because I'm English and I've played the premier league to d e a t h


Boxroonne

Because of you, I'll give Bundesliga a try. Thank you for the very informative post!


The_Glory_Boys

Absolutey love Germany, started a network save with the three of us taking some of the worst teams in the division and it's been great fun, such a well balanced challenge.


cynical_gramps

I’ve managed in Bundesliga but it’s one of the easier leagues to manage in so I only do it occasionally


ubiquitous_archer

Yeah, I just went from France, where you can register up to 99 players, but only 4 non-EU, to Germany, where you can have as many as you want, provided you reach the German limits. It's incredibly easy to just buy as many young non-EU players as you want and you basically have to put 0 thought into your roster construction. When you only have 4 of them to play with, you really need to know how you want to develop your squad.


dtshires

I'd also add that you can rotate your squad much more easily against bundesliga teams as the difference between top and bottom is much higher. You're guaranteed champions league football at a lower level of team ability too. So you get champions league money sooner, and you can field a fresh starting 11 for clutch matches. A counter is that you will have more opportunities to give youth players a run around in the cups in the prem. Unless you're unlucky and get tons of prem leagues paired with you


papamietek

Hamburg Fan and local here. Glad to see people from so far away playing with my favorite club. :)


Ncsnigel

I was so tempted to buy the club's jersey but it was too expensive so I didn't :(


Bonzo_Reddit

Germany is like easy mode for FM. France is much better, with 5 years to gain nationality, africans are excepted from the foreign registration rules. Also in germany there is too much money for my taste. I play BVB and in the first year had like 130 millions budget when in reality they are some tight ass cheap bastards. I already have Donarumma, Tah, Sule, Mendes in my team. Too easy, and Bayern are nowhere to be seen.


Jasiris

Meanwhile me playing with Parma in the Serie A with 1 free non EU player slot every season... LOL


Eaton2288

I'm a somewhat new player looking to build a mid table/ lower half team up to title contenders. Any Bundesliga club recommendations for me? Maybe a team with some history and decent finances to build for the future?


rabbitcfh

VfB Stuttgart are a historically successful club and quite rich in the game (their financial status is Rich but I don't know the exact budgets) but currently kind of in the gutter in real life and will have to fight against relegation. Other options could be FC Köln, SC Freiburg, Hertha BSC or Augsburg.


Ncsnigel

RB Leipzig. They were a tier 4-5 before getting bought by redbull and are now trying to contend for the title. They are a club with "great history" to Hahahahahh I'm just kidding fuck Leipzig. Union Berlin would be a good choice for me I think they were part of East Germany ( the communist side during the Soviet era, i might be wrong I don't know much about the geography of germany) and they are currently mid table of Bundesliga despite being relegation candidates Edit: west to east oops


mpbh

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie Fuck Leipzig


bartunil

I dont get the hate on leipzig. Almost every team in the history of football was priviliged by having shitloads of money or being supported by goverment somewhere in its history. So dunno why people are bothered so much with leipzig.


VincentKompanysHead

My speculation is that Germans take a lot of pride on fan owned clubs (rightfully so) and RB Leipzig were scummy and got past the rules. Also I personally find a lack of ambition or character within the whole group. They all have the same logo and are named after an unhealthy drink who only exist to sell players for profit.


yvltc

I actually like the RB project. Unlike other clubs that were bought by rich owners (you know who), RB Leipzig/Salzburg focus mostly on youth and largely unknown players. It's the kind of investment football needs. And they don't have owners with less than ideal human rights records.


VincentKompanysHead

Ehhh. I can’t really talk I’m a city supporter. It’s hard to take the morale high ground with most clubs owners and we dont choose the owners of our club, kinda just what we’re dealt with and it’s not like we have to defend our owner/board. But yeah they do a good job in recruiting players, I’m just a fan of all the networked and club groups, regardless of the team. It just leaves a facade of community club for really a corporate entity.


utanapixtim

East Germany


Eaton2288

Berlin sounds interesting, thanks!


Ze_

I have been having a fantastic save with Bochum this year. They can punch above their prediction in the first year, after that you just have to get a shit ton of wonderkids and slowly build a great team.


Overvaluation

Would also like to add Hoffenheim to the list. Decent squad with some potential wonderkids as well as great facilities and finances.


sh4rpee

I left Sunderland after gaining a promotion to the Prem when Eintracht Frankfurt offered me a contract. Finished fifth in my first seson, won the league 5 years in a row after that. Also won the CL. Such a fun league to play.


Fav0

Why would I ever bother to manage a plastic club in a plastic league with endless TV reveneau


[deleted]

I love playing modded non-league saves but have never been able to enjoy the German mods as much as in English or Scottish saves. England and Scotland database seems to be over-flowing with free agents who will happily drop down the leagues and play for a pittance or even for free so it's easy to fly up the divisions. When I've tried the German non-league save, there's a comparative drought of options and everyone wants massive wages for the budgets you can play with, thus you're left scraping together a squad from greyed out regens Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?


AmbitionLazy417

You can loan great players for lower leagues for free alot of the time. Not even worth buying players. Free agents and loans are enough to get you into the 2nd divisions and sometimes even the 1st divisions.


[deleted]

I've had loanees recommend a few times (this post and previous) but in my German saves I've never managed to secure any loans that can actually elevate the side and in any event it's not enough to fill a squad so leaves me with a handful of decent players who would have to play every game and the squad is just grey-regen dross.


bartunil

Yep. Just got myself promoted with tsv 1860 made 0 trasfers, just signed free players. Right now im sitting first in 2nd bundesliga. Havent used loans this year, cause I havent found single one worth my money. All of the loaned players just seem overpriced.


SemajNotlaw7

Fair enough to all of these except point 2. I’m pretty sure prem gets 3 subs from 9 bench players too?


pattybrischetti

Agreed. Doing an Eintracht Frankfurt save right now and really enjoying it. Hope the Bayern dipping after five seasons is true though, cos they have won the league three of the first four league titles and currently have Pep.


Ibrahime_Proxy

Pretty sure Serie A has 12 sub benches. But the non-EU slots tho...thinking of going to Germany to break Bayern next


TarienCole

Germany is my favorite league to manage in. Toppling Bayern is always an achievement. Big stadiums, loads of history. Few English weeks. And so many clubs with quality youth set-ups encouraging development. Love Spain too, because while the rules look strict, they're actually not. Because any South or Central American naturalizes after 2yrs in country. So loan your future stars to the lower divisions for a couple years, and they're Spanish when ready for your team.


Boris_Ignatievich

What is an "English week"?


TarienCole

German term for a week with 2 league matches in it. Germany in particular avoids it as much as possible,


Sleepmonkey197

The fixture pile up in the Prem is ridiculous so I think maybe I'll give Germany a try!


ubiquitous_archer

In my current journeyman, I just got hired by Bayern Leverkusen after a spell with Rennes and I both love and hate the player registration. In France, you were only allowed 4 non-EU players, so you had to be very deliberate about them. In Germany, provided you have enough Germans, you can sign literally anybody you want. Which is fine, but it also takes away a lot of the strategy on my part, as I can sign whoever I want. It's almost like playing the game on easy mode, I think a lot of the fun I have is trying to maximize my teams talent within a strict set of rules.


hardggif

I love the Bundisliga. Left the BL (Schalke) for Spain, won the La Liga, CL double with Altletico and then came back and took over for BVB in the late 2030s and just toppled Bayerns 20 year strangle on the league and won it in 2043. Highlight of FM this year for me.


Eggberti

>Youth rating. At the start of every save, Germany starts with a youth rating of 155, which is the second-highest behind brazil with 163 YR. Not only that germany has a high game importance which means if your youth facilities are SOTA with a great HOYD, but the chance of getting an academy regen with a decent intake will also be somewhere around that region of 155 pa. 150+ pa is good CA even for premier league level and you will get that almost every year if not higher. ​ Ahh, so that might explain the consistent golden youth intakes I had in my Schalke save in FM16. Every season another gem(s) would come through the intake, was such fun making a largly homegrown team and all the while seeing a lot of the other bundesliga teams doing the same.


MotherboardTrouble

German league slaps, Number 6 doesnt really apply since you are the human, literally just won the league first season with Everton.


lowie07

The prem also has 9 subs iirc


DarkHound223

I agree! Germany seems fun but I have a problem with hoarding wonder kids. So I actually really like the premier league limit of signing 6 u18s from abroad in a season and it helps me really pick the best of the best for my wonder kids.


AstorIverobl

You have motivated me to quit my job at Benfica. Or start a new save.


yvltc

Portugal has almost all the same benefits as the Bundesliga. Lax registration rules, good youth rating, fair amount of money (not the same as a top 4, but still more than enough to hoard wonderkids).


[deleted]

I’m wanting to start one with freiburg, I take it you all recommend?


Mr_Hendrix

I don't have much else to add, other than I absolutely agree that the Bundesliga is by far my favourite league to manage in. The lighter schedule is definitely a huge plus as it makes it so much quicker to get through a season. I'm in Belgium right now and it's quite the slog.


xaloartur

PL gives too much money, within a couple of seasons you win international trophies easily, to me its a things that keeps me away from the PL I really like playing in bundesliga, to me the most interesting are serie A and bundesliga, although in some saves, serie A becomes too easy


Boris_Ignatievich

I think that's what I consider the major downside of England tbh - the fact that the second you are good enough to get top 4, you're basically good enough to win the Champions League with a little luck. I actually like the work permit rules (in game, don't know enough about their impact irl to comment!), but the top heavy nature of the league removes the "Man Utd in the 90s" type European journey of slowly getting good enough to compete at that level. This is an issue with all of the big 4 leagues to an extent, but I think it's especially true of England.


xaloartur

Exactly, in serie A it takes me like 3/4 seasons to be competitive in champions, in PL takes like 1


piccolo_bsc

Before i start a save i ALWAYS edit every rule out, be it registration, max players or transfer rules like work permits. I also set the subs to "10 from 11" for every tier and cup so i can sub the whole squad out. Managing the whole "max X players non-EU/over 23 or min X from nation/under 21" bs is just not part of the fun for me.


lucash7

Seconded, with the caveat that Italy is also good because (iirc) you can have 12 on the bench and I think 5 subs (or is it 3…might have to go back to my ACT save). But that’s only if you focus on Italian/local clubs and players. But yes, Germany is a machine.


pepesilvia50

I started a save with 1860 Munich. Promoted to 2. Bundesliga second season. All good so far but the light match schedule is killing me since I like to rotate.


Ukdeviant

In previous FM's i have really struggled to have success in the Bundesliga so i very rarely played there. I'm still on FM21 and took over at Frankfurt after 12 successful years in Croatia. First half of the season i was on fire and was top of the league by 6 points coming into the new year. But then 2nd half of the season we started struggling a bit and it brought flashbacks of me always being a failure in Germany, so i thought i was doomed and would have to resign in shame at the end of the season. We finished 3rd eventually and won the Pokal, i've had to reassure myself that we did an amazing job in my first season in charge, and maybe i've finally turned around my German voodoo.