The FM Library

Almost 20 years on from a famous night in Serravalle, San Marino recorded their first ever win as a National Team. They defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 in a friendly April 2004 but since then, San Marino have yet to taste victory. Although they have come close. A 0-0 draw against Estonia in November 2014. 0-0 draws against Liechtenstein and Gibraltar in October and November 2020 respectively. Most recently, a 0-0 draw against Seychelles in September 2022.

In the most recent international break, San Marino actually scored a goal in 3 straight games for the first time in their history, as they lost 2-1 against Denmark, 3-1 against Kazakhstan and 2-1 against Finland.

Tweets by SanMarino_FA

Not many footballing fans would celebrate an achievement like this. But the world celebrated it when San Marino done it. Is a positive result finally on the horizon?

The microstate is ranked as the worst active footballing nation in the world and are sitting almost 100 points behind Liechtenstein (200) in the UEFA rankings. 30 years ago, San Marino were once ranked 118th. And that is where we will step in.

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Over the years, Football Manager addicts have been pouring hours into the game setting themselves challenges and tribulations to achieve so much enjoyment from the game. You just need to take a glimpse at the Sports Interactive Community’s Challenges section to see the endless list.

One challenge that arises each and every single year is the San Marino Challenge. Given the information from above, this is probably one of the cruellest and longer challenges around the community just now due to the goals – lift San Marino from the bottom of the World Rankings and perch them at the top with a World Cup win.

As many will know, there are three ways of challenging this:

• Control just the National Team
• Control the National Team & manage Victor San Marino (Serie D)
• Control the National Team & manage clubs in San Marino

Options two and three will require databases to complete the challenge. My approach will initially start as controlling a Sammarinese club, but having availability of Victor San Marino in the background so that we can try to help them develop through the divisions in Italy.

I have linked the two databases I will be using below.

• San Marino League and Cup by Luron
• Italy by Gulltann

Over the course of this save, I will be creating a spreadsheet that will be accessible for anyone wishing to follow progress of building the nation. This is a work in progress and I am hoping to have this completed over the next few days. The spreadsheet will look to have the following:

• San Marino Clubs – Status Changes
• San Marino Clubs – European Participation
• San Marino Clubs – European Rankings
• Season Performances
• National Team Landmarks
• National Team Rankings
• National Coefficient

Updates on the save will take a different approach. Whilst the spreadsheet will be updated with progress as and when it happens, save updates will be occurring in the FM Library discord. Blog posts will happen initially on a season by season basis, but I will be looking to bring these down to 2 or 3 season updates to avoid a repetitive nature.

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Our protagonist for the save; Antonio Selva; descendant of the San Marino great Andy Selva. Antonio was born and raised in Acquaviva and was interested in football from a very young age. Not blessed with footballing talent, Antonio only played the sport as a past-time with friends but his love for managerial side of the sport was the biggest factor. His first experience of management was being assistant manager at his local school, before continuing this trend into his university years where he eventually became manager.

Young. Hungry. Ambitious. Some of the words to describe Antonio. Others may say deluded after hearing his aspirations for life after university; he was quoted saying that football in San Marino can and will rise under his stewardship. Big claims to make. But a man with a dream is more powerful than a man with all the facts. Antonio has his dream in place; he wanted to take his seat at the table of San Marino greats.

And with that he sent out his letters to both the San Marino FA and the board of directors at AC Virtus looking to be given his chance…