FC Santa Claus of Finland

 Ho ho ho, merry Christmas everyone and welcome to Finland!

For our FM2012 festive Tour we’ve decided to throw you into the third division of Finnish football where you’ll take over as manager of FC Santa Claus!

Your goal is to take this small club and flourish amid the cruel winter backdrop, rising through the leagues and adding some trophies to the cabinet! One small thing to remember is that this is one of the few times you will hope not to see the words ‘Santa’ and ‘Sack’ in the same sentence. Good luck!

 FC Santa Claus

FC Santa Claus (known primarily as Santa) is a football club from Rovaniemi, Finland. The club was formed in 1993 following the amalgamation of Rovaniemen Reipas and Rovaniemen Lappi football clubs. Home matches are played at the Saarenkylän tekonurmi or Susivoudin kenttä in Rovaniemi. FC Santa Claus won its group in the Kakkonen C division, but lost the promotion play-off final to HIFK and failed to gain promotion to the Ykkonen league in 2010.

Santa have never gained promotion to the top two divisions in Finland, spending half their short history in the third and fourth divisions respectively. With low cash reserves, poor facilities and a midtable squad, this could be a tough challenge. However the chance to forge new history and bring a little festive cheer to the world of football is one that shouldn’t be passed up!

Kakkonen C

The name literally means ‘Number Two’ in Finnish and is the third tier of football in the country, behind the Veikkausliiga (Premier) and Ykkonen (First) divisions. The Kakkonen is divided to three groups of 14 clubs. A club plays each of the others in the same group twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. Clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. The group winners may win promotion to Ykkönen while three bottom clubs of each group and weakest 11th ranked club will be relegated to Kolmonen.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS

This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in Finland

(1st November 2014), you can no longer collect points for this destination.

You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and play in a new save from June 2011, using this database to unlock the third tier of Finnish football: here (right click to ‘save as’).

You have until the midnight of 30th December 2011 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can within the confines of a maximum of 3 seasons in the game.

You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge

HOW TO SCORE POINTS

Submit screenshots via reply within this thread of your progress.
Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points.

Veikkausliiga
Relegated: -10 points
12th-9th: 0 points
8th: 2 points
7th: 3 points
6th: 4 points
5th: 5points
4th: 8 points
3rd: 10 points
2nd: 15 points
1st: 25 points

Ykkönen
Relegated: -10 points
13th-9th: 0 points
8th: 2 points
7th: 3 points
6th: 4 points
5th: 5points
4th: 8 points
3rd: 10 points
2nd: 15 points
1st: 25 points
Promoted: +10 points

Kakkonen
Relegated: -10 points
14th-9th: 0 points
8th: 2 points
7th: 3 points
6th: 4 points
5th: 5points
4th: 8 points
3rd: 10 points
2nd: 15 points
1st: 25 points
Promoted: +10 points

Suomen Cup
Losing Quarter Finalist: 2 points
Losing Semi Finalist: 5 points
Losing Finalist: 10 points
Winners: 15 points

Veikkausliiga Liigacup
Losing Quarter Finalist: 2 points
Losing Semi Finalist: 5 points
Losing Finalist: 10 points
Winners: 15 points

Champions League
Fail to Qualify for group stages: 0 points
Group Stage Exit: 2 points
Second Round Exit: 5 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points
Losing Semi Finaists: 15 points
Losing Finalist: 20 points
Winner: 30 points

Europa League
Group Stage Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 3 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 8 points
Losing Semi Finaists: 10 points
Losing Finalist: 15 points
Winner: 25 points

RIVALRIES
(Competitive Fixtures Only)

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

LOGOS
Veikkausliiga
Ykkonen
Kakkonen

Join in the fun on our forums with the Tour thread: here!