Sega’s Football Manager Replacement

It takes an hour just to meet your squad

Have you ever heard of Football Manager? Of course you have; it’s the biggest and the best football manager simulation game out there—nothing comes close. Have you heard of Sega Football Club Champions? Of course you haven’t, but if you’re a fan of Football Manager then you should get to know Sega’s Football Manager replacement, or perhaps stopgap is a better descriptor.

Sega bigwigs must have been tearing their hair out after learning that Sports Interactive wanted to delay the release of Football Manager last year. FM is one of the biggest franchises in videogames, which might come as a surprise to anyone who isn’t a fan of game with more numbers than a phone book, but I can assure you that it is. That delay has left an FM-shaped gap in the calender, and Sega is looking to fill it with Sega Football Club Champions.

The new game is coming to PC via Steam and mobile devices, and is looking to keep FM fans happy until the release of Football Manager 25 (or 26 now I suppose). Sega is looking for people to join it’s closed beta testing for the game (you can do that here), and says that is is ‘powered by Football Manager, which might just mean that we will see something of what Sports Interactive have been working on for FM25 making it’s way into this title.

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Tackling the hefty Yakuza: Like A Dragon and the first Lunar game.