Days after the first details about women’s football in the upcoming Football Manager 26 were revealed, developer Sports Interactive has begun to further lift the curtain on the series’ latest inclusion. And I’ll admit, it’s deeper than I initially thought it would be.
Having been worked on since 2021, the incorporation of women’s football into the Football Manager series has been a long-awaited, much-anticipated process. Initially, it was supposed to be featured in Football Manager 25. Unfortunately, due to several hiccups in development, FM25 never saw the light of day and was eventually cancelled.
But, after a long wait and years of research, the women’s game will be arriving with Football Manager 26‘s release in November. And now, we know more about it and how it’s expected to evolve over the years.
The Women’s Game
At launch, FM26 will feature 14 playable women’s leagues across 11 nations and three continents. Licensed competitions include the Barclays Women’s Super League and WSL 2 in England, the NWSL in the U.S., Germany’s Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga, Japan’s WE League, Serie A Femminile in Italy, and Sweden’s Damallsvenskan and Elitettan. The A-League Women in Australia, Denmark’s A-Liga, Wales’ Adran Premier also join the lineup, alongside the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Additionally, the top flight in France and the top two divisions in Spain will be playable.
To support this, Sports Interactive has built a women’s database from the ground up, including 41,752 players and over 5,000 non-players. Though not nearly as deep as the men’s database, which has close to 500,000 players in it each year, it’s certainly a start.
Separating From The Men
According to the official press release, FM26 is adapting its systems to reflect the differences in the women’s game when compared to the men’s side. Contracts are generally shorter, release clauses are less common, and the transfer market leans more heavily on free transfers. Wages and revenues have been tuned to mirror real-world structures, and even injury prevalence and recovery rates have been adjusted based on data from the professional women’s game.
Motion capture sessions with female players have also been used to produce new animations, while updated models, hairstyles, and kits further distinguish matchday authenticity.
This Is Just The Beginning
As stated by Sports Interactive, incorporating women’s football into the Football Manager series isn’t just a matter of including it in FM26, but rather a long-term commitment to continue fleshing it out as the years go by. This will allow them to eventually add new leagues and accumulate more data.
