Sports Interactive and FIFAe have announced a partnership aimed at finding the first-ever FIFAe World Champion of Football Manager.
The UK-based game developer is teaming up with football governing body FIFA for this new Football Manager esports tournament.
And legendary French football manager Arsène Wenger, the Chief of Global Football Development at FIFA, has been appointed as the ambassador for the esports event.
In the inaugural year of this new Football Manager collaboration, selected member associations will be invited to be represented at the final event. These invitations will be based on eligibility and number of players per nation, ensuring fair and representative competition across the globe.
The final event will see the finest Football Manager 2024 players compete for $100,000 in prize money from August 29th to September 1st.
Arsène Wenger said: “I look forward to being part of this exciting new journey. This competition requires participants to demonstrate a profound understanding of football strategy and tactics. Success demands not only mastery of game mechanics but also in-depth football knowledge, making this format a fascinating blend.
“At FIFA, we are dedicated to developing coaches and coaching techniques to give every talent a chance, so I look forward to seeing the best esports coaches from around the world compete at this event and contribute to the global advancement of football management and talent development.”
Fans can catch a glimpse of former Arsenal manager Wenger in the Football Manager esports announcement clip, which will be followed by more content in the coming weeks on the FIFAe social media channels.
While Football Manager esports is not new, it has not received tournaments quote like this. Insomnia used to host Football Manager esports tournaments, and UK streamer Kevin Chapman broke a Football Manager world record at Insomnia last year.
The news comes a few days after the FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League was announced, and a few years after FIFA split from EA. It’s the latest move from FIFA, which looks to make its own esports partnerships, while EA has gone on to run its own FC football esports tournaments.
Players can sign up via FIFA.GG to find out more about the qualification process in their territory.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
