Football Manager 26 puts women's football in the spotlight with series debut
Go for the goal
- Football Manager 2026 will mark the arrival of women's football in the series
- It's a major undertaking with a whole new player database and leagues
- And Sports Interactive have unveiled new details of how it's all going to work
The Football Manager series has spanned multiple entries covering all facets of the beautiful game. And as far back as 2021, the folks at Sports Interactive had talked about their desire to bring women's football into the series. With the league set to debut in Football Manager 26, the developer has unveiled fresh details of what we can expect.
Key to the introduction of women's football was the intent to make it integrated into the overall picture. That means when you start up FM26, you'll be able to pick from either a men's or women's team, or start unemployed. And further customise the experience to include a mix of both leagues or just one of either.
For fans of the increasingly popular women's leagues, FM26 also offers a comprehensive overview of some of the best organisations currently competing. Be that the Barclays Women's Super League, the WE League of Japan or the A-League Women in Australia.
One of the major strengths of the Football Manager series is the depth and breadth of their database for players. This includes a huge variety of stats and deviations that help to accurately model how real players act and compete on the pitch.
Doing so again for the women's league is a massive undertaking, but one that's well in hand. Not only that, but it models the more open nature of the current women's league, with more free transfers, shorter contracts, but less in the way of release clauses. It's the same game, but a very different state of affairs for these leagues.
After Football Manager 25 was unceremoniously canned, FM26 has big shoes to fill. But SI are coming out of the gate swinging with major new changes and additions, including the women's football world. But they'll still have stiff competition as our list of the top 20 best sports games for Android aptly demonstrates.
