Game intel
FM26
Step into the dugout and experience the future of football management.
As someone who usually holidays through international breaks in Football Manager, this announcement still made me sit up: Sports Interactive has signed a multi-year partnership with FIFA, bringing the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup and FIFA Club World Cup into Football Manager 26 with official kits, broadcast graphics and tournament branding. That’s a real step toward authenticity in areas FM has historically left a bit bare-bones-and it lands right before the 48-team World Cup in 2026. FM26 launches November 4, with the FIFA-branded tournaments arriving in a Content Update next year.
Here’s the timeline that matters. Football Manager 26 releases worldwide on November 4 across platforms. The FIFA partnership content—official names, tournament branding, broadcast-style overlays, and those shiny, authentic kits for the final 48 World Cup teams—arrives in a free Content Update sometime in 2026 “in advance of FIFA World Cup 26.” In practical terms, don’t expect to start a save on day one and immediately dive into fully licensed World Cup action. You’ll be waiting for the update—and possibly for a new save, depending on how SI handles competition rule changes.
Sports Interactive is also revamping International Management as a more feature-rich module. If you’ve ever felt national team management in FM was a menu-light detour compared to club management, you’re not alone. Squad dynamics, training cadence, and staff roles have lagged behind. A rebuild here is long overdue, and doing it alongside official tournaments is smart timing: it makes the mode feel like a destination, not a side activity.
Worth noting: FM26 is built on Unity for the first time. That means new UI, new rendering tech, and inevitably, new quirks. If you’ve modded skins, logos or facepacks for years, keep an eye on how mod support evolves—Unity should theoretically help with performance and platform parity, but major engine shifts always mean adaptation for the community.
Three things jump out from a day-to-day FM perspective. First, the 48-team World Cup format is a scheduling monster. In real life, FIFA settled on 12 groups of four with a new round of 32—translation for FM: more international fixtures, more player fatigue, and more selection headaches for club managers. If you play long-term saves, that mid-2020s calendar crunch will hit your squads harder than previous cycles. Sports Interactive will need to make AI rotation smarter to avoid December injury pile-ups.
Second, the Women’s World Cup arriving with official branding is a big cultural moment for FM, even if full women’s club integration across leagues isn’t confirmed here. For years, SI has talked about bringing the women’s game into the series properly; this is at least a meaningful step on the international side. The question is how deep the systems go—scouting pools, staff roles, and data fidelity will determine whether this feels like a headline or a genuine pillar.
Third, the Club World Cup. The expanded tournament is a massive deal for elite club saves, especially if you’re managing a Champions League contender. FM has traditionally used a generic name for this competition; having the real tournament with proper branding and schedule stakes should finally make it feel like more than a world tour preseason trophy. The flip side: yet more fixture congestion for top clubs. Plan your rotations.
Licensing is a maze. The press line says official kits for the 48 qualified World Cup teams will be included “when available,” alongside broadcast graphics and branding. Does that mean full national team licensing across the board, outside of FIFA tournaments? Not necessarily. Individual FAs can have separate agreements, and historically some national setups (Germany, Japan) have been tricky in football games. We’ll need clarity on whether those official kits and marks apply only during FIFA competitions or bleed into friendlies and qualifiers.
Timing is another big one. “In advance of World Cup 26” could mean spring or early summer 2026. If the update includes new competition structures, expect that you’ll need to start a new save to see the full effect—FM has rarely been able to retrofit major tournament rule changes into existing careers. SI should say this upfront so players don’t build long-term saves that miss the big show.
Finally, the Unity shift. I’m optimistic—FM needed a tech refresh—but Unity-era 1.0s tend to ship with UI friction and performance outliers on certain hardware. If SI nails skinning and mod hooks early, the community will smooth edges fast. If not, the first few months could test patience.
With EA and FIFA ending their long marriage, the FIFA brand has been shopping for new dance partners. FM stepping in for the official tournament licenses makes sense: this series cares about systems and authenticity, not billboards. It’s a clever alignment—the World Cup year drives mainstream attention, and FM gets to plant a flag as the serious football sim that also has the world’s biggest competitions, officially. If SI executes on the international revamp, 2026 could be the year many “club-only” managers finally give national teams a proper go.
FM26 is getting official FIFA tournaments—with real kits and broadcast dressing—via a 2026 content update, alongside a much-needed overhaul of International Management. The authenticity boost is legit, but the real test will be timing, depth of the revamp, and how smoothly Unity-era FM handles the expanded calendar.
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