In a series of four exclusive interviews conducted at the event, Miles Jacobson revealed the total overhaul of the game's engine, the addition of women’s football, and critical updates on player-made content (mods) for Football Manager 26, including a major hit to popular community features.
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Here is a breakdown of the key announcements for the game, including the FM26 news that will impact all hardcore players.
The Modding Update: What Will and Won't Work at FM26 Launch
In a major technical revelation, Miles confirmed how user-created content (mods) will work with the new FM26 engine, highlighting both good and bad news for the community.
FM26 Mod Support Status (At Launch)
| ✓ Compatible | Face Packs, Logo Packs, Club Kits |
| ✕ Not Compatible | Custom Skins, Windowed Mode, Screen Configuration |
The good news is that essential visual mods will remain compatible from day one. Jacobson confirmed that "Face packs and logo packs work".
This means fans can still customize the looks of kits, club badges and player faces with their favorite FM26 downloads.
However, the game's shift to a new engine means that certain popular features will be missing at launch, including customization options.
Most importantly, "custom skins won't be in Football Manager 26 initially". Screen configuration also won't be available at launch but may come in future updates.
This means beloved custom skins and the ability to play in a configurable windowed mode won't be available when Football Manager 26 releases.
FM26 is the 'First Version of the Next 20 Years'
Jacobson emphasized that the studio views FM26 as a complete technological reset, moving away from an engine that had been running for over two decades.
"People can't think of FM26 as it's the next version of the series. It's the first version of the next 20 years. This is the next stage of the next 20 years, and is setting up for the future."
This massive undertaking came at a cost, as Jacobson officially apologized for the canceled game, FM25, stating the team had to fail to learn.
"I apologize to everyone out there for not delivering a game last year, but I had to come to peace with the fact that we made a game that wasn't good enough and I cancelled it."
The 5-Year Mission: Women’s Football Arrives
The integration of women's football into Football Manager 2026 was described as a massive, five-year project built on a foundation of equality and realism.
Miles explained: "Well, it's five years' worth of work. Firstly, I apologize that this has taken so long... we have to break through the glass ceiling."
The game will seamlessly merge the men’s and women’s football worlds, allowing managers to move between them. Crucially, the team created separate data models to ensure fairness.
In Miles' words: "So we're comparing men to men and women to women when it comes to their performance attributes. But when it comes to coaching, it's exactly the same scale because women coaches are just as good as men coaches."
To ensure visual realism, the entire animation library was rebuilt. Jacobson noted: "We had to redo all of the motion capture animation... thousands of them".
FM26 will launch with 11 women's leagues and 14 divisions, which Jacobson proudly called "more than any sports game has" at launch.
New Focus on Accessibility and Beginners
Finally, Jacobson discussed the new focus on making the deep simulation game easier for newcomers, after noting that many new players "dropping out after an hour."
The studio created a dedicated accessibility team and added a new in-game feature called FMpedia, which acts like a Wikipedia of football to help new managers understand key terms and systems.
The new interface (UI) is designed to give information in smaller, simpler chunks.However, Jacobson warned longtime fans that they may need to adjust.
"You have to cancel your muscle memory, and you have to relearn it, but once you do, it's so much easier to use."
The overall vision for Football Manager 2026 is clear: "We don't make a game, we make a world. We make a world of football, do anything you want in that world.”
Sources: ungeek.ph, geekculture.co, gamerbraves.com, onemoregame.ph
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Discussion: Shocking FM26 Mod Support Reveal
14 comments have been posted so far.
@percyvaldinho: Rumor has it that an instant result option should be included in the default skin.
@Daz8: Thanks man, much appreciated! Sadly we don't have buyer badges this time because we have no easy way of automating the check between buyers and members here. But I might add a semi-manual way of supporting that soon.
But the main problem is that i like to multitask while playing FM...
watching Netflix/streams.. etc
any possible fix for this problem?
I play FM24 in that res in full screen and have zoom in set to 125 via settings.
Since FM26 won’t support windowed mode, what’s the best option to play it properly on a Samsung Odyssey G9 (49" 5120x1440) without losing image quality or sharpness?
I usually prefer playing in 2560x1440 for better scaling and multitasking, but I’m worried about text blurriness or stretching issues in full screen.
any tips?
Shame about the skins but hopefully later it will become available but I remain sceptical about that.
At least we can still add kits, logos and faces.
No interest in the womens football side of things so will certainly be turning that part off.
Either way, I feel it's important for the fans to support the developers by buying the game and giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Because if this doesn't go well for them commercially, there would be financial implications that might cause problems to the game's growth.
hopefully the modders can do something, the base skin is awful