"Football Manager 26": A new kick-off after a year's break

Kim Muntinga

11/9/2025

Translation: machine translated

Football Manager 26" will be released on 4 November. With Unity Engine, a new interface and additional content, the series is making a fresh start after a year's break.

Sports Interactive dares to make the biggest change in the history of the series with «Football Manager 26». The classic manager returns on 4 November 2025 after a year's break - with a new Unity Engine, revised interface, Premier League licence and the integration of women's football.

For fans, this not only means a graphical leap, but also a fundamental reboot. After the cancelled edition of «FM25», the pressure is high and expectations are correspondingly high.

Unity as the technical foundation

With «FM 26», the series finally says goodbye to its old engine and relies on Unity for the first time. The match engine benefits visibly: players move more fluidly, stadiums look more alive and the lighting makes for more realistic game scenes. Spectator animations and pitch textures also show clear progress in the first videos.

Of course, FM remains a management game and not a visual spectacle like a modern football action game. But especially for fans who spend hundreds of hours in 3D match mode, the visual quality is crucial for immersion.

I usually only watch the highlights in 3D mode. I prefer to use the classic 2D view for my tactical adjustments. It depicts the game more soberly, but also more precisely, and therefore meets my requirements better than Manager.

Less clicks, more overview

Even more important is the overhaul of the user interface. Sports Interactive has tidied up: Menus and dashboards have been restructured, and central functions such as tactics changes, scouting reports or training plans should be accessible with fewer clicks.

The official video shows a clearer, more modern interface. The navigation appears reduced, but at the same time more informative. Years of criticism from the Community that the menus were too convoluted have finally been heard. For me personally, this step could make the biggest difference. Because nothing eats up more time in Football Manager than constantly clicking back and forth between squad planning, youth development, scouting and financial overview. Well, apart from the eternal loading times during the week.

New content: fully licensed Premier League and women's football

In terms of content, «FM 26» brings two major innovations. For the first time, the Premier League is fully licensed. Previously, all players were represented in the game thanks to the FIFPro association, but official club logos, shirts and real club colours were missing. Instead, you had to make do with generic symbols and fan patches.

But let's be honest: that was part of it anyway. With every new instalment, I downloaded the most important patches directly from the master trainer forum and integrated them into the game - almost a ritual at the start of the season. In «FM 26», logos, kits and player images now officially appear directly in the game. A detail that fans in England have been demanding for years.

Women's football is also firmly integrated into the game world. Clubs, players and leagues are part of the database and are scouted, trained and developed as usual. This opens up the series to a dimension that was long overdue. Not all competitions are licensed at the start, but the foundation has been laid.

Requirements for your PC or Mac

The following applies to «Football Manager 26» on PC and Mac: The game will still run on older hardware. According to the developer, four gigabytes of RAM and an entry-level graphics card such as the GTX 960 are sufficient, but for a smooth gaming experience, the latest hardware is recommended, such as twelve gigabytes of RAM and a mid-range GPU like the RTX 2060.

On consoles, the Manager is being released as a native current-gen version for the first time. The mobile edition, on the other hand, remains on the old basis and does not switch to Unity.

Between scepticism and hope

I will test «Football Manager 26» in detail after its release and write a review of the game. At the moment, however, I remain cautiously sceptical. The new features sound great, but the decisive factor is whether the FM actually improves in the really important areas - above all in the implementation of tactics, transfers and scouting.

The most important thing is how well the tactics are implemented on the pitch in match mode. Equally crucial is the opponent's AI, which plays a central role in almost all areas of the game - from transfer policy to squad planning and match action.

At the same time, the question remains as to whether the more elaborate graphics and the new interface will slow down the flow of the game. Only once the first few seasons have been played will it become clear whether «FM 26» really is the milestone we had hoped for.

Kim Muntinga

Editor

Kim.Muntinga@galaxus.de

My interests are varied, I just like to enjoy life. Always on the lookout for news about darts, gaming, films and series.

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