Football Manager 26 will include the Barclays Women’s Super League and Super League 2, as women are added to the game for the first time.
The news is in addition to the Premier League being officially licensed in this iteration of the series. While this was previously announced for FM25, it was never implemented due to the game’s cancellation.
“We’re thrilled to welcome the Barclays Women’s Super League and Women’s Super League 2 to the Football Manager family for FM26,” said Miles Jacobson, studio director of Sports Interactive.
Football Manager 26 | Introducing Women’s FootballWatch on YouTube
“Managers and figures within the league have been integral to the introduction of Women’s Football to our games, so it was only right that the leagues themselves were authentically represented too.
“I can’t wait to read and hear the stories from our players as they get to test their managerial skills in the WSL and WSL2 for the first time.”
Zarah Al-Kudcy, chief revenue officer of WSL Football added: “Bringing women’s football to the game for the first time is a major moment for visibility. This partnership is full of potential and, as an avid Football Manager fan myself, I can’t wait to get my tactics board out and compete for virtual silverware.”
A total of 24 teams will be included, across both leagues, which will be fully licensed with official player photos, club logos and kits.
Last month, Jacobson detailed to Eurogamer what went wrong with last year’s cancelled edition of Football Manager, discussing the challenges of changing to a new engine.
“Did we make the right decision? Yes,” he said. “Did we do everything correctly after making that right decision? No. Are there changes that I would have made to the decisions, if I had my time again? Yes. But I don’t lose sleep over those because you can’t manage them – and everything in life learns from the mistakes that they make.”
Football Manager 26 was officially revealed last month, and will release on 4th November across PC, PlayStation and Xbox (including Game Pass), as well as a separate mobile version for Netflix. A Switch version will follow on 4th December.