Although the data in this batch is based on 1989, I’m working with a game that simulates the 2001/02 season, so there’s a lot of things – nations and competition structures in particular – that can’t be changed. Hopefully, though, despite this the patch still gives a feel of 1989, as well as answering some “what if?”s, e.g. “How would Dalglish’s Liverpool team have done in Europe?” “How would a unified German team have looked before the wall came down?”
The following things cannot be changed to match 1989:
- All dates are 12 years in advance
- The Champions League is as it was in 2001 (with 2nd-4th placed teams, and two group stages)
- There is no Cup Winners’ Cup
- The UEFA Cup winners enter the Super Cup
- There is no Heysel ban
- Many more teams enter European competition (see European qualification)
- The World Club Cup exists in its 1989 form
- Germany is reunited (see German football) for more details
- The Soviet Union is broken up
- Yugoslavia is mostly broken up
- Czechoslovakia is broken up
- South Africa’s ban does not apply
- The English leagues have their 1992-2004 names
- The World Cup at the end of the first season includes the 2002 teams (32 of them), and is hosted Japan & South Korea
- The European Championships include 16 teams, and the first one is hosted by Greece
- Most competitions include 18 subs
- Foreigner rules are much less limited
- There are no limits on players leaving the Eastern Bloc
- The MLS exists. See the page on this subject for how this was worked out.
- Serie C2 has three regions instead of four
- French Ligue 1 has 18 teams as opposed to 20
- The French second division has only one region, with the third tier National division existing, which it didn’t in 1989
- Many club names cannot be changed
- The League of Wales is separate
