Did you know that there used to be an official magazine dedicated to Championship Manager and Football Manager?

Two decades ago, Sports Interactive teamed up with Future Publishing to produce a series of magazines about the game we all know and love, selling it in various retailers across the UK. Future was (and still is) a British multimedia giant behind many successful publications, such as PC Zone and FourFourTwo.

The first issue of Championship Manager Magazine was released in October 2002 and included loads of screenshot and feature reveals about the newly-announced Championship Manager 4. Another four issues were published throughout 2003, featuring plenty of content for anyone who enjoyed CM4 and its sequel – Championship Manager 03/04.

Championship Manager as we knew it became Football Manager in 2004, when SI split up with Eidos and shacked up with SEGA. That year saw three issues of Football Manager Magazine hit the shelves, building up to the release of Football Manager 2005. Sadly, the magazine series was cancelled shortly afterwards.

I collected every issue and still have them all… but they are currently boxed up, in anticipation of a house move that has (for now) been put on hold. I’d like to learn how to scan these magazines and archive them for posterity one day, but that will have to wait.

Each magazine also came with a CD, which included various programs, utilities and tactics for CM fans to enjoy – and a few other goodies to boot. Unfortunately, it appears that nobody has archived them online… until now.

Earlier this month, I uploaded all eight of these CDs onto the Internet Archive. The archive boasts “the largest vintage and historical software library in the world”, which includes cover discs from various other computer magazines.

You can find links to all those files below. These can be downloaded as ISO images and then ‘mounted’ onto a virtual CD drive. If you’re running Windows 8.1 or later, you only need to double-click on an ISO file to mount it. If you’re running Windows 7 or earlier, you’ll need to use a third-party program such as WinCDEmu.

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CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 1 CD
October 2002

The headline feature on the first CD was a ‘rolling demo’ of Championship Manager 4. It’s a 2-and-a-half-minute video clip of what we could expect from CM4. Of course, we still needed to wait five months to actually play the darn thing.

There was a ‘softwrap’ version of Championship Manager 01/02, allowing you to play the game for a limited time before you have to buy the full version (nowadays, you could just download it from FM Scout). You could also find the 3.9.67 data update – allowing you to play CM01/02 with data from the 2002/2003 season – and a bunch of successful tactics made by the community.

Other goodies included playable demos for Championship Manager 2, Championship Manager 3… and a long-forgotten trivia game called Championship Manager Quiz. To be honest, it wasn’t as fun or popular as Sky Sports Football Quiz, largely because it had much less Kirsty Gallacher. If ice hockey was more your thing, there was a demo of the very first Eastside Hockey Manager, made by Risto Remes in 2001.

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 2 CD
March 2003

CM4 took centre-stage again on the second CD, which came with a ‘beta demo’, allowing you to have a first proper look at its new 2D match engine. The full game wouldn’t be ready for another few weeks.

For CM01/02 players, there was an unofficial data update from CMSorted, with all the latest data at the time. The mid-2000s was the golden era of CM fansites such as CMSorted (most of which are now long gone), and the disc also came with a ‘fansite kit’ for anyone who wanted to build their own.

You would also find the latest version of the CM3 Save Game Editor from community legend Graeme Kelly, who later joined SI.

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 3 CD
May 2003

With the 2002/2003 season almost over, CM4 had now been officially released. This CD came with Enhancement Pack 3, which patched out several of the game’s myriad bugs. The game was still in a pretty poor state, so there would be two more ‘enhancement packs’ to come after this.

CM4 lovers also got a pre-game editor, some skins, tactics, training schedules, and even a training calculator. For those wanting a new challenge, there were also a couple of EDT files that put Celtic and Rangers in the English Premiership, or replaced Buckinghamshire-bound Wimbledon FC with the newly-formed AFC Wimbledon.

You could also go further back in time and play the full version of the original Championship Manager game, released back in 1992. [Simple Minds intensifies]

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 4 CD
September 2003

A new season meant that CM4’s chaotic life cycle was coming to an end. This disc came with the game’s final patch – Enhancement Pack 5 – and an unofficial update which included all the correct teams for the start of the 2003/2004 campaign.

If you wanted to look under the hood of your CM4 save, CM Scout was a program that allowed you to view all your players’ hidden attributes and potential ability ratings. 20 years later, its spiritual successor FM Genie Scout is an annual download for thousands of virtual Football Managers.

Nostalgia nerds could also find the full version of Championship Manager Italia, from 1993. This was virtually the same game as Championship Manager 93, except that you could channel your inner James Richardson and manage in the Italian leagues. Hang on, haven’t I played this before?

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 5 CD
November 2003

The fifth and final issue of Championship Manager Magazine celebrated the impending release of Championship Manager 03/04, which also turned out to be the last of its kind. The CD allowed you to play the CM03/04 demo for six months.

For anyone who was still playing the earlier games, there were unofficial data updates for both CM01/02 and CM4, plus plenty of tactics and training schedules.

A pleasant surprise (for some) was a demo of Pro Evolution Soccer 3 – the one that had legendary referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover art. I played one match and got bored, though to be fair, I was always more of a FIFA kid growing up…

FOOTBALL MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 1 CD
June 2004

After cutting ties with Eidos, SI decided to produce a brand new series, published by SEGA. Football Manager 2005 was still being developed when the first FM magazine hit the shelves, so unfortunately, the CD didn’t have much specific CM or FM content.

Instead, we got a bunch of playable demos, including NHL Eastside Hockey Manager – now developed by SI and endorsed by the world’s biggest ice hockey league. You could also try out Out of the Park Baseball 6 – the German-made baseball game which had also joined the SI stable, albeit only for a few years.

Or perhaps you wanted to play a demo match on EA’s UEFA Euro 2004, before Wayne Rooney ruined his ankle? Alternatively, you could also take some time away from sports and play Sonic Adventure DX (SEGA!) or Worms 3D.

FOOTBALL MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 2 CD
October 2004

At last, we had the chance to play FM05 – with this CD giving us a playable beta demo a few weeks before the game’s official release. Okay, so FM05 wouldn’t turn out to be all that great, but at least it would be better than Championship Manager 5!

As if that wasn’t enough, you could also view a gallery of FM05 screenshots. The EHM and OOTP demos were on the disk again for anyone who preferred those fancy North American sports.

Once you’d had your fill of sport, you could then destroy stuff in a demo of Worms Forts: Under Siege. Now there’s another much-loved British gaming franchise…

FOOTBALL MANAGER MAGAZINE: ISSUE 3 CD
December 2004

The CD that came with the final magazine included a playable ‘gold’ demo of FM05. You could also find a bunch of training schedules and tactics, as per usual, but my highlight was the viral video ‘One Manager and His Dog’.

If you were after something else, you could read SI studio director Miles Jacobson’s diary notes from his European press tour promoting FM05. The disc also included a playable demo of Sonic Heroes – just to satisfy Miles’ bosses in Japan – and a lengthy feature on the great Liverpool manager Bob Paisley.

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If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave a comment below. You can also find me on Threads and The Site Formerly Known As Twitter.

Also, if anyone else has copies of these magazines AND is willing to scan and archive them, then please let us know too. It’d be great to get these online for the wider Championship Manager and Football Manager communities to enjoy once again.