Football Manager 26 (PC) Review

Well, the wait is finally over, and Sports Interactive has returned with Football Manager 26. It’s been a long time coming after the development team decided it was best to pull the 2025 version of the game. There were several reasons for this, but in simple terms, the build wasn’t ready, and they did not want to ship an unfinished product. After listening to Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive, recently speaking about those tough logistics and decisions, it makes sense. It takes courage and strength as a team to take a step back from such a big project and say, Do you know what, this isn’t ready.

Believe me when I say that I can lose hours in these games. I even pretended to be sick so I could stay at home from school to play Championship Manager back in the late 90s. Football Manager has always featured a familiar UI and match engine that remain largely unchanged from year to year. This time, though, there are massive differences. Bear in mind that this is my review of the PC version of the game; console review will be at a later stage.

A Fresh Era Of Management, Reimagined

Football Manager 26 is essentially a new game; gone is that familiar UI for a fresh, reimagined experience. Whilst this may be a huge slap in the face for the veterans of the game, I urge players to trust the process. Nobody really likes change when something works well, but we also have to understand that sometimes things alter to become better. Alongside the visual overhaul, we also have the new match engine, which is built from the ground up and powered by the Unity engine.

One thing you’ll immediately notice when starting a new save is how modern and clean the visual presentation is across the board. Unfortunately, user reviews are critical of the new portal-style system instead of the seamless spreadsheet-style design of the past. Personally, I enjoyed the learning process of this new hub and finding out where everything is. Sure, some improvements can be made here, but it just looks so much better. But the burning question is, does it function better than what we all know and love?

Match Engine Is Truly Stunning

For the entirety of my review for PC, I played using an Acer Nitro V15 Gaming Laptop with a 13th Gen Core i5 12CPU @ 2.1ghz. The graphics card I use is a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB. My save handled well with 8 nations running all their respective leagues, and I experienced no major issues or crashes during my approximate 25 hours with the game. Very occasionally, I did have a few frame drops with the match engine running, but that would probably come down to my hardware. For the majority of the time, it was running smoothly.

The new match engine is where Football Manager 26 shines bright. Running on the Unity engine, everything just looks a million times better. Sharper visuals, smoother performance, improved physics and more. Depending on the speed you view your games, it’s like watching a proper match in how the pacing of ball movement, collisions, deflections and general play functions. I’ve gone from having super speedy matches on FM24 to actually wanting to slow the game down because it’s a joy to watch.

There have been moments watching matches where a player has pulled something special off, and you’re like Wow. You don’t see the same animations repeated, which I loved, no repetition at all. Lighting is improved, transitions blend well, and with new camera angles and replays, it all just knits together wonderfully into a beautiful Football Manager’s paradise. Sports Interactive have nailed the match engine.

Deeper Tactics & More Structured Recruitment

Football Manager 2026 offers new options for tinkering with your squad, both in and out of possession. This allows you to fine-tune your squad down to the very last detail. Instead of relying on a single structured formation and some generic sliders, splitting tactics brings a whole new layer of depth to the game. As you become accustomed to this modern coaching approach, it is incredibly satisfying to see how it all comes together on the pitch. Seeing your squad adjusting shape across the pitch or even pressing aggressively against the opposition. This new approach just makes the game much more experimental in how you control your team. Another feature Sports Interactive have smashed out of the park.

Recruitment is a lot simpler than before, in my opinion, with everything in one place rather than fractured into several areas in the previous titles. Scouting reports, shortlisted targets, transfer opportunities and analytics are all in one space. This is a welcome addition, as I found that in the past it could all get a bit much, especially come deadline day, and you’re clicking the mouse all over the shop to get to where you need to be. Here it’s just a lot tidier, more informative and more receptive to your fine-tuned requests.

Final Thoughts

Football Manager 26 is far from perfect and still doesn’t feel like a finished product, but this is just the start of the journey. I truly believe that Sports Interactive have laid solid foundations for what will become the future of the franchise. I’d urge new and old players to come into this experience with an open mind, as you won’t be able to use the muscle memory of the older titles.

If you’re a PC player with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, then you’ll be able to download and play the full game there. You could even use this as a method to try before you buy if you’re on the fence this year. One thing is for sure, though: the magic of FM is still there for me. It still brings me the same joy and excitement of the previous games in this fresh new blanket; it just needs a bit more time to get truly comfy.

Many thanks to SEGA PR for giving us access to the PC version of the game on Steam. Both the Steam & Xbox Game Pass versions of the game were played for this review.

If you’re looking to purchase the game on Steam, you can purchase HERE. Xbox PC version buy HERE.