There has been a lot of good news and positive vibes coming out surrounding the upcoming release of Football Manager 26, with fans eager to finally get a chance to play a new game after a two-year wait in less than a month when the game releases on November 4. Unfortunately, some of the bad luck and bad news surrounding Football Manager 25 has raised its head, as one of the biggest disappointments for last year’s edition prior to its cancellation will still be impacting FM 26.
Speaking with South Korean gaming site Game Donga, Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson announced that despite fans’ being upset at its announced removal for FM 25, international management will still be excluded from the series’ latest release when it reaches fans next month. Jacobson attributed the removal of the mode to the difficulties arising out of moving the game over to an entirely new engine, with the move to Unity aimed at improving the overall visual look of the game, but also the cause of both the prior year’s cancellation and the lost features for the upcoming game.
While a less-popular mode than traditional club management, international management has a following within the Football Manager community that is highly passionate about the mode. Often, players would take advantage of the ability to manage both a club and a national side at the same time, allowing for both the traditional in-depth experience of club management as well as the stripped-down approach of international management. This approach has the benefit of papering over some of the frustrations players had with national management by allowing it to be simply an add-on to traditional play; however, other players opted to focus their full efforts on just a national side and maximizing international windows.
This also impacts players who liked to do nation-building saves in which they both manage in the club leagues of a smaller nation and take over the national side, to improve results by clubs to such a degree that they begin generating stronger players for the national pool to eventually build a smaller nation up into a power.
The news is particularly frustrating for fans excited about the inclusion of women’s leagues and players in FM 26. While the popularity of club teams has been booming in recent years, with Arsenal leading the way on expanding opportunities to their women’s side and seeing a massive turnout to games at The Emirates in response, the international game remains the star of the show for women’s soccer. The news also comes in a year that will culminate in a World Cup in the men’s game, making it a particularly disappointing year to not be able to guide a national team to glory.
Hopefully, national management’s absence will remain a short-term problem, and it will be back sooner than later in future games, but for now, the wait for gamers looking to lead a national team will extend to at least three years.
