FIFA partnership brings fully licensed World Cup to Football Manager 26

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 17/10/2025

EA Sports is in shambles. Sports Interactive have announced a multi-year partnership with FIFA, starting with Football Manager 26.

The news comes does EA FC 26 creators EA Sports have allowed their FIFA era to come to an end after taking FIFA 23 servers down.

This partnership will bring the licensed FIFA World Cup 2026 to Football Manager 26 for the first time as well as other content.

Thanks to this new partnership, FM26 will feature the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup.

As part of FIFA’s licensing, all 48 World Cup 2026 teams will have their official kits included in FM26.

The upcoming game will also feature official broadcast graphics and tournament branding for the World Cup.

However, this doesn’t mean that all the teams will be licensed. Previously, the likes of Germany and Japan previously missing from the franchise.

Still, the fact every team will be featured is a huge boost when compared to rivals EA FC 26.

Despite being rumoured to have a World Cup mode, international foobtall is very disaspointing in EA FC 26.

In fact, EA FC 26 doesn’t have enough teams for a World Cup, even if it was the old 32-team format.

FIFA announcement surprise after FM26 was not supposed to have international management

This announcement came as a present supirse to the Football Manager community who were expecting no international football in FM26.

In a Korean language interview, Sports Interactive Studio Director Miles Jacobson revealed the national team management mode had been removed:

“Prime example is the removal of the national team manager mode.

“We decided to remove it for now because the feedback from users wasn’t great, and we judged that its level of quality was insufficient.

“We plan to take the necessary time to rebuild it properly.”

The community were outraged that there wouldn’t be an option to manage a national team in FM26 during a World Cup year.

YouTuber Zealand Shannon even released video slamming the developers for removing the option, only to be corrected a week later.

However, Sports Interactive has now confirmed that a playable, revamped International Management module will release in an update next year.

This addition will release sometime in 2026 before the World Cup starts for FM26, FM26 Console and FM26 Touch.

FM26 is set to release November 2nd with news about a playable beta supposely coming soon.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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