After the cancellation of FM25 earlier this year, Sports Interactive is gearing up to release Football Manager 26. The first FM game to be built on the Unity game engine, this year’s entry is a monumental step forward for the series with a host of new features for players to enjoy.
Alongside the new engine, improved 3D matches, new UI and additional nations, Sports Interactive’s latest entry makes the monumental addition of Women’s Football for the first time ever in the management series, allowing players to manage thousands of additional players.
Speaking at a recent press conference, former professional footballer and current coach and manager of Women’s Super League club Brighton & Hove Albion, Dario Vidošić, explained that the addition of the WSL in Football Manager 26 is a “great step in the right direction”.
“It’s cool,” Vidošić started. “It’s something that I played a little bit. I know I did get frustrated with it because there was so much more that I wanted to do to get even further in the detail. So I haven’t played for a few years and I wouldn’t have any time now to play that. But, look, it is cool.”
The WSL coach explained that the addition of the football league into the FM series is “good for the girls”. While professional women’s football has existed in the United Kingdom since 2010, and the FA Women’s Premier League National Division it replaced started in 1991, Football Manager has always been exclusively male focused, and now female pros get a change at managing their own teams in a virtual space.
“It is nice I think for the girls as well and um look maybe they can take it on board and see how tough it is to, you know, do all the day-to-day stuff,” Vidošić said. “It’s great for the game, great for the girls and, you know, it’s a great step in the right direction.”
With Football Manager as a whole now bigger than ever before, Sports Interactive has explained its 10-year plan to continue growing the series. With the video game predominantly played by male gamers, introducing Women’s Football may be a smart move to bring even more gamers into the management series by making the video games more appealing to female gamers.
Football Manager 26 launches on 4 November 2025 for Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and MacOS with some very light recommended specs. The game’s touch incarnation also releases on Nintendo Switch as well as on iOS and Android via Netflix Gaming on the same day.