Football Manager 26

Solid in terms of content, but unstable in terms of technical execution. FM26 demonstrates where the series is trying to go, but it still has a long way towards reaching its goal.

After two years, Football Manager 26 doesn’t quite justify the wait. Tech upgrades help, but the clunky new interface and technical issues hold it back. The core remains deep and addictive, yet the overall experience feels rougher—even if I still ended up investing plenty of hours.

We cannot call Football Manager 26 a failure, because at the heart of this football management game lies a vast, well-tested system of countless data points and cause-and-effect correlations, once again creating gameplay that makes every decision we make truly meaningful. The problem is that, in its attempt to innovate and refresh itself, FM26 has become much less user-friendly and linear than before, struggling with what we might call the “conceptual maps” that should link the various screens to the player’s actions. Even the new 3D match engine is largely in need of improvement and remains somewhat unsatisfactory at the dawn of 2026, with optimization still requiring fine-tuning. We can only hope that this marks a fresh start and that the future will return Football Manager to the heights we have long known.

Football Manager 26 introduces a bold UI overhaul that aims to fully modernise the experience, but the move comes with significant caveats. The new interface often overcomplicates basic actions, and in its current state the game suffers from numerous frustrating bugs and crashes. The improved match engine and the well-developed TransferRoom help offset some of these issues, but overall Sports Interactive still has plenty of work to do to convince us that this redesign was truly necessary.

Football Manager 26 delivers the biggest overhaul the series has seen, pushing toward a more modern presentation with improved visuals and UI that clearly aim to welcome new players. But those sweeping changes come with a cost: missing features and an overwhelming number of bugs make it a frustrating experience for longtime fans.

Football Manager 26 isn’t quite the football reincarnation that some fans were hoping for, but what it has to offer is likely enough to keep fans coming back for more. Some frustrating choices made in the UI overhaul mar the experience, but the long-awaited addition of women’s football, as well as major changes to in-match tactics, make this a solid entry in the series.

Significant improvements but also unexpected setbacks describe this year's edition of Football Manager. Wait for a few patches before buying.

Football Manager 26 is one of the most extensive management games within the sports simulation genre. It truly lets you step into the role of your own fictional football manager and gives you the freedom to bring the most creative scenarios to life. However, the game could have used a bit more time in the oven, as the pre-release version was riddled with bugs. On top of that, the visuals are dreadful, and it lacks the charm that similar games manage to capture.

Football Manager 26 has a magnificent tactics screen and gives you the ability to bring your dream style of play onto the pitch. However, to achieve that, you first have to survive the chaotic screens the game puts you through, struggling not to drown in its bottomless interface.

Football Manager 26 marks a new beginning for Sports Interactive’s saga, but not without growing pains. The move to Unity and a revamped, albeit convoluted, interface bring ambitious depth and realism in football storytelling, yet also contradictions and rough edges that make this a fascinating but imperfect transition year.

Football Manager 26 never made it out of beta – the game is so unfinished that it cannot be considered a full-fledged product. Wait a year, maybe two, until „early access” ends.

Football Manager 26 is for the diehards alone for this reason. It’s frustrating to deal with the bugs and UI changes, even if the core game remains basically the same. If you were to imagine this game without those issues, however, the new ideas and enhancements that are in the game are universally good and, whether it is just a matter of patches or waiting for Football Manager 27, there are very good reasons to get very enthusiastic about this series again.

Football Manager 26 is the first step of a new era, and as we're seeing with some of the biggest clubs in the country, any new era comes with the challenge of rebuilding and both setting and meeting expectations. Football Manager 26 can get better with updates, but I doubt that this entry will be the one to make the most of the switch to the new engine, overhauled UI and new features. It might take one or two more years for this rebuild to really meet its potential.

Football Manager 26 attempts to combine the series’ classic philosophy with new ideas and features, but it still carries over old issues while introducing new ones. It remains an enjoyable management game, though far from the masterpieces of some previous entries in the series.

For now, the new era of Football Manager is off to a rocky start. While the ever-moreish gameplay loop will no doubt eke another 1,000 hours out of me while I laze in front of the telly, I cannot truthfully say that this is the game I had hoped to wait so long for.

Football Manager 26 marks the iconic management sim’s return after two years off, but longtime FM players are going to struggle as it is a bit of a confusing mess.

Football Manager 26 has the potential to be one of the best installments in the series' history. But right now, I'm torn between enthusiasm for the potential and frustration with the current state of the game. The exciting new features are frustrating when the core usability of the game is problematic.

I think the biggest sign of whether someone likes a Football Manager game is how addicted they are to that "just one more game" feeling. In previous years, I would get that at 9PM and suddenly it would be 4AM, but I haven't had that feeling with Football Manager 26. I now have no problem turning off the game when I think it's time, and that's very telling.

FM26 delivers meaningful tactical upgrades and smoother on-pitch action, but sacrifices too many beloved features in the transition to a new engine, leaving the game feeling promising yet noticeably incomplete.

Some of the things Football Manager 26 implements are a step forward for the franchise, such as the shift to allow tactical tweaks for every moment of the match, and the match engine is also noticeably improved. However, FM26 does not feel like an upgrade on 2024’s edition and that is down to a combination of the removed features and UI decisions. Too much information is hidden away, and the gameplay loop becomes about going from one fixture to the next and ticking them off, as opposed to before, when it became impossible not to get sucked into the drama of the world. This franchise has a fantastically loyal fanbase and they are good at seeing the bigger picture. Nobody can question the work ethic of the team at Sports Interactive and they deserve the time and space to ensure FM26 can become the first step in another successful evolution for the series.

The new 3D matches are indeed better than before, but we still wouldn't call them beautiful. We do think they are better integrated into the whole, and let's be honest: anyone who plays this game isn't looking for pretty graphics. Then there's the new interface. According to the creators, the old one was a mess. We always found our way around it quickly, whereas this time important information is a few clicks too far away. Annoying, but above all: incomprehensible after a year's delay. We also encountered more bugs than we would have liked. What saves the game are the matches: the tactical interface is great and makes matches a joy.

Buggy at launch, FM26 crashes, glitches, and breaks saves, while its much-touted 3D overhaul looks dated with stiff animations. Despite unmatched database depth and improved board/player interactions that can still fuel satisfying lower-league climbs, controversial feature changes add little—making this feel like an early alpha best skipped until patches and a discount.

The pre-launch hype, understandably, got wildly out of control for Football Manager 26, and even though Sports Interactive was somewhat transparent about features being removed, nobody expected just how buggy and half-baked the final product would be. It's still Football Manager, and there's still a lot to love, but it's abundantly clear this game was only released because it had to be contractually. Keep playing Football Manager 2024, and wait until Football Manager 27 if you don't think you'll be able to stomach missing features and buggy UI.

Football Manager 26's overhauled UI simply feels like change for the sake of change. Its functionality is worse, several key features are missing, and bugs only exacerbate the issues. After a two-year wait, it's an unfortunate outcome, giving the impression that the delay wasn't long enough. There's definite potential here with the new tactical interface and match engine, and if you could combine these aspects with the previous UI, you'd have one of the best games in the series. Instead, the revamped UI's problems and inherent frustrations are too big to ignore. Such a vast undertaking is commendable, especially for an annual sports game, but its missteps are many and mostly lead to disappointment.