Why Football Manager 25 Was Cancelled and How Sports Interactive Is Moving Forward

Sports Interactive stunned fans earlier this year by cancelling Football Manager 25 after months of development. In a recent interview with the BBC, Studio Director Miles Jacobson explained why the decision was made and how the team has reset its focus ahead of Football Manager 26.

Good to know

• Football Manager 25 was cancelled because it did not meet the studio’s quality standards.
• Internal testing and player feedback rated the game only around 7/10.
• Football Manager 26 will introduce women’s football for the first time in series history.

Why the Game Never Reached Release

Jacobson admitted that cancelling FM25 was tough but necessary. “If we’d released FM25 in the state that it was in, it wouldn’t have been good value for money and it would have damaged us forever,” he said.

The studio had switched to a new engine and overhauled many core systems. But development setbacks, unexpected legal issues, and third-party complications pushed the game off course. Even after postponements, the final builds tested internally failed to live up to Sports Interactive’s standards.

Jacobson recalled trying the pre-release build himself: “About two hours into playing it, I just said to myself, ‘This isn’t good enough. We can’t do this.’”

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Once the decision was made, Sports Interactive shifted its energy into two things: analyzing what went wrong and rebuilding for the future. Internal teams ran retrospectives to identify problem areas ranging from user interface choices to gameplay systems that didn’t work in practice.

One example was the planned replacement of the in-game email inbox with a WhatsApp-style messaging system. According to Jacobson, that feature simply did not function well in playtesting and has now been replaced with something more familiar, yet still updated for FM26.

Building Football Manager 26

The biggest development to come from the extra time is the introduction of women’s football into Football Manager 26. Jacobson explained that the decision was shaped by conversations with players, including members of England’s Lionesses, who stressed that visibility and representation were essential.

Since then, licensing agreements have expanded, and women’s club football continues to grow worldwide. FM26 will include multiple leagues and allow seamless switching between men’s and women’s football, treating both with equal depth and realism.

Jacobson admitted the studio was late in adding women’s football compared to other titles, but stressed: “Sometimes it takes someone better informed than you to give you some information for you to be able to make a decision. And that’s what happened there.”

When Football Manager 26 Will Arrive

Fans can expect Football Manager 26 to launch in early November 2025, following the series’ long-running tradition. A public beta should also go live around two weeks earlier, giving players a chance to test and provide feedback before full release.