Sports Interactive, the developer of the popular sports simulator series Football Manager, has recently announced a partnership with The Premier League.
The partnership is set to launch in the 2024/25 season meaning that the next instalment in the franchise, Football Manager 2025, will see players able to fully immerse themselves in the game through the inclusion of “official logos, kits, and player photos”.
The game’s current version, Football Manager 2024, sees many of Europe’s top leagues already licenced, including Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1.
The partnership will last for four years and will allow fans to “create their own iconic Premier League moments”.
In the official announcement video on YouTube, some of the greatest moments in the real-life Premier League are shown and the text “behind every iconic moment is a football manager” is displayed over the footage.
Fans have responded positively on X, formerly known as Twitter, with many asking why it took the developers so long to implement the highly anticipated feature.
Sports Interactive’s studio director, Miles Jacobson, has said that “the partnership isn’t just about the huge in-game benefits it’ll give our fans, but also the opportunities it provides us to help with the incredible things that the Premier League and their clubs do off the pitch. That includes community and charitable work, two things we’re enormously passionate about, as well as the ability to work with some of their existing partners.”
The popular video game series which saw 9.49 aspiring managers take up the 2024 version of the game has had a long history in the footballing world with the original version coming out in 1992 under the name Championship Manager. The game’s extensive scouting network has led to real-life teams using the data gathered by Sports Interactive to inform their real-life transfer market decisions and its highly data-driven and detailed approach has attracted high-profile managers such as three-time Premier League winner José Mourinho to the series.
Football Manager 2025 is expected to launch November 11 and will be available to play on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iPad, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices and will also be available for purchase through the Apple Arcade and will be available for pre-order in September.
Words by Jamie Calder
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