After years of speculation, delays, and hints, Football Manager 2026 will finally integrate women’s football into the series. It’s a landmark step for Sports Interactive, one that reshapes the scope of the world’s most detailed football simulation.
The studio first revealed plans to add the women’s game in 2021, stressing that it wanted to “do it properly” rather than rush out a token inclusion. That meant building a new database from scratch, adjusting gameplay systems to reflect the different realities of the women’s game, and ensuring the end result would feel authentic. Five years later, the work has come to fruition.
Women’s Football Integrated Into FM26
Crucially, women’s football in FM26 won’t be a standalone product. Players can choose to manage men’s or women’s sides or a mix of both within the same career. It mirrors real-world pathways where managers can move between the two games.
On PC and across the console, Touch, and Mobile versions, the men’s and women’s leagues sit side by side. Users building a save can choose to load just women’s football, just men’s, or both together.
What is Playable at Launch?
The launch database is sizeable. More than 36,000 players and 5,000 non-playing staff are included, covering 14 leagues across 11 nations. That lineup features many of the world’s most prominent competitions, including:
- Barclays Women’s Super League and WSL 2 (England)
- National Women’s Soccer League (USA)
- Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga (Germany)
- Serie A Femminile (Italy)
- WE League (Japan)
- OBOS Damallsvenskan and Elitettan (Sweden)
- A-League Women (Australia)
- UEFA Women’s Champions League
The French top division and the top two tiers of Spain’s women’s football are also included. Sports Interactive has said this is only the start, with its dedicated women’s research team already planning to expand coverage in future editions.
Adjusting The Model For The Women’s Game
Much of FM26 will look familiar to existing players, but the developers have tweaked several key areas to better reflect the women’s game.
- Contracts and transfers: Women’s football typically features shorter contracts, fewer release clauses, and a transfer market dominated by free agents. All of these differences are reflected in-game.
- Finances: Club revenues, wages, and prize money have been scaled to match real-world levels, offering a stark contrast to the wealth of the men’s game.
- Injuries: Data on injury prevalence and recovery has been incorporated to highlight differences between the men’s and women’s game.
Player ratings remain on the same 1–20 scale, but they are calibrated relative to each database. That means a 20-rated player for Pace in the women’s game is as fast as it gets in that environment, even if the overall speeds differ from the men’s.
To reflect the realities of women’s football on the pitch, Sports Interactive ran bespoke motion-capture sessions with female players. These animations are paired with updated character models, hairstyles, and kits. The result is that matches should look and feel distinct, rather than reskinned versions of the men’s game.
Looking Ahead
It has taken more than 30 years for Football Manager to reach this point, but FM26 feels like a genuine milestone. By embedding women’s football into the same ecosystem as the men’s game, Sports Interactive avoids the trap of treating it as a novelty.
The database isn’t yet as deep as the men’s side of the game, but that’s to be expected given the head start. With a 40-strong research team already in place and plans for expansion, it’s likely to grow rapidly.
For fans of women’s football, the appeal is obvious. FM26 offers the chance to manage Chelsea Women in the Champions League, take a fledgling side up Sweden’s pyramid, or build a dynasty in the NWSL. Just as importantly, it introduces new dynamics and challenges that reflect the unique shape of the women’s game.
The inclusion of women’s football in FM26 is both long overdue and a major achievement. It acknowledges the rapid growth of the women’s game and gives it a platform equal to the men’s within one of football’s most influential digital spaces.
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