Football Manager launches its own semi-imaginary football club

The dressing room for Football Manager FC. — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

The latest salvo in the world's ongoing attempt to blend reality and unreality is that Football Manager now kinda-but-not-really has its own football club. The Football Manager Football Club, or more mercifully FMFC, basically allows Football Manager fans to link their Steam or other accounts and get the usual mix of email updates, blogs, and 'member rewards' which, at the moment, include the chance to win the strip of this virtual team.

Yes it is confusing. FMFC isn't real, but it has a strip made by Hummel and a club logo. It asks you to join the squad and offers signing-up bonuses. I suppose it would be easy to be cynical about what is basically Another Bespoke Game Account, but props to Sports Interactive for leaning into the fantasy in a way that the game's fanbase will surely enjoy. It also ties neatly into some of Football Manager 2021's new RPG-esque features.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this for Football Manager players is that SI intends to use the data it gathers from linked accounts to tailor FMFC's future content. "We’ll learn how you approach the game and, over time, aim to support your gameplay with content that helps you level-up and provides inspiration; for new challenges, tactics and anything the game world throws at you."

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."