This is where you can create a managerial profile, choose which leagues you'd like to run and select a team to manage before embarking on your managerial career.

Nations
Use the drop down menu to select which continent you'd like to select a nation from and then click to add or remove the country you'd like to run. You can select the level of detail for each nation by using the drop-down 'Detail' menu on the right-hand side.
It's worth noting that you can adjust the difficulty of your own task by selecting more or less competitive leagues. While you can expect to face an easier task guiding a team to glory in the top Dutch division compared to the Spanish Primera Division, you should remember that your resources, in terms of finances and reputation will limit your power in the transfer market.

Detail level
You can alter the number of leagues that are fully active in each of the nations you select. As with any of the parameters in this game setup screen, the more leagues you run in the greater detail the more demands will be placed on your PC's performance.

Options
Alter the start date and choose the size of the player and staff database. The larger the database, the richer the Football Manager universe and the more demands are placed on your PC.
The research that goes into Football Manager means that there are thousands of players in far-flung leagues that you will never cross paths with. Don't, therefore, assume that running a smaller database will alter your enjoyment of playing significantly. Many managers will never look beyond a small database of players, even when dishing out more adventurous scouting assignments.
As time passes in real football, players are likely to change clubs. To keep up-to-date with the latest toings and froings of personnel you should use the Check For Updates option and visit the sites listed in the Community section, where you'll find player data downloads.
To increase the difficulty level of the game you can also set Football Manager to use fictional player names to disguise the identity of star players and mask attributes so players need to be more thoroughly scouted.

Recommended setup
Click here to ask Football Manager to automatically select leagues and detail levels according to your PC's speed. You don't have to retain this setup, but adding leagues and greater depth of detail may affect the smoothness of your FM experience.