The maker of Football Manager has announced that it will be adding women’s leagues to the simulation video game.
Sports Interactive, which launched the Football Manager series in 2004, said the move would “cost millions” for “minimal” short-term return but that it was “the right thing to do”.
“There’s no hiding that there’s currently a glass ceiling for women’s football and we want to do what we can to help smash through it,” wrote Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive’s studio director. “We believe in equality for all and we want to be part of the solution. We want to be a part of the process that puts women’s football on an equal footing with the men’s game.”
Jacobson said it was a “multi-year project” on which work had begun some time ago. He explained that it would take considerable time to build the database for women’s football and work on the animation, as well as address issues such as transfer and wage structures and even the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
Users will be able to manage both a men’s and women’s team on the same package. “At this stage we don’t know exactly how long the process will take so we can’t say exactly which version of FM will see women’s football make its debut,” Jacobson said, “but rest assured that our plan is to make this happen as soon as we possibly can.”
