From Football Manager 2025, the English Premier Division will be no more after a multi-year partnership was agreed between Football Manager and the Premier League.
Since the first instalment of the Football Manager series back in 2005, Sega and Sports Interactive's football management game has taken stride-after-stride each year, with the latest edition – Football Manager 2024 – being the most played title in the series' history. Despite its success, Football Manager has produced underwhelming games on the graphic front year-after-year; but a series overhaul is on the way with FM25 – including switching over to the Unity game engine –and it's set to be better than ever before.
And FM fans can get even more excited with the Premier League set to be fully licensed in Football Manager for the first time in history. A four-year deal between Sports Interactive and the Premier League has been agreed, meaning all 20 Premier League clubs from the 2024/25 season will be licensed with official logos, kits, and player photos.
Here's what to expect for the future of Football Manager with the Premier League license.
Football Manager and Premier League partner up
From the start of the 2024/25 season, all 20 Premier League clubs will be fully licensed across all versions of Football Manager, on all platforms. With the partnership set to begin from the beginning of the new season, expect to see the licensing start in FM25.
The addition of the Premier League now means the license of all 92 English Football League clubs will be in the game, while the Premier League clubs can authentically take place in already licensed competitions such as the UEFA Champions League. With FM25 set to run on a new engine, we may even see some Premier League stadiums added to the game.
In a press release on the Premiere League site, Sports Interactive Studio Director Miles Jacobson said: “Since Football Manager’s inception, we have always wanted to work with the Premier League, and we’re delighted to announce that at last we are."
The Premier League’s Chief Commercial Officer Will Brass claims the partnership can offer a more authentic gaming experience: "Football Manager has been a big part of the sporting landscape for decades, and is loved and enjoyed by millions of fans around the world", said Brass.
"We are thrilled that the Premier League will now feature even more prominently in the game, helping to deliver a deeper, more authentic experience for anybody who takes on the challenge of managing a Premier League club.”