Headline: Sports Interactive Expands Football Manager to Include Women’s Football
Since its rebranding, the Football Manager (FM) series has invited millions of fans into the immersive world of football management, allowing players to build their clubs using real data. Users can manage nearly every aspect of a football team, from signing new players and negotiating contracts to strategizing tactics and scouting talent from a vast database that includes over 450,000 players from 145 leagues.
In 2021, Sports Interactive, the developer behind the game, announced the integration of women’s football into the franchise. Tina Keech, the Women’s Research Lead at Sports Interactive, discussed this significant addition in an interview with Her Football Hub. “The women’s game was growing and the WSL became professional, and generally it felt like a good time,” Keech stated.
Tina joined Sports Interactive in May 2021, tasked with spearheading the groundbreaking initiative to introduce women’s football into the game. The decision came at a pivotal moment when women’s football was gaining momentum, just over a year before England claimed their first major senior trophy. The game’s growth continued following the Lionesses’ success at Euro 2022, with the Women’s Super League (WSL) seeing an average attendance of 5,272 during the 2022/23 season—a remarkable 174.1% increase from the previous season.
Recognizing that much of FM’s existing audience—predominantly males aged 20 to 40—were unfamiliar with women’s football, Managing Director Miles Jacobson decided to risk financial losses in favor of improved representation. “He was always open with the fact that we might lose money at the start. But it’s the right thing to do,” Keech remarked.
Incorporating women into the franchise offers a chance to expose the established player base to female players, clubs, and leagues. However, it requires a substantial investment to ensure accurate representation.
Building the Women’s Database
FM’s database is critical for gameplay, detailing player identities, attributes, club associations, contract lengths, and injury statuses. For the women’s game, Keech and her team had to construct the database from scratch, as the men’s database developed over 20 years. Collecting even basic information like dates of birth posed challenges, necessitating innovative methods and direct outreach to those in the sport.
With over 12,000 women players featured across 14 leagues and three continents, the database development is an ongoing process set to evolve as new information emerges.
Striving for Realism
The research team, consisting of 40 members, aimed to render the game as realistic as possible. They incorporated factors like shorter contracts and the portrayal of injury recovery times, particularly for ACL injuries, reflecting reality in women’s football. Keech explains that replicating the men’s game verbatim wasn’t feasible, noting the decision not to include women’s weight data since it has little impact on gameplay.
Accurate representation is crucial, Keech believes, as it allows current players to genuinely engage with women’s football. She has observed shifts in attitudes among peers who previously lacked interest in women’s sports.
Inspiring Future Female Coaches
FM’s inclusion of women’s football may also influence future coaching dynamics in the sport. The game has previously inspired real-life coaching careers, with figures like former Southampton manager Will Still attributing their interest in coaching to playing FM. Keech hopes that the same will happen for female fans and supporters, providing insights into tactical thinking and scouting.
The necessity for female coaches is rising, particularly after FIFA mandated that every team in its women’s competitions include at least two female staff members. As scouting needs increase, FM’s tactical dimensions may introduce more women to the sport’s coaching landscape.
Scouting Hidden Talent
Keech envisions the FM database playing a practical role in scouting as well. Sports Interactive offers its data to clubs, and she believes national teams could utilize it to spot overlooked players. “I think it’d be really good if we could get lower down the football pyramid, or even nations that don’t have the financial backing,” Keech said, highlighting the database’s potential utility.
As FM’s database continues to evolve, it aims to enrich the experience for players, inspire future female coaches, and assist scouts in identifying talent. The drive for accurate representation extends its influence far beyond the game screen.
Related articles from Her Football Hub:
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Her Football Hub meets Football Manager 26: A new era for the women’s game
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FIFA launches Female Health and Performance Project, bridging the gap in research within the women’s game
-
FIFA passes new rule to make women’s coaches mandatory across tournaments
Since its rebrand, Football Manager (FM) has allowed millions of fans to step into the virtual world of football management and experience the game through a world built on real data.
Users can take control of almost every aspect of running a football club. They can sign players, negotiate contract extensions, manage injuries, adjust tactics and scout for talent in a player database that spans over 450,000 players across 145 leagues.
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In 2021, Sports Interactive — the company behind the game — announced plans to integrate women’s football. Tina Keech, the Women’s Research Lead at Sports Interactive, spoke to Her Football Hub about the addition of women’s football to Football Manager.
“The women’s game was growing and the WSL became professional, and generally it felt like a good time,” she said.
Tina joined the company in May 2021, when she was hired to spearhead the ambitious project of introducing women’s football.
The decision to integrate women came at a time when the women’s game was reaching new highs.
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When Sports Interactive began work on the women’s database in 2021, England were still more than a year away from winning their first major senior trophy. However, the game was already showing signs of significant growth, which continued after the Lionesses’ triumph at Euro 2022.
For example, the average Women’s Super League’s attendance in the 2022/23 season was 5,272. A 174.1% increase from the previous season.
Aware that women’s football was still unheard of by much of FM’s existing customers (males between 20–40), the game’s Managing Director, Miles Jacobson, was prepared to take a financial risk, believing that the company needed to ‘take the jump’ and improve representation.
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“He was always open with the fact that we might lose money at the start. But it’s the right thing to do,” Tina said.
For a game deep-rooted in men’s football, bringing women into the same virtual world offered a unique opportunity to expose an established player base to women’s players, clubs and leagues they’d never encountered before.
That opportunity, however, depended on getting the representation right in a project that cost millions of pounds.
How did Football Manager build their women’s database?
FM’s database is the information on which the game relies. It tells gamers who a footballer is, their individual qualities, who they play for, contract length and injury status.
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For the men’s game, that database has been built up and developed over 20 years, so for the women, Tina and her colleagues had to start from scratch. However, building the database proved more difficult than Tina imagined.
Even basic information such as dates of birth were difficult to find, forcing researchers to ‘think outside the box’ and contact people within the game for missing information.
“If we googled Harry Kane’s sister’s dog, we’d probably find it. If I googled someone’s date of birth, there’s no way!”
And with more than 12,000 women’s players in Football Manager spanning 14 leagues and three continents, the process is still very much a work in progress, with researchers regularly correcting information when new details become available.
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‘It’s all about realism’
Their women’s football research team, consisting of 40 individuals, provided insight to make the game as close to reality as possible. The inclusion of shorter contracts and lack of release clauses in the women’s version of the game is representative of this.
Additionally, gender differences are particularly stark when it comes to injuries. Therefore, real-world data has been used to accurately portray the longer recovery time for female athletes, particularly regarding ACL injuries.
That’s why Tina says Sports Interactive couldn’t simply copy the men’s game.
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That same thinking influenced Tina’s decision not to include female players’ weight. Included in the men’s game, she questioned why they needed to display a number that fluctuates heavily and ultimately didn’t affect gameplay.
“As a woman, I felt really uncomfortable about including weight. It turned out it didn’t affect a player’s performance, so I questioned why we were adding it.”
For Tina, accurate representation is ultimately about giving existing players the chance to authentically discover women’s football. She has already seen the game change the views of friends who previously showed little interest in the women’s game.
“I’ve got guy friends who don’t really care about women’s football. They’re all of sudden coming up to me asking about players because they’ve been playing the game.”
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Inspiring the next generation of female coaches
Beyond increasing awareness among existing users, FM could also influence the future of coaching within the women’s game.
The game has long inspired real-life success stories, with former Southampton manager Will Still saying FM sparked his interest in coaching. The 33-year-old played the game heavily as a teenager and has since coached in Belgium, France and England.
Tina believes introducing women’s football could create similar opportunities for female fans and supporters.
“I’ve spoken to players out there and I’m like, ‘please share, this is the way forward’. It gives them a little bit of exposure to the scouting world, for example, how to think tactically.”
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These opportunities could be increasingly important following FIFA’s new ruling. The sporting body now requires every team competing in its women’s competitions to have at least two female staff members on the bench. One coach occupying the role of head or assistant coach.
As the demand for female coaches currently exceeds the supply, introducing more women to the tactical nature of FM provides another route into the sport.
Scouting hidden talent
Tina also hopes the game’s database can have a practical role beyond developing future coaches.
Sports Interactive currently provides its data to clubs to support scouting, and she believes national teams could use it to identify players they might otherwise overlook.
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“I think it’d be really good if we could get lower down the football pyramid, or even nations that don’t have the financial backing. They can use it and go ‘oh, this player in England has a Portuguese passport, she can come and play for us.'”
That’s the long-term ambition for Tina, who aims to increase the women’s Football Manager database in upcoming seasons.
Whether that’s introducing supporters to new players, inspiring the next generation of female coaches or helping scouts to identify future talent, the impact of accurate representation extends far beyond the screen.
Related articles from Her Football Hub:
-
Her Football Hub meets Football Manager 26: A new era for the women’s game
-
FIFA launches Female Health and Performance Project, bridging the gap in research within the women’s game
-
FIFA passes new rule to make women’s coaches mandatory across tournaments
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