English Lower League Expansion Guide

Welcome to the English Lower League expansion leagues guide, the aim of this guide is to give you the most complete experience England has to offer whist maintaining the realism required to adhere to the LLM way of playing the game.

The English lower leagues have been a firm favourite ever since adding leagues to the game became a thing.  Some might say it was one of the defining points for the LLM style of play as the community was split on whether it was a good thing or not.  

One camp was firmly against any changes at all to the base game on the basis that any use of the editor was unacceptable and could lead to imbalances in the game.  The other seeing additional leagues, especially the deeper ones such as this, as an alluring challenge and a natural progression for LLM.

The anonymous llama hopes to find a happy medium.  

In the time since the ability to add expansion leagues became a reality (just over a decade ago) the level of official research for level 7 & 8 of the English system has improved considerably and nearly all clubs at those levels have a full squad of real players.

With this in mind I recommend adding only levels 7 & 8 if you want the most realistic experience.  Even just adding these two levels opens you up to 11 extra divisions unplayable with the base game, which amounts to 225 clubs. Which I would argue is plenty of depth for a comprehensive lower league experience whilst compromising as little realism as possible.  

You can find more on my way of assessing the viability of expansion leagues with a list of pros and cons in the link below  

Recommended Expansion League

The next step of course is to find the best and most realistic file to make this all happen.

Picking a suitable one for an LLM save was not an easy task at all and having tested a few for a minimum of 10 seasons most are all as near perfect as you could wish for.  

My recommendation however will have to be Ivan aka Messi Level 10 database as he has been consistently releasing his file for a number of years and it is of a really high standard.

Installation instructions are in the link below


The Setup

Okay so we've chosen our add-on it's now just a case of looking at how we set the game up.  It's an easy one here as just adding England down to level 8 gives you a pretty big game world.  If however you do have the processing power then the obvious choice is to load the other British nations.

A good option of course, should you make it to the upper echelons of the English game, is to add the top 2 divisions of the major European nations in order to make the continental competitions more competitive

Leagues To Load




Optional (Original DB)


The System At Level 7 & 8

Promotion & Relegation

Beneath the National League North and South divisions (which come with the game), are the seventh and eighth tiers of English football, or Step 3 and 4 in non-league terms.  These are the two extra levels you will be adding.  The promotion and relegation system is as follows.

Step 3 / Level 7

2 promoted from each division – Champions plus 1 via 4 team play-offs

Bottom 2 relegated from each division, along with 2 third bottom clubs on PPG

Bottom two sides from each division will be relegated to Step 4. Another two “third bottom” clubs will be relegated on a PPG basis.

Step 4 / Level 8

2 promoted from each Division – Champions plus 1 via 4 team play-offs

At Step 4, the bottom side will go into a playoff with against a Step 5 side. The match will be hosted by the Step 4 side and the winner will play at Step 4 the following season with the loser playing at Step 5

LLMPicker English Level 8

Click below to ask the Anonymous Llama for a starting team