Football Manager video game to introduce women's teams

It follows a 2021 commitment from developer Sports Interactive to branch out

Chelsea's Sam Kerr and Arsenal's Rafaelle Souza battle for the ball. PA

Women's football teams are at last coming to the Football Manager video game series – developer Sports Interactive announced on Wednesday.

In a blog post, studio director Miles Jacobson says: “The FM25 cycle will see the long-awaited introduction of women’s football to the Football Manager series.

“Before I go into the details, I want to acknowledge that since we first announced our commitment to introduce the women’s game back in July 2021, we haven’t provided any further public updates on the project, which has led to speculation and some frustration.”

Attributing the delay largely to legal issues, Jacobson says: “The women's game deserves to be the best it possibly can be when it is released – and the new graphics engine will help deliver that.

“Supporting us in bringing this project to life are some key people from inside the women’s game, who are passionate about helping us deliver the most authentic experience possible.”

Football Manager is lagging behind Electronic Arts' Fifa video game franchise, now rebranded as EA Sports FC, which introduced international women's teams in 2015 and featured Australian attacker Sam Kerr on the global cover last year, alongside Kylian Mbappe.

The next Football Manager title, FM24 will mark the series' 20th anniversary. FM24 is set for a last-quarter release, while FM25 will come out next year and will move over to the Unity engine.

“Incredibly well known in the gaming space, Unity powers many of the best-known games in the world, from Genshin Impact through to the Cities Skyline series. Project Dragonfly explored a number of game engine partners, but after all our research was concluded, Unity was the clear favourite to take us into an exciting new era for the series,” explains Jacobson.