FM17 – Page 3 – Fuller FM

The Counties Championship: East Preview

Published on 22 April 202012 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

Welcome back to the Counties Championship – a new blog series on Fuller FM. I’m using Football Manager 2017 to find out what would happen if the 48 English counties took part in a national competition using only the best footballers they have produced. You can read more about it right here.

Ahead of the first matches, I’ll be previewing every team, assessing their strengths and weaknesses to predict who has the best chance of claiming silverware. In this article, I will look at the 12 teams that make up the East division.

Continue reading →

The Counties Championship: North Preview

Published on 21 April 202012 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

Continue reading →

The Counties Championship: Introduction

Published on 20 April 202012 July 2026 by Chris Fuller2 Comments

Hello there, and I’m grateful you could join me for a new Football Manager blog series on Fuller FM. This adventure is going to be… quite different from my previous ones.

Over the last few months, I’ve been working on an FM database where the best English footballers represented counties instead of clubs. It’s like cricket in a way, except that the sport is much more exciting, and matches don’t grind on for five days.

I will be using Football Manager 2017 to see what would happen if the FA replaced the money-rich, import-heavy Premier League with a 48-team English Counties Championship. Teams can only use players who were born or raised in their respective counties, and any non-English players who don’t meet the eligibility criteria have been ‘sent home’.

Just to be clear, there are no political motives behind this project. It’s just a fantasy scenario that has interested me for a while now. Perhaps it might have piqued your interest as well…

In today’s opening post, I will explain this experiment and outline how the Counties Championship – and the knockout County Cup – will work.

Continue reading →