‘Football Manager 26’ is here, and long story short, it is shockingly woeful. Sports Interactive and SEGA’s latest addition to the Football Manager series has players in uproar over how disappointing the game actually is compared to the previous titles. After playing, I can wholeheartedly agree with them.

Built on the Unity Engine, Football Manager 2026 brings a reimagined interface with a more immersive match-day experience for players. The game has been fully revamped from the ground up with a whole list of new features at your disposal. Football Manager is a realistic sim for die-hard soccer fans, so if you aren’t familiar with the sport, then this game is not for you, and I found that out the hard way. I don’t watch soccer or follow it, so I had quite a difficult time enjoying this game. However, I will be as honest and open minded as possible.

I found the controls super confusing and convoluted, even though it feels like a point-and-click adventure. Thankfully, there is a tutorial, but I found it to be of no help whatsoever for beginners like myself. For most of my time on the game, I was like a blind ferret in a minefield.

Football Manager 26 allows you to create a career backstory that’s unique to you and influences your time in the dugout. Premier League clubs are now in the game, along with the Women’s Super League, the National Women’s Soccer League, and 14 other playable leagues from 11 nations, all featuring fresh new talents and challenges to discover. For anyone with a basic understanding of the game or soccer, the tutorial will provide you with enough information to enjoy your time.

Still, for newbies to the series, I found it extremely thorough and gave me nothing but a sense of “I don’t want to read all that”. The amount you can take on as a manager is entirely in your control; you can plan all the training, scout players, handle transfers, decide the starting line-up, and so on. The possibilities are endless, and the team’s actions are entirely in your hands, much like the name Football Manager suggests.

Graphically, Football Manager isn’t all that impressive, as you’ll spend most of your time trying to navigate the super confusing new UI, analysing spreadsheets and data sheets. While the colours are crisp, the primary concern for me was thee functionality of the new UI. The new UI leaves you with an experience far from enjoyable; the menus, flow, and layout feel unintuitive, and ultimately, I found myself wanting to avoid playing the game.

Even the audio wasn’t anything exciting; there were no tunes in the menu, except for some when watching the match and the occasional whistle blowing here and there. Long story short, the audio was non-existent, which made the experience more boring than the UI and hours of reading. I wish there were music in the menu, like in NBA 2K or other titles, but FM26 doesn’t have any. Maybe I’ve been too spoilt with other sports titles over the years?

Overall, I didn’t particularly enjoy my time on Football Manager 26. From the dismal UI to being a newbie trying to understand the fundamentals, I was left more confused and frustrated than actually enjoying the game, despite my best efforts. While a satisfactory iteration in the series, for a new player who wants to give it a try, I recommend exploring the previous titles, as, according to fans on the Steam page, the earlier instalments were far better than this title.

The choice is up to you; I can’t control what you think, but ultimately, I found Football Manager 26 a drab experience compared to other games in today’s sporting world. The Football Manager franchise is not for me.

Written by: Larry