Football Manager 2025 will no longer be released after developer Sports Interactive revealed the latest edition has been cancelled.
It was due to be a significant update to the instalments that had gone before, with overhauled game graphics and new features, but after being delayed twice, the game has now been scrapped.
Aside from new features, one of the most important parts of any new FM experience is getting your hands on the latest squad updates. Luckily, there are ways to scratch that particular itch while we await further instruction.
How to add updated squads and players to Football Manager 2024
The first step is heading to a site like SortItOutSI or FMInside, both of which have custom-built squad updates covering transfers as recent as this month.
Once your chosen update is downloaded, it’ll go into your downloads as a zip file, which you can unzip using a tool such as 7 Zip to extract the files inside.
Following that, you need to copy all the extracted files, head over to your 'Football Manager 2024' folder, go into the ‘editor data’ area and paste the copied files into that folder.
If you’ve updated your FM24 squads using this method before, be sure to remove the old update files before adding these new ones in.
Once that’s done, load up FM24, start a new career, and on the ‘Career Game Setup’ screen go to the ‘Database’ dropdown and ensure everything under ‘Editor Data Files’ is selected.
Having completed all those steps, you’re now free to start your new FM24 career mode with all the latest real-life transfers reflected in-game.
Why has Football Manager 25 been cancelled?
In a statement announcing the cancellation, Sports Interactive said:
"Sports Interactive regret to inform that, following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift our focus to the next release.
"We know this will come as a huge disappointment, especially given that the release date has already moved twice, and you have been eagerly anticipating the first gameplay reveal. We can only apologise for the time it has taken to communicate this decision. Due to stakeholder compliance, including legal and financial regulations, today [February 7] was the earliest date that we could issue this statement.
"Due to a variety of challenges that we’ve been open about to date, and many more unforeseen, we currently haven’t achieved what we set out to do in enough areas of the game, despite the phenomenal efforts of our team. Each decision to delay the release was made with the aim of getting the game closer to the desired level but, as we approached critical milestones at the turn of the year, it became unmistakably clear that we would not achieve the standard required, even with the adjusted timeline.
"Through the cancellation, every effort is now focused on ensuring that our next release achieves our goal and hits the quality level we all expect. We will update you on how we are progressing with that as soon as we are able to do so."
