Football Manager, also known as Worldwide Soccer Manager in North America from 2004 to 2008, also known colloquially as FM, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. Following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, triggered by the fiasco release of Championship Manager 4 in 2003, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights to Eidos Interactive but retained the game engine and data, and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publisher Sega. The penultimate version of Football Manager, titled Football Manager 2024, was released on 6 November 2023. Football Manager 2024 is the most played title in series history, clocking over 19 million players as of September 2025. Football Manager 25, originally intended for a November 2024 release, was cancelled in February 2025 after multiple delays. The most recent game in the series, Football Manager 26, was released on 4 November 2025.
Main series
Football Manager 2005
On 12 February 2004, after splitting from publishers Eidos Interactive, it was announced that Sports Interactive, developers of the Championship Manager game, had retained the rights to the source code but not the rights to the title Championship Manager, which were held onto by Eidos (who previously acquired the brand rights from Domark upon their merger in 1995). These developments led to a further announcement that future Sports Interactive football management simulation games would be released under the famous Football Manager brand name. Whilst the Championship Manager series would go on, Eidos no longer had any source code or a developer for Championship Manager.
Having been left without a publisher for its football management series, Sports Interactive teamed up with Sega. In April 2006, Sports Interactive was acquired completely by the publisher in a continuing trend of consolidation within the games industry. The first game released under the newly acquired Football Manager brand was Football Manager 2005. Commonly known as FM 2005, it competed directly with Championship Manager 5 from Eidos-funded Beautiful Game Studios. Football Manager 2005 included an updated user interface, a refined game engine, updated database and competition rules, pre and post-match information, international player news, cup summary news, a 2D match engine, coach reports on squads, jobcentre for non-playing positions, mutual contract termination, enhanced player loan options, manager mind games, and various other features. Football Manager 2005 was released in the UK on 5 November 2004, closely followed by releases in many other countries around the world. The Macintosh (Mac) version of the game came on the same dual format disk as the Windows version, so its sales were also included. Football Manager 2005 became both the 5th fastest-selling PC game of all time and SEGA Europe's fastest selling game.
Football Manager 2006
Football Manager 2006 for Windows and Mac OS was released in the UK on 21 October 2005 (two weeks earlier than the originally stated 4 November 2005 release). On the same day as the game's release, Sports Interactive also released a patch to fix some bugs discovered during the Beta and Gold stages of development. In its first week of release, it became the second-fastest-selling PC game of all time in the UK.
Essentially a season update of FM 2005, it includes many small adjustments and improvements to the general gameplay. These adjustments include team-talks, simplified training, and in-game help screens. Furthermore, the game is updated by its many researchers (unpaid fans of the game augmented by in-house collaboration). The database is usually updated twice in the period of the release of the game. The first comes with the game and the second is usually downloadable in February as a free data update to reflect the changes which take place during the winter opening of the FIFA transfer window. As has been customary with the series, a beta demo of the game was released on 12 September 2005. This was later followed on 30 September 2005 by a gold demo. This is a cut-down, limited time version of the full game, which is sent to the game manufacturers. With a special download from Sports Interactive, one can play as the fictional football team Harchester United from Sky One's series Dream Team.
Football Manager 2006 – Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 version was released on 13 April 2006 and is the first home console game in the Football Manager series. The full 50 playable league systems are included, as well as a 250,000-strong player database (very near to the figure of the PC version). Due to the large save files of the game, which is region free, the Xbox 360 hard disk drive is required. This version also makes use of the Xbox Live functionality, allowing players to create online leagues and cups with up to 16 human-controlled teams using team data they have exported from their offline game. Voice chat is fully supported during online play. It was also confirmed that Sports Interactive would release new content through the Xbox Live Marketplace system.
Football Manager 2007
On 8 June 2006, Sports Interactive published details on Football Manager 2007. On 1 October 2006, Sports Interactive released a Gold Demo of Football Manager 2007, available in two versions: vanilla and strawberry. Both versions allow users to play six months into a season. The strawberry version contains a larger collection of quickstarts so users can try out more leagues. It also contains more graphics than the vanilla version. Football Manager 2007 was released on 18 October 2006.
New features in the 2007 version of Football Manager include the ability to include pictures for the player as the manager, substantially increased media interaction such as approaches from national newspaper journalists about the upcoming match or asking for comments on a player's performance in recent matches, and new varying degrees of criticism or praise for players (happy with form or very pleased with form rather than just one generic good term). A similar feature has been included for such actions as admiring players or attempting to unsettle transfer targets. Improvements have also been made to board request interactions.
The main improvement lauded by Sports Interactive for this version of Football Manager is the improved scouting system. Scouts' and coaches' experience is now shown graphically via bar charts and scouts gain knowledge from areas they have scouted previously. To go with this, it is now possible to get feeder/parent club status, which allows to either send players to lower league teams to gain experience, make it easier to get work permits, merchandise sales in other areas, or, as a lower league team, to receive reserve and youth team players on free, season long loans and to generate extra revenue through associated fees and friendly matches. A patch has been released to combat some of the main bugs in the game, such as unrealistic scout reports and high amounts of injuries sustained whilst playing on the pitch. On 27 July 2007, the Football Manager website was updated with a new Football Manager 2008 section.
Football Manager 2008
On 3 October 2007, Sega Europe Ltd and Sports Interactive announced Football Manager 2008 to be released 19 October. The release date was brought forward by a day to 18 October 2007 due to some retailers shipping the game early. There were a number of new features: all features in matches seamlessly follow on from the previous one; a mini radar pitch appears during tactical changes; improved International management; new skin; advisor system; improved notebook system; a revamped captain selection; improved board and fan confidence system; transfer centre to track transfers; improved match engine; the player may change pitch dimensions; award system overhaul; in-game all-time best elevens; a revamped finance system; collective win bonuses; FaceGen system for new-gen players; and a new calendar.
Football Manager 2009
On 3 September 2008, Sports Interactive released a preview video announcing Football Manager 2009 to be released on 14 November. The main difference from past versions was the inclusion of a 3D match engine for the first time in the game's history. Other new features included the ability to have female managers and staff, a new press conference system, more in-depth feedback from assistant manager, and a more realistic transfer system. The latest incarnation of Football Manager was also released in DVD format for the first time.
The use of online-activation DRM utilised by Sports Interactive resulted in issues for consumers activating either online, or phone. This was the result of a well orchestrated DDoS attack launched upon activation servers and phone lines, resulting in many users on the Windows platform unable to activate and play. On 17 December 2008, Sports Interactive announced a deal with Arsenal F.C. to release an exclusive version of Football Manager 2009, containing all official Arsenal squad player pictures, and an exclusive skin in Arsenal's colours. Shortly following this announcement, Sports Interactive reinforced their pursuit of online retailers by offering Football Manager 2009 through eSellerate for the Mac OS X platform on 23 December 2008. This is the first incarnation of the game to be available to global users through online distribution.
Football Manager 2010
On 12 August 2009, Sports Interactive & Sega Europe Ltd. announced that Football Manager 2010 for PC and Apple Macintosh, and Football Manager Handheld 2010 for PlayStation Portable was to be released on 30 October 2009. The include competitions are Challenge Cup and Challenge Cup qualification, as well as the Caribbean Championship. This version of Football Manager has been very successful, managing to gain the number 1 spot in the gaming charts. There have been many improvements made to Football Manager 2010, including the following:
Totally revamped user interface making it simpler and quicker to find the information.
Match Analysis tool showing the actions of each player on the pitch, allowing to pinpoint any team's strengths and weaknesses.
Making changes from the touchline by shouting instructions from the touchline instantly.
Included two new national teams (Zanzibar and Tuvalu).
Football Manager 2011
Football Manager 2011 was released on 5 November 2010. On 23 July 2010, a number of features and the design of the box were leaked before an official announcement could be made, including:
Improved training options
More complex module for searching new players
Improved graphics and 3D view of the game
Introduction of football agents to the game
Playing games in evenings (night effect)
Differentiated weather conditions
Football Manager 2012
Football Manager 2012 was released on 21 October 2011.
Transfers & Contracts – significant changes to the transfer and contract systems
Scouting improvements – a new much detailed in-game report has been devised
3D Match Improvements – new animations, new crowd system, and more stadiums
Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations
Tone – new system allowing to specify the way to say things
Intelligent Interface – a new adaptive layout system, new filters, and more
New national team – Kiribati
Football Manager 2013
In a press conference in early September 2012, the makers of the Football Manager series revealed a few new features in Football Manager 2013. These included the addition of a director of football, being able to give certain roles to other staff that managers would have to do themselves in previous games, taxes, a new way of making loan deals and the addition of Classic Mode where players could go through one season in eight hours without having to customize training or deal with team talk. On 28 September 2012, the release date was announced as 2 November 2012. If the game is pre-ordered, a beta version of the game would be available two weeks prior to 2 November 2012, with any saved data being able to be transferred to the release version. The South Sudan national football team was added.
Football Manager 2014
In August 2013, the Sports Interactive official website unveiled the main tweaks and upgrades to be added in Football Manager 2014, the most noticeable being the decision to release a simultaneous version for the Linux operating system. Among the other changes announced were extended options in transfer and contract negotiations, as well as player conversations, the ability to play with more than just three nations loaded in Classic Mode, a tactical overhaul, and improvements to the 3D match engine. Studio director and long-time Football Manager lead Miles Jacobson also stated that for a week in mid-August 2013 that he would announce one new feature every day via his Twitter feed, the first feature being the ability to arrange testimonial matches. On 13 September 2013, the release date was announced as 31 October 2013. If the game is pre-ordered, a beta version of the game would be available two weeks prior to 31 October 2013, with any saved data being able to be transferred to the release version.
Football Manager 2015
Football Manager 2016
Football Manager 2017
Football Manager 2017 was released worldwide for Windows, macOS and Linux on 4 November 2016. It introduced a redesigned inbox system intended to make the management experience more streamlined, with messages becoming more contextual and allowing certain actions to be completed directly without navigating additional menus. The 3D match engine received major upgrades, including over 1,500 new motion-captured animations, improved artificial intelligence, enhanced stadia and realistic LED advertising hoardings.
New staff roles such as Data Analysts and Sports Scientists were added to help managers interpret player statistics and maintain fitness levels. The Fantasy Draft mode returned with a new single-player version, while a Social Feed was introduced to reflect fan and media reactions to match results and transfers.
Football Manager 2017 also allowed players to import their own likeness into the match engine using FaceGen technology, displaying a 3D model of the manager on the touchline. It was the final title in the series to feature 2D generated newgen faces, which were reworked for this edition but drew criticism from players who viewed them as a downgrade from previous versions.
A copy of Football Manager Touch 2017 was included with all purchases of the PC, Mac and Linux editions, and was also made available separately.
Football Manager 2018
Football Manager 2018 was released worldwide on 10 November 2017 for Windows, macOS and Linux. It introduced a new dynamic system that allowed managers to view team hierarchies, social groups and overall squad cohesion in greater detail. The scouting system was redesigned to resemble real-world recruitment methods, with scouts’ knowledge of players now measured on a 0–100 percent scale. A Medical Centre feature was added to monitor player fitness and injury risk, while the match engine received visual and presentation improvements through an upgraded graphics engine and redesigned tactical interface.
This edition also marked the first appearance of 3D dynamically generated faces for newgen players, replacing the 2D portraits used since Football Manager 2008. The new system made the faces non-modifiable, ending a popular community practice from earlier titles, and received mixed reactions from players who preferred the older 2D designs.
For the first time in the series, newgen players could come out as homosexual, which could lead to a boost in the club's commercial revenue through increased shirt sales. The feature applied only to fictional players and not to real-world footballers. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 13 April 2018.
Football Manager 2019
Football Manager 2020
Football Manager 2021
Football Manager 2022
Football Manager 2023
Football Manager 2024
Football Manager 2024 was released on 6 November 2023. It became the most played title in series history by far, with over 19 million players as of September 2025.