Football Manager 2026 Beta Release Date Revealed: 5 New Features To Get Excited About

The New Features In Football Manager 2026 We Are Buzzing To Try

After a wait that has felt like eons, the next iteration of the hugely popular Football Manager game series is finally upon us.

Sports Interactive promised that Football Manager 25 was going to be a total overhaul of the game we know, love and waste far too much company time on but, sadly, a delay in getting all the neccesary bits and pieces together proved too harsh to overcome, leading to the game's eventual cancellation in full.

I have a confession...

I’ve Played FM26 for 100 Hours – Here’s What You Need to Know

New Video On YouTube! 👇 pic.twitter.com/aLQPoFaDkr

— Jack (@WorkTheSpace) October 21, 2025

However, that time has been spent by Miles Jacobson and his men by engineering the most promising Football Manager title to date. After two years of waiting for a new instalment in the management simulation goliath's lineage, we finally have an answer as to when that wait will cease - this Thursday, the 23rd of October 2025. In the evening on this day (time to be confirmed on the day itself), the Advanced Access Beta of the game will officially be launched to keen players across the world.

This stage of the game is used to gather consumer feedback on how the game is being received, any bugs or glitches that still need smoothing over and providing the final consumer-based touches needed to perfect the game ahead of it's general launch in early November.

Quite simply, we cannot wait to get our hands on this game. We've been waiting long enough! So with that in mind, here are the features we are most excited to sample.

In and Out Of Possession Formations

For all of the tactical boffins who scoff at the thought of downloading tactics off the internet, spending hours curating an incisive, inventive wonder-tactic only to lose 1-0 to a relegation candidate on the opening day of the season, this one is for you.

Football Manager 2026 offers up a total overhaul of the way we command our squads to play on the pitch, and one of the biggest aspects of that is the introduction of 'out-of-possession' formations.

Your Style, Your Personality, Your Career.

In #FM26, your story starts long before the first whistle with a redesigned game setup and new manager creation.

Redefining what it means to step into the dugout 😍 pic.twitter.com/2gk7evhfs8

— Football Manager (@FootballManager) October 21, 2025

In a nutshell, you now have to consider the way your team sets up through every avenue of every match, rather than before where your formation mainly focussed on what your army of Bolivian wonderkids would do when the ball was in their court.

Sports Interactive encourage you to go bold. There will be suggested formations that your side can naturally gravitate back to, but the plethora of options available is down to you to explore. You can go as far as instructing a full back to attack down one side of the field, but do their defending on the opposite. It's a total management and tactical sandbox, and you the player hold the spade.

A Fully Licensed Premier League

A feature for the fan that cares greatly about the aesthetic of their saves, a fully-licensed Premier League is something we are keen to get involved in.

For far too long have we got cracking with our saves, be that starting within the Premier League or taking a low-league minnow up to dizzying heights, only to spend ages figuring out how to download logo and face packs online to create our own feel on how we want our game to look. That's time spent that could be spent putting together the most sensational near-post corner routine of all time, or forcing a scout to spend the next 40 years of their career scouting out the next wonderkid from the very depths of St. Kitts and Nevis.

With a fully-licensed in-game broadcasting package, a full menu of club badges and player faces (and the return of Manchester United) and the genuine Premier League trophy now part of Football Manager's future, we can't wait to get involved at a level that feels genuine.

The Visualiser

Another one for the tacticos of this world, Football Manager is introducing The Visualiser to their options available for us virtual managers, as another instrument that will allow us to fine-tune our squads to within an inch of their lives.

You can now utilise the Visualiser tool to see how a player is going to act positionally before a ball has even been kicked, showcasing their positioning on and off the ball, through all the different phases of play.

(Image from footballmanager.com)

You can now play the menus like a chessboard, finalising every nook and cranny of your tactical nous from kick-off to the final whistle, and everything in between.

Graphics, Glorious Graphics

(Image from footballmanager.com)

Sure, the way the game actually looks isn't a priority for many a player. Football Manager has always been about the tactics, the scouting and the glorious mass of emails you receive daily, and the on-pitch graphics have always been a secondary neccesity. However, this latest overhaul of how the game is going to look carries far more promise than you may initially think.

The way the game is going to look on matchdays is far more advanced than previous instalments. A total re-vamp of player logic, animations and situational dexterity promises to make every game far closer to the real thing. Wingers will now stand their men up and take them on. Strikers now have a whole arsenal of finishes at their disposal, and every possible metric of the matchday experience will be more exciting and fresh as ever.

Introducing Women's Football

(Image from footballmanager.com)

Football is a universal language, and that is now starting to be replicated more and more throughout our gaming experiences.

The introduction of women's football into FIFA/FC in recent years has provided worldwide attention to the women's game and has played a massive part in their continued growth in the sporting world. Now, we have the opportunity to go even further with the arrival of women in Football Manager.

Can you lead Chelsea's super team to continuing heights? Fancy the task of growing a team from Wales or Sweden into a women's football powerhouse? Or maybe, when International Management returns later on in the year, you'll fancy the chance to continue England's national dominance? The floor is yours.