Book time off work: Football Manager 26 release date and price confirmed

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 10/09/2025

More details have been confirmed for the upcoming Football Manager 26 game from Sports Interactive, with a new trailer.

There is a lot of anticipation for the game after the developers cancelled FM 25 to focus on this new title.

Many FM fans were delighted with the look of the beautiful new Football Manager 26 graphics engine and reckon it was worth the wait.

Thankfully, it seems like the wait is almost over as the FM 26 release date has been revealed.

The updated Steam page for FM 26 shows that the game will release on Tuesday, November 4th 2025.

That is just seven weeks away and extremely close to almost two years since FM 24 was released back on November 6th, 2023.

A midweek release will almost certainly result in a huge increase in people taking sick leave that day.

Additionally, the full price for the game has been confirmed as £49.99.

However, Sports Interactive is giving 10% off to those who pre-order before release day, so the game is currently available for £44.99.

EA FC 26 Career Mode has a lot of new features, but FM 26 is looking like a very strong competitor.

Football Manager 26 reveals new streamlined UI

While the price and release date have been confirmed, it’s the latest FM 26 trailer that really has fans buzzing.

Sports Interactive released a first look at the new UI and menus for the upcoming game.

The game finally doesn’t look like a spreadsheet anymore, as FM 26 has introduced modular tiles and cards.

The sidebar has finally been removed and instead, the navigation bar is now at the top.

The new bar features Portal, Squad, Recruitment, Match Day, Club, and Career options.

FM 26 has also introduced bookmarks, which will allow players to favourite their most-used pages and access them quicker.

Additionally, Sports Interactive claim they have substantially improved the in-game search function.

The search bar will now bring up options from messages, players, training, clubs, staff, and entries from FMPedia.

There’s also a new player profile screen but, unlike other menus, it doesn’t appear to have changed drastically since FM 24.

In general, this appears easier and more intuitive for new players to pick up the game.

Some also believe this new tile system will make the menus easier to use on the console version.

Now, FM 26 fans are eagerly awaiting to hear about gameplay changes.

Sports Interactive has promised a deep dive into how matchdays in FM 26 will work is 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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