(Photo by Alex Livesey – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Indonesia have become the inaugural champions of the 2024 FIFAe World Cup featuring Football Manager at an event in Liverpool.
Manager Ichsan ‘Miracle’ Taufiq (pictured right) and assistant manager Manar ‘wednesday’ Hidayat (left) from Indonesia lifted the trophy, before being pictured here with England former footballer John Terry (centre).
John Terry made a special appearance, offering insights to players and inspiring the community, saying: “This was my first time attending a global esports event, and I was truly impressed – not just by the event itself, but by the competitors’ deep football knowledge and understanding. Congratulations to Ichsan and Manar.”
Other people involved with the event included Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive, event host Spencer Owen, former football manager Sam Allardyce and guest presenters Kevin Chapman (the streamer who broke a Football Manager world record at Insomnia last year), Will Brazier, Ben Carr and Dave O’Brien.
England reached the semi-final with Arron ‘RDF_Tactics’ Falloon as manager and Matt ‘SecondYellowCard’ Mullen as assistant manager, while Germany’s manager Sven ‘Svonn’ Goly and assistant manager Tery ‘FMZweierkette’ Whenett reached the final.
The trophy lift concluded the showpiece event at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool from August 28th to September 1st 2024.
The first FIFAe Next Gen event showcased what FIFA is calling ‘a new era of FIFAe’ with its first multi-title approach, creating a new platform for different communities by featuring Football Manager alongside eFootball.
The news comes a couple of months after the FIFAe World Cup of Football Manager was announced, with Arsène Wenger appointed ambassador of the $100,000 esports event.
The FIFAe World Cup featuring Football Manager brought together 20 players, each accompanied by an assistant manager, from around the globe. Participating in a unique format over four days, in addition to a pre-season day.
“The FIFAe Next Gen event represents an important step forward in our ambition to develop the wider football esports landscape, bringing together passionate communities and showcasing titles like Football Manager and eFootball.”
Christian Volk, FIFA
Having competed in a career mode format with one selected partner club in the group stage, each group winner will receive an invitation to visit the respective club and have the chance to learn more about the traditional football industry.
The FIFAe Next Gen event also featured the FIFAe Fame Your Game Cup, an eFootball mobile showcase. Thawatchai ‘Talonesui’ Noongam from Thailand claimed victory in FIFAe’s first mobile esports competition, demonstrating his skills against some of the best eFootball mobile players in the world.
“The FIFAe Next Gen event represents an important step forward in our ambition to develop the wider football esports landscape, bringing together passionate communities and showcasing titles like Football Manager and eFootball,” commented Christian Volk, Director of eFootball and Gaming at FIFA.
“With Liverpool’s rich football heritage and cutting-edge facilities, it was the ideal choice to host the event, and the city has truly excelled in its role this week.”
Content creator WorkTheSpace made some interesting observations on Football Manager esports, Indonesia’s success, ping and more in this thread:
Jebaroo was also spectating the event and highlighted some moments on Twitter:
To support local communities, FIFAe also teamed up with TheRockingR and EveryoneCan.
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.
