In the year of the European Championship, FIFA announced a World Cup â but this one is just for trainers. For the first time, the international football federation will organize the Football Manager world championship, the video game that simulates the experience of managing a squad. It starts in August and will have a prize of 100 thousand dollars, just over 93 thousand euros.
Formerly known as ‘Championship Manager’, ‘Football Manager’ is now three decades old and the most recent edition (Football Manager 2024) has more than six million players. The game consists of simulating the tasks of a football coach, from hiring athletes to preparing training and matches â in which the user does not directly control the virtual players on the field.
In the tournament’s official presentation video, Arsène Wenger, coach of Arsenal FC between 1996 and 2018, and current director of global football development at FIFA, challenges virtual coaches to sign up through official site. For now, information about the competition is scarce. FIFA only announced that it will take place between August 29th and September 1st and that there are more than 90 thousand euros at stake – the specific values for winner, runner-up and other positions were not mentioned, only the sum of all the prizes.
As for the participants, the information is also not clear: any player can register, but FIFA states that it will invite “selected member associations” to the tournament. This means that only players from certain countries, defined by the organization, will be able to enter the World Cup. The selection criteria for participating countries will take into account “the number of players per nation†.
This is the first time that FIFA has organized a virtual competition in this video game, continuing its recent focus on electronic sports. Arsène Wenger will be the competition’s ambassador. The former French coach is also known for presenting bold proposals in football, such as the idea of a new format for the World Cup.
