CM4 was released on March 28th 2003 by Eidos Interactive. The game, developed by Sports Interactive, is the latest in the best-selling series of football management games which has sold more than 3,000,000 copies worldwide since its initial launch in 1992.

"This is fantastic news and a tribute to the hard work put in by everyone at Sports Interactive, our own sales and marketing teams and our retail partners," says Jonathan Kemp, Eidos' European Managing Director. "We are confident of maintaining strong sales as most of the mainstream campaign, including TV and radio, has yet to begin."

"It's been clear for some time now that we were going to have a hit on our hands, but for our game to gatecrash the upper echelons of the Sony-dominated all-formats chart is an almost unbelievable achievement," adds Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive. "I would like to thank all of the people in the game's massively-supportive fan base for their help and encouragement and every single member of the development team who are now finally seeing some real payback for all of the long nights and extra effort that they've had to put in over the past few months."

Championship Manager is the most successful computer game series in UK history. The game not only generates increased sales with every successive release, it has also attracted one of the most loyal and active fan bases of any game, many of whom contribute to its continued development through data research and other contributions via the Sports Interactive website. The game has even spawned its own dedicated newsstand magazine.

Many professional football players and coaches throughout the world count Championship Manager among their hobbies. The all-consuming devotion of certain fans is such that it has even been cited in divorce proceedings.

CM4 features:

• All new 2D match engine for comprehensive highlights or even complete representations of matches
• 250,000 players in 88 divisions across 39 nations from world of football
• All the latest rules and regulations accurately recreated
• Enhanced interaction with players, officials and the media
• Facility to make individual notes and reminders for each player in your squad
• A huge range of specific match sound effects to represent varying attendances
• Realistic training regimes designed by Liverpool and Republic of Ireland football legend Ray Houghton