Last week, Football Manager 26 was finally confirmed, meaning it’s time to look ahead at all the new changes and improves in FM26. Here we bring you all the new Football Manager 26 features and game upgrades! Learn about what’s new in FM26 & get an insight look at the what’s coming to be an iconic game – dubbed as new era of football management.

After Sports Interactive took the tough but necessary decision to cancel Football Manager 25, all the new features & game upgrades was pushed towards Football Manager 26 release. This gave the creators an extra few months to perfect the game after the difficulties that arisen in the event of moving to the Unity engine for Football Manager 26.

With a brand new game in the horizon, it’s time to look at what Football Manager 26 can offer!

Get everything you need to know about Football Manager 26, including all the news about new Football Manager 26 features and game upgrades, minor improvements and what changes FM26 has to offer!

Read on to see the very first screenshots of Football Manager 26 or discover the groundbreaking changes that makes Football Manager 26 enter a new era!

About Football Manager 26

Football Manager 26 or FM26 by Sports Interactive is the first game in a new era of football management. As the development of FM26 has been a long-term process starting already in the Covid-pandemic, fans of Football Manager has been eagerly anticipating the very first news on Football Manager 26 for years!

Now finally, the time of its release is closing in!

With huge changes to the interface, Women’s football introduced for the first time in the Football Manager series, and major improvements to the graphics, Football Manager 26 brings a new legacy after two decades of innovations.

FM26 is year one of the new era for football management. Feed your obsession for the beautiful game in a football universe where only you define your destiny.

After the incredible success of Football Manager 2024 which sold over 17 million copies, there are huge expectations ahead of Football Manager 26 and its major changes to the game play and number of improvements.

These expectations has skyrocketed after the cancellation of Football Manager 25 – meaning there are huge expectations on Sports Interactive to deliver a enjoyful game since they have had an extra year to improve the quality of what was supposed to be Football Manager 2025.

Although we are around three months away from the long-anticipated release of Football Manager 26, we believe it’s time to take a closer look at what to expect from Football Manager 2026!

Over the next couple of chapters we will give you a closer look at what was supposed to be Football Manager 2025 and what we can expect will be included in the new Football Manager 26 game.

We will update this post with more FM26 news as soon as they are announced, so you can get all the latest information about the coming changes to Football Manager 2026, and its release!

When is the Football Manager 26 Release Date?

The release date of Football Manager 26 [PC/MAC] was confirmed on the 10th of September 2025. FM26 will be out November 4th 2025.

From September 10th, the pre-orders of FM26 has also open and if you pre-purchase now on PC/Mac you can kick off your career early with Advanced Access*.

FM26 Console (Xbox/PS5), FM26 Touch (Nintendo Switch) and FM26 Mobile (Netflix) is set to debut later in 2025.

FM26 Mobile will be the only version which will not be shifting to the Unity engine this year.

*Advanced Access is only eligible if pre-purchasing Football Manager 26 from a SEGA approved participating retailer.

Football Manager 26 Release Date: November 4th 2025

Football Manager 2026 is confirmed!

Get everything you need to know about FM26! Discover all we know about Football Manager 2026, from the first look at the new match engine powered by Unity, headline features, when FM26 releases, advances access and pre-order offers, or the first screenshots of Football Manager 2026!

Discover the new horizon. Football Manager 2026 returns bigger, better and more immersive! Read more…

New Football Manager 26 Features We Know About

Unity Graphics Engine Introduced in FM26

Football Manager 26 will certainly redefine the football management genre by combining decades of evolution with groundbreaking new features. A huge leap has been taken for FM26 as the game developed by Sports Interactive and published by SEGA transitions to the Unity Engine.

This brings one of the most significant visual and technical improvements in the series’ history with vastly improved graphical experienced, including enhanced player animations, better matchday visuals, and more realistic environments that bring the world of football to life like never before.

As Football Manager 26 will be the introduction of the brand new Unity Graphics Engine you will experience one of the most revolutionizing changes to Football Manager for years in terms of graphical capabilities!

We’re talking at the same level as when the 3D Match engine was added to FM09!

According to SI, the current graphics engine running behind the match engine has not had a major revamp since 2017 and the game has suffered since then from using a ‘outdated’ technology which didn’t managed to keep up with the pace of the rapid technological advancements in the industry.

With the game now being released on more platforms than ever before, Sports Interactive has worked on improving the backend technology that has made Football Manager into what it is.

The Unity Engine will come to the classic version of Football Manager 2026, FM26 Console and FM26 Touch*.

*NB! FM26 Mobile will be the only platform that won’t benefit from the switch to the Unity Engine but may be incorporated to a future version of FM Mobile.

What will the power of Unity Engine bring to Football Manager 26?

Powered by the Unity Engine, Football Manager 26 let you discover smoother and more realistic animations, more detailed visual graphical enhancements and better performance whilst playing the game. From increased stadium details and more true-to-life visual experience both on and off the pitch to enhanced and more realistic player animations, the switch to the Unity Engine brings the game more to life than ever before!

The switch to the Unity Engine is a remarkable change we all will notice once loading FM26 for the first time.

By using one of the most powerful industry-leading game development platforms for Football Manager you will experience a brand new user interface to the game but that graphics both inside and outside matchdays is severily upgraded.

Here’s a quick list of the enhanced graphical capabilities in FM26:

• more visually immersive experience both on and off the pitch
• improved user interface
• smoother, more realistic player animations feat. +7000 new animations
• new match engine feat. better lightning and shadow effects
• new 3D models for both men and female players
• Immersive Matchday Experience
• more detailed stadiums

When we know the Unity Engine has been used to deliver games like Pokémon Go, Call of Duty:Mobile, the Cities Skyline series and the open-world, action role-playing game Genshin Impact – which gives you a similar look and feel as the Legend of Zelda game series – the possibilities for FM26 will be endless!

In the simpliest term, the Unity engine offers the opportunity to add more powerful user interface tools which will enhance how you navigate through the different screens and access information available to you.

We’ve been working closely with Unity over the last few years to be able to deliver a whole new UI which will dramatically improve the ways you are able to interact with the game, both inside and outside of a matchday. Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline (URP) allows us to create more optimal graphics across a range of platforms, from mobile to high-end consoles and PC/Mac – but we’re also adding some enhancements on top.

The Future of Football Manager, Sports Interactive

More Immersive Matchday Experience

In FM26, we can enjoy a more immersive matchday experience with the switch to the Unity Engine and by taking advantage of technological enhancements.

There’s lot to say about the match day experience in Football Manager 26, but what the features and improvements made to the match engine and the match day experience reveals is that FM26 will include the most advanced match experience in the game’s history.

Just take a look into what it has to offer!

New Animations

Matchdays in FM26 will feel more authentic, thanks to improved volumetric animations and ball physics. You’ll notice the difference in how players move, react, and interact on the pitch, creating a fluid, true-to-life experience.

In FM26, the match engine has been elevated through the partnership with Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony Group company. Within the game, Hawk-Eye’s skeletal volumetric data, gathered from multiple global football leagues by using in-stadium cameras, has been converted into over 300 new animations!

For FM24, we could experience the very first jump towards the enhancements relating to match engine improvements and graphical enhancements with a greater focus on ball physics and player locomotion. This will further be improved for FM26 by continuing the effort into making the game a truer reflection of real-life football with new animations based on a new animation technology.

Pairing motion captures of off-the-ball animations, which debuted in FM24, with SI’s motion capture and the volumetric data gathered from real-life matches, the result is a more natural and authentic gameplay!

Read more about Volumetric Player Animations on Football Manager 26, which will enhance the authencity of gameplay experience within the FM26 match engine.

Through a more seamless transition of players moving on the pitch and their natural running style between on and off the ball animations, these new animations will be visible in all the player’s actions on the pitch.

Every pass, tackle, dribble and/or shot on goal feels more authentic.

Then, these authentic on and off the ball movements and motion captures has seen an upgrade to how goalkeepers react and the actions they take when blocking, clearing or making saves.

The blending of real-life match actions and motion captures has also been made with female players. Learn more in the section about women’s football in FM26.

Overall, the rendering of the match actions are of higher quality than ever before – more detailed through a significant leap in technological enhancement.

The improvements to animations is one thing, another is the various elements that has been re-written in the match engine. Here are just a few improvements made to the FM26 match engine:

• attacking players are more capable of and better equipped to stand up against their opponents before taking them on, through improvements made to balance, touches, feints and/or decisions on attempting through balls.
• overhauled the pass risk system – resulting in more through balls attempted and hopefully more clever key passes being made inside the channels and between lines – making the attacking team to split open the defensive block with a clever vertical or diagonal ball.

More Detailed Stadiums

In Football Manager 26, the graphical enhancements will be present both on the pitch and off it. At match days you can expect enhanced visually improvements to stadiums and its environments by offering more details.

The enhancements made to stadiums and its surroundings will expand from the pitch texture and stands to the surrounding environments behind the stands. You will experience that the size of the stadiums and how they are modelled will differ across the size of clubs and their playing level across both the men’s and women’s game.

The upgraded graphics made to stadiums in FM26 will let you see a bigger diversity of stadium design. Managing in the lower leagues of German women’s game will be totally different experience than managing at a top flight club with a maximum stadium of 90,000 spectators compared to a small lower-league stadium.

At a lower league ground you might see less details within the stadium in terms of stands and ad boards. Even the dugout will look different. The same goes for the surrounding environments of the stadium.

Buildings around the stadiums is also modelled according to the city they are in, or the level of the league. At elite arenas you might see more high-rise buildings in the back, whilst a game in a lower league will give you the impression of playing in a smaller town with a completely different housing design.

To summarize, the upgraded stadiums and its design will take into consideration the location, the stature and standing of the club.

To encapsulate the entire match atmosphere, the upgraded stadiums is just one part of the picture. The game will also take into account how the weather affects lightning, and shadows via the graphical improvements to the sky.

The new improved sky effects will encapsulate the feeling of when matches are played – whether it’s an early Sunday match with the rain pouring down, or an late evening match with the night sky full of stars encapsulating the match atmosphere.

Whether its sunny or snowy, the new pitch shader (texture, lightning, shadow effects and reflection of details) will take the match experience in FM26 into new heights.

One thing we can only speculate on until FM26 releases is whether the switch to the Unity Engine will offer us the chance to custom-build new stadiums and watch the new stadium being build or upgraded with a scenomatic overview of the process – just like we would expect to see upgrades of buildings and environments in other gaming genres. Until November 4th, this will only be a speculation.

Brand New Cut Scenes

These improvements to the overall match experience will also be evident in the surrounding scenes of the whole Match Day experience on FM26.

Some of these new match cut scenes in FM26 was shown in the first look at the match day. Watch the video above.

The new cut scenes in FM26 is made more detailed and vivid by using depth of field and Steadicam to add more realism to pre-and pro match events.

By trying to make the big occassions feel more special, or bringing more actual representation of managing a club in one of the fully-licensed leagues in FM26, the brand new cut scenes will range from watching the players walking onto the grass and under the Premier League arch, seeing a cut scene of the match ball being used, the trophy stand, see the players line-up or celebrate on the podium after cup matches and tournaments.

Regardless of whether you’ve skipped the previous cut scenes as you are about to enter a new match, the new pre- or pro-match cut scenes on Football Manager 26 will make the game feel more immersive – helping to build up to the actions or embrace the atmosphere of winning the club’s first major trophy!

Updated Camera Angles

The overall match experience in FM26 is aided by several improvements made to the rebuilt camera system. To cover all the actions on the pitch, SI has implemented more camera angles and upgraded the existing ones to cover a wider range of angles.

One of the new camera angles, the Broadcast Mode is inspired by real-life TV coverage. It combines multiple camera points and cinematic angles – just like how football matches are broadcasted at the highest level of global football.

The Broadcast Camera Mode in FM26 will deliver a better view of all the on-pitch actions – making you feel you’re a spectator within the stadium, or watching a real game unfold through your screen.

Redefined Highlight System – New Dynamic Mode!

Football Manager 26’s new camera angles also incorporates an huge upgrade to the replay system!

Now, the game takes into account the type of goal scored, what type of chance you had or consider situational actions to provide you with the best possible replay. It aims to give you the perfect view of all the match action(s).

That means, the redefined highlight system in FM26 is smarter and more intuitive. That’s evident in the new Dynamic Mode!

Welcome the Dynamic Mode!

Whether you are one who swears to watching your matches in key highlight mode to process games faster, or you enjoy watching the game unfolds in comprehensive highlight mode, the new Dynamic Mode offers a blend between all the highlight modes.

The Dynamic Mode is a smart technology which replays the action according to not only the context of the match, what type of game it is (Cup finals or a less important league match) but also the match score (whether you are ahead with 3 goals or chasing a late equaliser) and the match clock.

This mode will adapt for every match and within every matches – giving you the moments that matters the most!

You’ll experience that replays and highlights will increase in a close or crucial match, or reduce if one of the teams are in total control.

Match Audio Improvements

Giving you a more immersive match atmosphere is not only done via an upgraded camera system, new animations or graphical enhancements to how the stadium looks. In FM26, audio in matches is also upgraded – letting you experience a more true-to-life sound gfx within matches.

You’ll hear the crowd cheer while you see them go bananas on the stand.

Other Graphical Enhancements

Newgen Faces

On top of that, its introduction will opening up the opportunity to dramatically improve how newgen faces look and the quality of the faces generated, such as in the case of manager creation by offering more realism and depth.

In the end, it will open the possibility of better-quality graphics across all supported devices of Football Manager – from the console version of the game to the fully-fledged career game and multiplayer modes.

New Match Overview Screen

As we come to learn, the UI of FM26 is massive. One of the screens that has been revamped is the match overview screen. As the screenshot reveals, it includes an overview of the in possession formation of your team and the opponent, match stats, a classic 2D view, important feedback from your staff about what has happened (see Dugout header in the screenshot) along with the opportunity to make tactical changes quickly and efficiently according to the information the match overview brings forward to you.

The Classic 2D view will give you a clearer overview of what’s happening between the highlights.

In matches, you’ll also get the opportunity to discover expandable data cards – providing you deeper insights and enabling smarter decisions before considering applying tactical changes – whether you take into account the feedback from your assistant manager by taking into account information within the Dugout Card, or dive deeper into the match statistics.

New Leagues & Nations | Official Licenced in FM26

In addition to its technical advancements, FM26 introduces women’s football, making it the first game in the series to feature fully integrated men’s and women’s leagues. Whether you’re competing in the Premier League, which is now officially licensed, or rising through the ranks of women’s football, FM26 ensures every managerial challenge is as engaging and authentic as possible.

The game’s expanded database now includes more leagues, nations, and players than ever before, allowing you to take your club to new heights.

Official FIFA Licence: World Cup 2026

On 17 October 2025, Sports Interactive announced they have signed a multi-year partnership with FIFA. For Football Manager 26, the 2026 FIFA World Cup™ held in USA, Mexico and Canada next summer will be fully-licensed in Football Manager 26.

Then, the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ will also be official branded in 2027 (FM27), whilst the FIFA Club World Cup™ will be included as an officially branded and titled FIFA competition in 2029 (FM28).

Beginning with the FIFA World Cup 26 you will receive the official kits for all the 48 qualified clubs for the upcoming tournament along with broadcast graphics and tournament branding enhancing the match experience of International Management with more authenticy.

Official Licence of The Premier League, Barclays WSL & WSL2

Football Manager 2026 will arrive with several new official licences acquired.

Earlier this year, Sports Interactive announced that Football Manager 26 will arrive with the official Premier League licensed!

Screenshot of the licenced teams in the Premier League on Football Manager 26 – showcasing real Premier League logos and player photos of Premier League teams.

With fully-licensed club badges, kits and player photos, managing in the English Premier League will bring more authenticity than ever before!

The Premier League branding will be present in the game and make the match experience of managing in the topflight of England more immersive than ever. Teasers of FM26 has revealed that podiums, ball stands and the Premier League arch will be present in different match scenes – either in the lead up to the match, or when celebrating the English champions.

English Football League aka EFL License Extended

Apart from Premier League fully-licensed in FM26, Sports Interactive has signed an extension of their multi-year partnership with the EFL. This means that you’ll experience that all the 72 teams in the EFL across their five competitions will be fully licensed.

The agreement dates back to 2004, making you able to manage all the EFL teams with official player photos, kits and logos.

Barclays WSL and Barclays WSL2 to debut in FM26

The Premier League is not the only fully-licenced league in FM26. In the Women’s game you will also experience the fully-licenced Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Super League 2, as Sports Interactive has signed a multi-year partnership with WSL Football.

This means that all teams in the English Barcalys WSL and Barclays WSL2 will arrive with official player photos, club logos and kits – making it more immersive to play women’s football in England more immersive!

OBOS Damallsvenskan and Elitettan

Apart from the partnership with the WSL Football, Sports Interactice has also announced FM26 will debut with the official licence of Swedish OBOS Damallsvenskan and Elitettan with official player photos, club logos and kits.

With the top 2 divisions of the Swedish Women’s competitions also a fully-licensed league in FM26, you will be able to embark on a journey in Sweden with more authenticy!

Frauen-Bundesliga

Another league fully-licensed in Football Manager 26 in the women’s game is the German Frauen-Bundesliga. It will also feature official player photos, club logos and kits.

SOMPO WE League – Japan’s Top Division

Another licensed league in the women’s Football Manager 26 game is the Japanese league, SOMPO WE League. It’s the first fully-professional women’s football league in Japan and was founded in 2020. Now it is home to 20 clubs – all fully-licensed in FM26 with official kits, club logos and player photos.

New Playable Nations in FM26

Football Manager 26 is set to arrive with three new playable nations. For the first time in the game’s history you’ll be able to manage a team in Egypt, U.A.E or Lithuania.

The ADNOC Pro League in U.A.E and the A Lyga in Lithuania will be licensed leagues.

Another licensed league is the Italian Serie B.

See screenshots of available nations to choose from in Football Manager 2026 here.

Women’s Football debuts in FM26

One of the first Football Manager 26 features we can look forward to is the introduction of Women’s Football coming for Football Manager 26, for the first time in the game’s history. We need to head back to 2021 when this was first announced but it’s now becoming the reality.

Over the last few years the studio has been working on the major project of adding Women’s Football to Football Manager and it’s been perhaps a longer process than anticipated to include women’s football in the game.

Even though Sports Interactive was beaten by EA Sports FC 24 to include women’s leagues into a football management game by acquiring the licence for the National Women’s Soccer League and let you play with some of the biggest women’s football stars in EA Sports, the creators behind Football Manager 26 has spent years researching female footballers and leagues to try to perfectly reflect the female stars skills and give you the most accurate squads.

To integrate the women’s game as authentic as possible, huge amount of work has gone to not only adding women’s leagues but also replicate the unique rules, players and assess their data, as well as the overall landscape of women’s football.

In Football Manager 26 you’ll be able to move seaminglessly between managing men’s and women’s clubs and vice-versa in one world, one ecosystem.

One World, One Eco-System

In Football Manager 2026, the women’s game has been integrated with the men’s database to provide you with one world, one eco-system. Across all the FM26 titles, you’ll be able to move seamlessly between managing mens and female clubs – providing you with the opportunity to move back and forth between the two ‘worlds’ – just like real managers can manage either men’s or women’s team in their career.

When loading up Football Manager 26 for the first time, or starting a new save you get the option to manage either a men’s team, women’s team or start off your journey as unemployed.

From here, you can load your save with a mix of women’s and men’s leagues – just like you had the opportunity in FM24 to select active nations and leagues. Whether you only want to select men’s leagues, or women’s leagues only, or a mix, that’s totally up to you.

The option to move between men’s and women’s clubs in FM26 will also be represented for newgen staff and the generation of them.

What we know about Women’s football in FM26

Women’s football in Football Manager 26 will let you manage around 4000 teams across several leagues with a database size of around 41,752 players and staff.

In Football Manager 26, there will be 14 playable leagues across 11 nations in three different continents.

Available Women’s Leagues

The confirmed playable women’s nations and active leagues in FM26 are;

• England Barclays Women’s Super League & Women’s Super League 2
• Germany Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga
• France Arkema Première Ligue (not licenced?)
• Italy Serie A Femminile eBay
• Spain Liga F Moeve (not licenced?)
• Denmark A-Liga
• Sweden OBOS Damallsvenskan & Elitettan
• Wales Adran Premier
• USA National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
• Australia Ninja A-League
• Japan WE League

On top of that, since Sports Interactive signed a multi-year licence with the UEFA competitions ahead of FM24, the UEFA Women’s Champions League will also be licenced in FM26

Another licenced competition might be the Adobe Women’s FA Cup…

How the women’s game brings authenticy in every aspect of FM26

Authentic Transfer Market

By entering the world of women’s football in FM26, you’ll discover a vastly different transfer market than in men’s football.

With huge differences in types of contracts agreed, transfer values and financial muscles between men’s and women’s clubs, SI has done it’s best to reflect the transfer market, the finances and contracts as authentic as possible.

You’ll experience far more often female players being signed and sold on Free Transfers, shorter deals and fewer release clauses. End-of-contract compensation fees are also matched to real-life levels. This level of authenticy is also incorporated in club revenues and average wage expenditures.

Injuries

The increased realism is also brought into the injury proneness. Using real-world player data, the developers has taken into account the prevalance of, and recovery rates of certain injuries. For instance, it’s common knowledge that female players sustain certain types of injuries more often than mens and that there are certain injuries that happen more often for female players, than men’s.

However, pregnancy and menstrual cycle won’t appear in FM26 but it may arrive at a later date.

Player Attributes Scaling

On top of that you’ll have more realistic player attributes and unique league rules giving you an realistic insight to women’s football in Football Manager 26.

One of the major questions with integration of the women’s game in Football Manager 26 was how to value their skills compared to men’s players. In the First Look at women’s football for FM26, we got to learn that female players are rated in the same way as male players – with a rating in player attributes ranging from 1-20.

A female player with 20 in finishing is rated in accordance to the best female finisher in the game. A female players with 20 in pace will be compared to the fastest female(s) in the world.

The 20-point scale will therefore be relative for each side of the database.

Reflected Player animations

To mimic female players in the most realistic way, more than 300 data fields are associated with every player – from physical metrics to technical or mental abilities.

With more than 7000 animations within the game, SI has gone at great length to mimic the difference in movements and body language between men and women – resulting in that all motion captures has been done separately between men and female.

With female players featured in the game for the first time in the game’s history, the developers has stated that motion capture technologym and 3D modelling of women have been conducted to create realistic female player movements for the match engine as well as realistic representations of female players.

The replication of female players’ movement and body language has been simulated from how female players celebrate after goals are scored, how they pass, shoot, press or run – bringing you a game that feels authentic.

Alongside running a series of motion captures to reflect how female players move and behave, there has been created new character models, hair textures, hair styles and kit settings.

All in all, this makes managing a female football club even more immersive!

Through the creation of our Women’s Football database, we discovered that while the weight of male athletes can change a bit month to month, women’s body types are very different from men’s and their weight fluctuates a lot more, often weekly.

FM25 Development Update – Miles Jacobson

Another small point regarding female players, is that when suitable you’ll see players wearing a hijab in the women’s part of the game.

Player Profile of Female Players in FM26

Here’s three screenshots of how female players are represented in Football Manager 26 through their player profiles.

“The hard work doesn’t stop here, though. There’s a lot more to come from us over the next few years, starting with FM26 and all that means with the move to Unity and introduction of Women’s Football. We’ve been releasing games for 33 years but what we’re doing now is setting things up for the next 30, where we expect to continue to innovate for decades to come.”Sports Interactive on breaking the milestone of best-selling game ever in the series

The New User Interface of Football Manager 26

One of the first significant changes to FM26 is the drastic changes to the game’s user interface. Along with that, the user experience will also be very different from what you’ve gotten used to.

The new and redefined user interface of Football Manager 26 was revealed September 10th 2025 and gave us an unique look at how it will be at moving around the game.

One of the new biggest changes is how you will use the new intuitive design to explore the game.

The new UI for FM26 is built with a powerful design and a technical foundation that can be scaled and improved for the future. You can expect to see the user experience being strengthen for any future additions of the game without compromising the consistency of the user interface.

The difficulty has always been at balancing the way Football Manager should deliver key information at the right time without overwhelming the player and make it user friendly regardless of whether you are playing with a mouse and keyboard, controller or even a touch screen.

For FM26, the game developers and technical staff has worked with the engineers at Unity to adapt their engine to give us the flexibility and dynamics needed from a UI perspective.

Menus and complex screens have been condensed into a slicker and smarter user interface, known in FM26 as Tiles and Cards. This makes the game more accessible and enables you to dive into the areas that matters the most to you!

Screenshot of the new and improved club overview interface on Football Manager 26.

The redesigned navigation bar in Football Manager 26 delivers the key areas of your responsibilities, from getting news happening within your squad to around you. From making the last match day changes to scouting for new players. A drop down menu enables you to reach the most important areas within that category – whether it is to set up new recruitment focuses or modifying your tactics.

What’s noticeable is that the menu is clear and clean. Easier to find squad registrations or promises, or setting up player targets which earlier required a few clicks to find.

Overall, it gives you faster access to the heart of your FM experience!

The New Tiles & Cards UI/UX for FM26

For Football Manager 26, the new UI/UX system will be driven by what Sports Interactive entitles as a “Tile and card” system.

The “Tiles” are panels of information with multiple different “states” which ranges in different sizes, from small amount of information to larger “cards” which contains more material and further detail. This is done to build a sense of exploration for every player to reveal the depth and detail of Football Manager.

With tiles and cards SI can display appropriate information in various different screens and scenarios.

Below is an example of a Player Form tile in different “states” to provide you with more important context. If you click on the form tile, you will open up a card with more information about the player’s form.

The idea behind “tiles” and “cards” is to reduce the volum of screens in-game to try to make navigation easier without compromising the detail level.

Each Card is an invitation to explore, unlocking even more layers of details to delve into.

Replacing Inbox with News Portal

The Inbox has always been your main source of information with in-game emails delivered to your inbox as messages. For FM26, the Inbox screen will be re-modelled into what they call the Portal.

This change of name aims to represent how we access information and news via our phones rather than laptops. Through the Portal you will get a richer window to the footballing universe with better tools to develop your story through the Agenda and Messages sections.

The Portal will also deliver more insight into what’s happening elsewhere via News and Matches – making the Portal a one stop place for all your manager businesses whether you wish to look at your squad, look for new recruitments or get information about what’s going on around you.

With an overload of information and messages fed to you, the Portal in FM26 makes you seamlessly in control – giving you that one-stop shop for key happenings throughout the game by interlinking messages, news, calendar, results or everything that relies to player and squad management in one digestible hub.

Now, everything is only one-click away!

Bookmark what matters the most to you!

In FM26, the game developers have added Bookmarks to give you the flexibility to tailor-made any elements of your career according to your needs. Are you one who likes to focus on statistics and data, bookmark the Data Hub to get the latest news in that department. Or, use bookmarks to avoid getting too much news and information that you feel are redundant.

The improved Bookmark feature on FM26 enables you to reach those features that is most important to you.

In Football Manager 26, the ‘new’ Bookmarks feature enables you to get six quick, direct links to specific parts of your game universe. At the start your six bookmarks will be curated based on the most visited areas in the game – giving you a shorthand to what matters the most.

However, you can pick from 24 different bookmark options to tailor-made the quick-links.

Change the bookmarks, change the game!

Overhauled Search Tool & FMPedia

Another element in FM26 that has been overhauled is the search bar. One of the significant improvements with the search bar is that it makes you better equipped to become a better Football Manager.

Besides giving you a rapid tool to search for players, clubs or competition, use it to search for the FMPedia, which at the looks of it replaces the old manual, or other in-game tool-tips we previosuly had in the game, such as the Inductions.

From tactics to terminology, it gives you a quick insight into every department of the beautiful game!

FMPedia helps you to brush up your football knowledge with guides and tutorials along with a glossary of terms used in Football Manager or within football in general.

Designed to educate, reinforce and inform, the FMPedia can be a great solution to brush up your FM knowledge, regardless of how long you’ve played the game!

Learn more about the FMPedia in Football Manager 2026 in our quick guide.

Revealing FM26’s Squad & Player Profile Screens

The new squad profile screen on Football Manager 26

The new player profile screen on Football Manager 26

All the changes to the user interface in Football Manager 26 brings clarity without compromise. And everything within the FM26 Portal makes everything connect, interlink and strategically group every aspect of the game so you can find what you need, when you need it!

More Tactical Mastery & Better Strategic Depth in FM26!

In Football Manager 26 you will discover a major revamp to the tactical system and how you would go about creating tactics in Football Manager. In short, FM26 offers deeper tactical control and more immersive enhancements that will let you dictate every aspect of your team’s playing style.

In Football Manager 26, the revamped tactical system is more in-depth and clever than ever.

From new player roles to deeper customization for formations, player roles, and in-game decisions you’ll be able to showcase your tactical brilliance on another level than ever before!

As a manager, you’ll have access to detailed controls that let you set formations for both in and out of possession(!), define player roles, and issue in-game instructions that can turn the tide of a match.

Apart from in and out of possession tactics debuting in FM26, you’ll have redefined player roles, removal of duties and fluidity, as well as clearer instructions.

On top of that you’ll experience the Visualiser in FM26 – a powerful tool to understand how your tactics comes to life through the roles and team instructions you have chosen.

The team instructions in FM26 is also completely revamped with new and improved instructions for both the phases of when on or off the ball.

The enhanced matchday experience means that the success of your tactics is immediately reflected in how your players perform on the pitch.

The tactical revolution in FM26 brings so many incredible changes that we had to write an own blog post about the changes coming to FM26 tactics creation. The blog post includes also screenshots from the most important aspects of tactics creation – incl. more information about the screening midfielder!

Head on over to the first look at tactics creation in Football Manager 26, and discover all the improvements and powerful tools that makes the entire FM Community hyped-up!

New Player Roles in FM26

Football Manager 26 will let you discover a bunch of new player roles. So far the released footages has revealed several new player roles in FM26.

What’s new is that you’ll have specific roles for in and out of possession. The Visualiser will let you better understand how they work, while the player role tool tip gives you key information about their behaviour and movement, and what’s required of the players to perform in that role.

• Playmaking Wing-back
• Inside Wing-back
• Inside Full-back
• Wide Playmaker
• Midfield Playmaker (renamed role?)
• Wide Central Midfielder
• Channel Midfielder
• Inside Winger
• Playmaking Winger
• Wide Forward (renamed role?)
• Channel Forward
• Centre-Forward (renamed role?)

A complete list of the announced player roles for in and out of possession can be found within the first look at FM26 Tactics creation guide.

Once FM26 drops, we will take a deep dive into the different player roles in FM26 and how they work. Explore all our guides to tactics creation for FM26 directly here.

Match AI Improvements & Improved Intelligence

For FM26, Sports Interactive has made an extensive work to the AI within the match engine. To fully reflect the new freedom and flexibility the revamp to tactics creation and evolvement of player roles, there has been done a massive job under-the-hood to the Match Engine.

One of the things that has been focused at is player’s intelligence and decision-making both on and off the ball.

Here’s some of the improvements made to the FM26 Match Engine.

• Passing patterns are both smarter, sharper and more varied
• Rewritten pass-risk system will enable players to better judge the danger of a potential pass (based on their attributes) – leading to more dangerous line-breaking passes through the middle. This will hopefully let you see more key passes and through balls from deeper areas, and ensure your star playmaker can more easily open up a stubborn defensive block with an inch-perfect pass.
• Increased flair for attacking players on the ball and how they tries to bypass defenders. They may try to slide passes around them, lift the ball over an outstretched leg, or simply bait the defender to one side before dribbling past them.
• When dribbling, the player may vary their dribbling speed to try to unbalance the opposite marker – this comes in addition to upgraded ball-carrying animations
• Inside-footed wingers will more naturally cut-inside to create shooting or crossing angles with their strongest foot. This may see the player cut inside regardless of whether they got it as a player trait.
• Midfielders will better time half-space runs, or supporting runs more cleverly to provide better support to wide players.
• Forwards are better at spotting and executing cut-back situations from dangerous crossing positions
• Over thousand improvements has been made to defensive play in FM26. Team structures and pressing shapes has been reworked across the pitch.
• Marking logic has seen a significant improvement – along with defensive headers and covering. Players are now able to double up marking on a player. Also, with a new ‘Look at’ system they have improved the stepping up logic and positioning relative to the ball – something that comes to aid with better near post defending.
• The Interception logic has been reworked – meaning defenders can stretch, lunge or improvise to try to reclaim the ball
• Goalkeepers save logic, cross claiming, blocks, spread saves and distribution has seen a massive upgrade with new animations for each of these motions better represented.

All in all, the improvements made to the Match Engine and AI intelligence will blend into the new animations and tactical options available in FM26 in a way that makes it all look astonishing. Football will feel more fluid. Along with the improved match atmosphere, it will feel like watching a real match with players acting and reacting more realistic.

Revamping Recruitment in partnership with TransferRoom

For Football Manager 26 Recruitment has been refined with more new, real-life tools integrated into the game. From how you search players to offloading players, the partnership with TransferRoom has been extended to a fully integrated Recruitment Hub.

Along with making the wider in-game experience around transfers and player recruitment smarter and more intuitive, how you make ingoing and outgoing transfers will see several necessary improvements.

The Recuitment Hub in FM26

The Recruitment hub let you find all things related to transfers and scouting in one place.

The new home of Recruitments will include several familiar sections, or tiles, the experienced users know from before. However, there are several smarter additions that makes it easier to plan or pioritize your scouting efforts in every save.

The Recruitment Hub is compiled by 11 different tiles:

• Player Database
• Transfer Activity
• Contracts
• Squad Planner
• Recruitment Budget
• Staff Database
• NEW Recruitment Objectives – gives you a snapshot of what your board, or your fans, expect from you in the transfer market
• Clauses
• Shortlists
• NEW TransferRoom Out (Pitch Opportunities)
• NEW TransferRoom In (Requirements)

As you’ll see, integrated into the Recruitment Hub is the Squad Planner – enabling you to identify weaknesses within your squad, or potential issues that are arising.

By clicking on the Squad Planner Tile you will be headed to a deeper insight into your squad’s abilities, their performance and your squad’s depth – enabling you to prioritize your scouting around future needs.

The Contracts tile brings you to a deeper view of your player’s contract length, and will immediately surface any players with 12 months left on their contracts – meaning you can stay on top of and prioritize either renegotiations or scouting for an replacement.

NEW TOOLS Powered by TransferRoom: Recruitments & Pitch Opportunities

TransferRoom can be described as football’s online market place – a digitial platforms where clubs can simply and directly communicate to other clubs what they need or desires. It can also be the tool to put up players for sale and alert others about their availability.

The partnership with TransferRoom started for FM24 with the integration of giving you the ability to offer players for sale via the TransferRoom.

For FM26, there will be two new tools powered by TransferRoom: Requirements & Pitch Opportunities – which may change the way you interact with the Transfer Market in FM26 and beyond.

Requirements

Requirements streamlines the process of incoming transfers by allowing you to express your needs directly to other clubs, and get a clear insight into what is available within the transfer market.

This tool gives you a more realistic and authentic way to look for available players. Here you can outline specific requirements and communicate with every other club within your game world about your needs and desires for potential signings.

By setting up a Requirements Focus you’ll be able to advert for a specific position and player role along with transfer status, age and potential playing time.

When submitting a requirements you’ll be able to specify what type of player you’re looking for – including his preferred player roles for both In & Out Of Possession.

Need a pacy inside winger who is both creative and technical in possession but can operate as a wide outlet winger out of possession for under €15m, then create a specific requirement and wait to see if you get any responses from other clubs about available players.

Your ad will then circulate to every club around the game, and they can then come back to suitable players that fits your needs. Your Director of Football will also provide his recommendations to you based on what the club(s) comes back to you with.

From there you can approach the agent, scout the player yourself, make an offer or wait for a better opportunity.

Pitch Opportunities

Pitch Opportunities is the direct counter-part to Requirements. Here it’s all about offloading players and enables you to see what other clubs in your game world is looking for within the transfer market.

Although you can still make bids and offer players to clubs directly from the Player Report, the Pitch Opportunities brings an alternative choice when handling player sales.

Revamped Recruitment Focus in FM26

The ability to search for players based on In or Out of Possession player roles is also integrated into the revamped recruitment focus in FM26, as well as other scouting searches within the game.

With a new colour-coded functionality when setting up recruitment focuses for specific player roles for In Possession or Out of Possession, you can quickly and more easily keep track of Focuses you have active at any time.

Other Smarter Scouting Improvements

• Smarter Scout Reports and Advices where your backroom staff will inform you about whether a player is a natural fit for your preferred formations (and tactics).
• Changes to how clubs sign younger players to satisfy Club Visions
• Further tweaks to AI squad building
• FFP have more impact on AI recruitment
• New Transfer Clauses for individual player awards,
  e.g. GOAL50, World Footballer of the Year, World Player of the Year, World Golden Ball, UEFA Champions League Player of the Season and UEFA Champions League Golden Boot
• Better logic behind preferred positions in loan negotiations
• Increase the number of loans with future fees and buyback clauses
• Improvements to when or why AI clubs recall players from loan earlier than agreed.

Other Changes for Football Manager 2026

International Management Returns for FM26

On October 17th 2025, it was confirmed that International Management will become playable for Football Manager 26, FM26 Console and FM26 Touch as a playable modul that will arrive in a Content Update in 2026.

Alongside the exciting news about FIFA competitions will be fully-licenced in Football Manager 26, it was revealed that International Management will become available as a new playable module through a Content Update later in 2026.

Speculations has been all over the place ahead of FM26 release whether International Management after Miles Jacobson said International Management won’t be featured in the game at launch. However, for everyone feeling sorrow of not being able to embark on a ‘Build a Nation’ save, the inclusion of international management will be a highly welcomed addition.

When the content update arrives is not yet known, but we can speculate whether it will arrive around the same time as the release of the Main Winter Data Update in March/April 2026 for FM26, FM26 Touch and FM26 Console.

If you wish to launch a save with a National Team on FM26, it’s possible by playing FM26 Mobile (Netflix) as this is the only game that won’t make the switch to the Unity Engine in 2025.

Transfer Saved Games From FM24 to FM26

For FM24, the ability to transfer saved games from FM23 to FM24 was first introduced. According to the information from SI about the future of Football Manager this feature will continue – letting you transfer your FM24 saved games into FM26.

For the first time in the history, players across all FM26 titles will be able to carry forward save games from the corresponding FM24 release, with save game compatibility now introduced to FM26 Mobile series, as well!

However, for the FM26 Mobile, save game compatibility will only let you transfer save games from FM24 Mobile onto FM26 Mobile.

READ MORE | Play Football Manager 2024 as if it was FM26 – Download Passion4FM’s FM24 Transfer Update

Future Game Updates to Football Manager 26

One of the news that might have been overshadowed by the major changes coming to Football Manager 26 in terms of the new graphics engine and the prospect of shifting seamlessly between managing women’s and men’s team on Football Manager 26 is the groundbreaking news about future game updates.

Once Football Manager 26 is released, you can expect for the future more regular mid-cycle feature releases – meaning that the game will evolve with new improvements to the game, far more often.

So far, the Football Manager game has been updated twice a year after the vanilla version is out – with a patch being released around two weeks before Christmas and the main data update featuring all the winter transfer updates fixed at the end of February. Now, on top of these regular game updates, Sports Interactive is able to update the game far more often with the move to the Unity Graphics engine.

This means bug fixes and new additions to the game can happen more regularly than before.

Removed Features for FM26

As you might be aware of, Sports Interactive collects unanoumous data about how you play the game and what areas of the game you use. After consideration the work load of updating, revamping and re-modelling several parts of the game under the new Unity graphics enginge, the developers at Sports Interactive has decided to make several changes to FM26 that means that some features or game modes won’t be immediately available for Football Manager 26.

Beneath is a quick list of what’s been removed. Some of these might be brought back in future iterations of Football Manager in order for the game developers to properly implement these features and modes in the best possible way.

• Touchline Shouts won’t be back to the series for the forseeable future but may be added to the game if or when Sports Interactive is able to make them work properly.
• Social Media Screen is taken out and instead incorporated into the game in other game areas as supporters are still an integral part of the game.
• Data Chalkboard is another area that will be gone for FM26. With data metrics and visualisations a major part of the game, how you analyze your team and your players has become superfluous for many of you. Personally, I favour to analyze my team’s performance and look at players individual performance from specific matches, so removing Data Chalkboard will be another feature that’s greatly missed!
• Create-A-Club will be brought back for Football Manager 26 with lots of changes and improvements as the current experience of Create-A-Club can’t be improved in the way they want it to appear for FM26.
• Versus Mode is used by 0.5% of the audience and because of that Sports Interactive is looking at either to supersude it by something else or return it in a completely different format one time in the future.
• Challenge Mode is scheduled to return completely revamped for either Football Manager 26 or Football Manager 27. However, sicne it’s only used by under 0.5% of the audience, the game developers has prioritized other parts of the game for FM26 release.
• Fantasy Draft will be significantly improved and is scheduled to return for FM26 as a mid-cycle feature. This means that Fantasy Draft won’t be playable from day one. However, Fantasy Draft will be brought bak to the series bigger and better than ever! Learn more in the chapter about the new FIFA eSports Activities.

Stay tune for more Football Manager 26 content! We are excited to bring you all kinds of useful tutorials, mods and shortlist including our traditional comprehensive list of the best Football Manager 2026 wonderkids. Once the game is out you’ll be able to explore FM26 tactics, guides about scouting and training and other FM Essentials such as our real names fix – all in the well-known Passion4FM quality!