2025-07-28, 10:53 AM - Word count:
With the new team(s) Xelajú Cósmico/Masques Sacrés having been announced this morning, and the upcoming Expansion bid from Bayley and Nol15736 being hinted and to be announced shortly, I wanted to explore some of the locations that I had considered myself that are yet to be given an SSL team and do not look likely to be used by the unannounced organization! Hopefully it will help spur some ideas for people in what will be a future expansion as the league seems to be still growing with the upcoming prospect draft being full of first time players and the league still trending upward overtime.
I picked a few big Major locations and then a few Minor location pairs that could work. My methodology was finding the remaining big locations either in real life or with lots of users in the league that were not represented yet and then tried to find locations that worked for them best. I also wanted to lean into realism or a theme with the pair, so hopefully you can get some ideas for next expansion that would be good for you:
1. Rotterdam, Netherlands
One of the most mentioned locations without a team is obviously the lack of a Dutch team, as a historical nation that is very iconic to the sport and also has a good number of users in the league. I think it would be a good idea to get a Major team in the country sooner than later, but you might wonder why not Amsterdam? I looked at Amsterdam, but decided I preferred Rotterdam and felt like it could also very much work. It also has a lot more real world municipal ties in the form of city twins and sisters, which is a very easy way to get a logical link between two teams without having to work too hard looking. Also I like playing as Sparta Rotterdam in FM... I REALLY enjoy striped kits...
I would ideally be looking at a few cities to pair them with that had some kind of port/coastal vibe as well as ideally some real life connection for theme and branding to be a bit easier, like the following:
Curacao - Dutch speaking, coastal, could be a very cool vibe and let you have a colourful counter part.
Havana, Cuba - Twinned city with Rotterdam, and is an interesting location outright that some people were talking about separately as well.
Gdansk, Poland - Another Twinned city with Rotterdam, also a port city that would have a very similar vibe that would feel like they match well as a pair.
Oslo, Norway - A paired city with Rotterdam, and also coastal, but could be a very cool north sea type pair, but avoiding the existing similar branding would be a little hard, so this pair ranked a little low for me.
2. Lisbon, Portugal
Similar to above it is a huge nation for the sport that is not represented and also has users making players for it anyways. Again a very coastal vibe to the nation outright, which is kind of ironic both of the big euro-football nations are basically historically known for being explorers and sailors as well, but we got what we got! Lisbon is the most obvious choice for me, but there are again a bunch of cities big enough to argue could work.
I would pair them again with similar themed cities with some ties like:
Malta - Mediterranean pair would be very cool in my opinion, but Malta is just a nice size and location for me to be a cool Minors team. Somewhere similar like Cyprus could work too.
Casablanca, Morocco - I liked the concept of having a theme around the Strait of Gibraltar, but wasn't sure if Gibraltar itself was really big enough, similar to Malta as well, but with Morocco right there and being a real life nation with a competitive national team as well could be a cool pair. I liked that they are geographically close and that could be a cool tie in as well, somewhere like Algeria could also be interesting for a similar reason!
Santiago, Chile - I could see Chile get a Majors team eventually, but I think a pair with Lisbon would be great as well. It has less real world ties that I would like, but to me they have similar energy if you overthink it a ton and I think they are both places that would fit well in the league also!
Malacca, Malaysia OR Macau - To add a team from east asia, both these cities are twinned with Lisbon while also having some historical ties to Portugal (even if not that positive) but would work if the league wanted more teams in that area of the world pretty easily.
3. Brussels, Belgium
Belgium is absolutely big enough to also get a Majors team but is overlooked a little because of the locations still not used, and would be a great rivalry team for a Dutch team as well, which will surely come eventually as well. They also have some really interesting history as a nation as well when looking into it, and are competitive in the sport also, so it's a great pick for a Major team.
There are a bunch of potential Minors locations to pick from to that we can use to make a theme, but for me I had a fun one in mind that I liked (can you sBot it), so here are a few that I thought would work:
Bridgetown, Barbados - Would have amazing vibes for a minors team in my opinion as well as give a very global energy to the pair that would be great.
Basil, Switzerland - Could be a Major team potentially even, but definitely a good pick and actually quite close if we want theme energy to be consistent.
Bodo, Norway - City is not the biggest, but the team is well known in real life so would work in my opinion as a Minor team for sure.
Bogota, Columbia - Columbia will definitely get a team eventually (I assume almost all of South America will!) so it fits perfectly fine. Also would have absolutely amazing vibes and branding options.
Belgrade, Serbia - Also a region that should definitely be jammed with teams and more players but gets forgotten a little bit I think when we are looking globally, but should absolutely have more teams in the area.
Bucharest, Romania - Similar to above! I think Romania is likely a place that could even justify a Major team eventually if you really think about it, but Bucharest fits perfectly with my theme and has some good real life teams too.
Those are the ones I think I wanted the most to be made that don't look like will get one this time around, but even then there are a ton of cities you could look at, a lot of Academy teams even could justify moving into a more permanent organization slot. I really wanted to find a pair with Kyiv as well, something Scottish was on my mind, as well as something like Kyiv+Krakow maybe in either direction was also on my mind, but Kyiv feels like it could be either a Minor or Major, so it was awkward to find a great pair for me. I also really like yellow kits, so that was always something I was looking at!
I picked a few big Major locations and then a few Minor location pairs that could work. My methodology was finding the remaining big locations either in real life or with lots of users in the league that were not represented yet and then tried to find locations that worked for them best. I also wanted to lean into realism or a theme with the pair, so hopefully you can get some ideas for next expansion that would be good for you:
1. Rotterdam, Netherlands
One of the most mentioned locations without a team is obviously the lack of a Dutch team, as a historical nation that is very iconic to the sport and also has a good number of users in the league. I think it would be a good idea to get a Major team in the country sooner than later, but you might wonder why not Amsterdam? I looked at Amsterdam, but decided I preferred Rotterdam and felt like it could also very much work. It also has a lot more real world municipal ties in the form of city twins and sisters, which is a very easy way to get a logical link between two teams without having to work too hard looking. Also I like playing as Sparta Rotterdam in FM... I REALLY enjoy striped kits...
I would ideally be looking at a few cities to pair them with that had some kind of port/coastal vibe as well as ideally some real life connection for theme and branding to be a bit easier, like the following:
Curacao - Dutch speaking, coastal, could be a very cool vibe and let you have a colourful counter part.
Havana, Cuba - Twinned city with Rotterdam, and is an interesting location outright that some people were talking about separately as well.
Gdansk, Poland - Another Twinned city with Rotterdam, also a port city that would have a very similar vibe that would feel like they match well as a pair.
Oslo, Norway - A paired city with Rotterdam, and also coastal, but could be a very cool north sea type pair, but avoiding the existing similar branding would be a little hard, so this pair ranked a little low for me.
2. Lisbon, Portugal
Similar to above it is a huge nation for the sport that is not represented and also has users making players for it anyways. Again a very coastal vibe to the nation outright, which is kind of ironic both of the big euro-football nations are basically historically known for being explorers and sailors as well, but we got what we got! Lisbon is the most obvious choice for me, but there are again a bunch of cities big enough to argue could work.
I would pair them again with similar themed cities with some ties like:
Malta - Mediterranean pair would be very cool in my opinion, but Malta is just a nice size and location for me to be a cool Minors team. Somewhere similar like Cyprus could work too.
Casablanca, Morocco - I liked the concept of having a theme around the Strait of Gibraltar, but wasn't sure if Gibraltar itself was really big enough, similar to Malta as well, but with Morocco right there and being a real life nation with a competitive national team as well could be a cool pair. I liked that they are geographically close and that could be a cool tie in as well, somewhere like Algeria could also be interesting for a similar reason!
Santiago, Chile - I could see Chile get a Majors team eventually, but I think a pair with Lisbon would be great as well. It has less real world ties that I would like, but to me they have similar energy if you overthink it a ton and I think they are both places that would fit well in the league also!
Malacca, Malaysia OR Macau - To add a team from east asia, both these cities are twinned with Lisbon while also having some historical ties to Portugal (even if not that positive) but would work if the league wanted more teams in that area of the world pretty easily.
3. Brussels, Belgium
Belgium is absolutely big enough to also get a Majors team but is overlooked a little because of the locations still not used, and would be a great rivalry team for a Dutch team as well, which will surely come eventually as well. They also have some really interesting history as a nation as well when looking into it, and are competitive in the sport also, so it's a great pick for a Major team.
There are a bunch of potential Minors locations to pick from to that we can use to make a theme, but for me I had a fun one in mind that I liked (can you sBot it), so here are a few that I thought would work:
Bridgetown, Barbados - Would have amazing vibes for a minors team in my opinion as well as give a very global energy to the pair that would be great.
Basil, Switzerland - Could be a Major team potentially even, but definitely a good pick and actually quite close if we want theme energy to be consistent.
Bodo, Norway - City is not the biggest, but the team is well known in real life so would work in my opinion as a Minor team for sure.
Bogota, Columbia - Columbia will definitely get a team eventually (I assume almost all of South America will!) so it fits perfectly fine. Also would have absolutely amazing vibes and branding options.
Belgrade, Serbia - Also a region that should definitely be jammed with teams and more players but gets forgotten a little bit I think when we are looking globally, but should absolutely have more teams in the area.
Bucharest, Romania - Similar to above! I think Romania is likely a place that could even justify a Major team eventually if you really think about it, but Bucharest fits perfectly with my theme and has some good real life teams too.
Those are the ones I think I wanted the most to be made that don't look like will get one this time around, but even then there are a ton of cities you could look at, a lot of Academy teams even could justify moving into a more permanent organization slot. I really wanted to find a pair with Kyiv as well, something Scottish was on my mind, as well as something like Kyiv+Krakow maybe in either direction was also on my mind, but Kyiv feels like it could be either a Minor or Major, so it was awkward to find a great pair for me. I also really like yellow kits, so that was always something I was looking at!
