Football Manager 26 has been out for a few weeks, and… mmm, yeah. It’s still a mess, isn’t it?
While many FMers are still wrestling with the new interface or complaining that their favourite franchise has been turned into a mobile game, some will be looking for something else to play. But I know what you’re gonna say: “FM has no competition.”
Yes, it’s true that Sports Interactive don’t have as much direct competition as they did in the 1990s and early 2000s. FIFA Manager, LMA Manager, Ultimate Soccer Manager, Premier Manager and even Ally McCoist’s Director of Football have all fallen by the wayside – emphatically beaten by FM’s superior game engine and extensive database.
These days, if you’re looking for a non-FM football management game on PC, you will likely have to scrape the bottom of the Steam barrel for low-budget indie titles that don’t have anywhere near as much depth.
But there are still some good FM26 alternatives that allow you to play through the 2025/2026 season (or 2024/2025, at least) with a reasonable amount of realism. In this post, I will look at seven of those games – each with their pros and cons – and tell you how you can update them with all the latest data.
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2024 (WITH UPDATES)
My first suggestion is the most obvious one. You could always go back to Football Manager 2024.
Sure, it doesn’t have those shiny new match graphics or women’s football, but FM24 remains a pretty solid and stable game. And for all the faults and foibles of the old user interface, returning to it feels like a warm hug. (See what I did there, Miles?)
There are still regular FM24 data updates being released on fansites such as Sortitoutsi and FM Scout – adding the latest transfers, promotions, relegations and managerial movements. Some updates also include player ability changes, and hundreds of new ‘wonderkids’ who were too young to be on FM24 – or even FM26, in Max Dowman’s case. To be fair, I’m pretty sure every young footballer gets called a ‘wonderkid’ these days.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to change the save start year to 2025 without breaking the game. That means the game will still officially start in the 2023/2024 season, and you will therefore be replaying Euro 2024 in the first off-season instead of the 2026 World Cup. To compensate, these updates will make every person in the database two years older than they actually are (e.g. Harry Kane’s birth year in-game is 1991 rather than 1993).
Of course, you can still enjoy FM24 without data updates. Perhaps you’re a Luton fan who wants to relieve those happier times when the Hatters were battling the Premier League’s big boys – and not getting tonked by Mansfield in League One?
DOWNLOAD 2025/2026 DATABASE FOR FM24
SORTITOUTSI / FM SCOUT (CHOOSE ONE)
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 01/02 (WITH UPDATES)
Why not go even further back in SI’s catalogue? For many players, Championship Manager 01/02 remains the pinnacle of the series, even after 24 years. It’s faster to play, easier to learn, and yet it still offers loads of depth, immersion and playability.
There is still a large community at champman0102.net, and a dedicated ‘Update Team’ releases a new present-day update once or twice every season. A 2025/2026 update is still in the works, though you can still download a database for the 2024/2025 season. (See the link below.)
But that’s not all! If a modern database doesn’t quite float your boat, you could even go further back in time – and load up a database set in the 1990s or even the 1980s!
You can also find a huge collection of programs and patches which add even more realism and usability to the existing game. I particularly love using Nick’s CM0102 Patcher, which allows you to change the start year, add new leagues, and even improve the development of regens. You really can tweak the game more or less to your heart’s content…
…with some caveats. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it is impossible to change the Champions League to a Swiss system on CM01/02, which means you’re stuck with the original group stages format. (You read that right, kids. The Champions League had TWO group stages back in 2001.)
If you’re prepared to do some testing beforehand, you can create a pretty decent FM26-esque experience on CM01/02. You can even select your players’ positions in and out of possession by using the magic of WIB/WOB. (Just don’t ask me how that works. I’ve played Championship Manager for 25+ years and have never really used WIB/WOB.)
DOWNLOAD 2024/2025 DATABASE FOR CM01/02
DOWNLOAD 2025/2026 DATABASE FOR CM01/02
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 97/98 (THE MODERN FOOTBALL)
But maybe CM01/02 isn’t your favourite CM game? Championship Manager 97/98 also has a loyal fanbase – not to mention Dave Black’s fantastic blog – and there are even new updates being made for that game as well!
It was only last month that CM97/98: The Modern Football – a comprehensive updated fan remake of the original game – was officially released to the public. As well as including 28 playable leagues from across Europe and the Americas, TMF spruces up the game with modern graphics, match engine tweaks, and the ability to play past the old 30-season limit.
Of course, there are still some limitations. The game starts in July 2024, though most of the data appears to be from the end of the 2023/2024 season. You can also only load up to four nations… oh yes, and the 2026 World Cup is broken (maybe don’t tell Donald about that).
Nonetheless, this is a very decent effort for a relatively new project, and I admire the amount of work that has gone into making it. If you’re a CM97/98 fan who wants a modern experience, or you just want to have a crack at conquering the Aruban league, this might be up your alley.
DOWNLOAD CM97/98: THE MODERN FOOTBALL
Okay, that’s enough reminiscing about better SI games. Let’s check out some titles that were made by other people…
EA FC CAREER MODE
Ha, ha. Very funny. But wait… hear me out.
If you ignore that Ultimate Team mode which encourages 11-year-old kids to bankrupt their parents, Career Mode on EA Sports FC 26 is actually quite fun. You can use a Live Start Point, where you can jump into a team’s real-life situation (e.g. you can try and drag Liverpool back up from mid-table). Alternatively, the Original mode will take you to the very start of the season.
The gameplay is fairly solid – even for someone who still thinks the series peaked with FIFA 2000 – and the squad management features are immersive enough to feel engaging but not overwhelming. If you just want to focus on managing your team instead of directly controlling your players, you can quick sim each match and watch the action play out in 2D.
Alright, I’ve praised EA enough. [Ahem] Career Mode still sucks, actually.
Navigating through tiles on the screen is such a clunky nightmare that I’m sure it inspired SI to create FM26. The AI is so passive and tame that I found even the top teams ridiculously easy to beat, even on difficulty settings where I usually struggle. On top of that, AI transfer logic is incredibly weird and unrealistic (Ethan Nwaneri joined Napoli in the first transfer window of my save, and Newcastle sold Dan Burn to Real Betis).
And when I was managing Arsenal in the WSL, I noticed that all our home league matches were scheduled for the first half of the season – and all our away matches were scheduled for the second half! So much for realism!
So yeah… maybe stay clear of EA FC, unless you’re a masochist who enjoys wasting their money (or, in other words, you’re the director of football at Manchester United).
FIFA MANAGER 2025
Even though EA officially gave up on FIFA Manager a decade ago, the game is being kept alive by a small but devoted community. If you are lucky enough to have a copy of either FIFA Manager 13 or FIFA Manager 14, you can download a patch that updates your game for the modern era.
FIFA Manager 2025 has an updated database with all the correct squads and tournaments for the 2024/2025 season, with over 500 playable leagues across 125 nations. It even includes the new ‘League Phase’ format for UEFA’s club competitions – and it perhaps does it even better than FM.
But this is not just a season update. There are also updated 2D and 3D graphics, bug fixes, tweaked game mechanics, and the program itself is much more optimised. When I reviewed it earlier this year, I was truly blown away by how much work has gone into making what is essentially a unofficial brand-new EA Sports game – and at no extra cost to the consumer.
You can probably appreciate this is a very serious undertaking that takes a lot of time and effort to get right. You will probably have to wait until February or perhaps even March for the next big update for the 2025/2026 season. In the meantime, why not give FIFA Manager 2025 a go?
DOWNLOAD FIFA MANAGER 2025
PART 1 (Required) / PART 2 (Required) / PART 3 / PART 4 / PART 5
WE ARE FOOTBALL 2024
Meanwhile, the German development team behind FIFA Manager have been working on a spiritual successor. We Are Football 2024 is the second version of the series, which is basically a lighter-hearted, less intense alternative to FM. It is also the only game on this list (unless you count EA FC) that gives you the ability to manage women’s teams.
The 3D engine looks pretty nice, and there are some interesting RPG elements to building a squad. If you wanted, you can simulate your manager’s personal life – you can throw a party, learn a new language, do some exercise, and even fall in love with your club’s PR officer.
However, the game falls down when it comes to the more serious stuff. Setting up tactical instructions is a clunky UI mess, and your players can suddenly ‘go rogue’ and turn against you just because you had a couple of unlucky results. Building up a lower-league club that I created from scratch was frustrating as heck, and I gave up after three seasons of glacially slow progress.
Though WAF don’t have any official licences, there is a huge community-made data update which has over 130,000 male players at their real-life clubs – at least for the 2024/2025 season (the 2025/2026 database was expected to be released this month but is currently delayed). The women’s database also includes around 1,700 real-life players from the top leagues, though it obviously isn’t as detailed as FM’s.
I will admit that I initially had some problems with installing the update. Fortunately, Dodgee Gamer has a very useful guide on YouTube that easily explains how to do it.
DOWNLOAD 2024/2025 DATABASE FOR WE ARE FOOTBALL 2024
EXTRA LARGE / LARGE / SMALL / EXTRA SMALL (CHOOSE ONE)
PORTRAIT PACK (OPTIONAL)
SOCCER MANAGER 2026
If you want something that’s simpler, faster and cheaper than FM, it might be worth giving Soccer Manager 2026 a go. Okay, so it’s basically a mobile game that’s been ported over to PC (sound familiar?), and it’s got those pesky microtransactions… but it’s free to play.
You have the choice of managing 1,000+ clubs across 90+ leagues – all with accurate player data. Most of the Premier League clubs have generic logos instead of their actual badges (only Manchester City are fully licenced), but that doesn’t really matter. The database is probably the largest you’ll find outside of FM.
Just to set your expectations, this game is more fantastical than a realistic simulation. You can use ‘boosts’ to heal injuries, remove suspensions or improve morale, and you can even spend in-game currency on new players. Would you like to sign Vinícius Júnior for Rochdale in the National League? That’s possible on SM26.
I only gave SM26 a 2* rating in my review, and there’s a good reason for that. The match engine is VERY messy and broken, especially if you watch on 3D. Expect chaos.
BONUS: CONSIDER A CONTROLLER!
If nothing else tickles your fancy… then why not just play FM26 with a controller?
We all know that nobody plays Football Manager on PC anymore, other than 35-year-old neck-bearded nerds with no social lives. So put your keyboard and mouse aside, get out your controller, and be like those cool kids on console! Who knows, you might find that the UI is actually quite fun to use!
[Sigh] Good grief, SI. You and I are gonna have words.
That was my list of Football Manager alternatives. If you have any other suggestions, please share them in the comments below. You can also find me over on Threads and/or Bluesky.
I will update this page with links to the 2025/2026 season databases for these games as soon as they are released.
Fuller FM 