As well as outselling last year's first version's first weekend Chart-Track total by over 40,000 units, Football ManagerTM 2006 bettered the sales of the entire Top 50 Full Price PC Entertainment chart combined, over the last week, despite only being on sale for 2 of the 7 days.

"We're obviously delighted with the sales in the UK over the first weekend," said Miles Jacobson, MD of Sports Interactive. "The whole team has worked incredibly hard to ensure that FM2006's gaming experience is as good as it can be, and that so many people seem to be enjoying it makes us very proud.

"Thanks, as always, to the SI community for supporting us and our games once again, and to SEGA and retail for all of their support as well," added Jacobson.

Alan Pritchard, UK Managing Director, SEGA Europe commented: "All of us at SEGA are thrilled with the first weekend sales of FM 2006, which were up substantially on the same period for the previous version last year. Also, to achieve a No.2 All Formats chart position on Chart-Track at this time of year, on a single format release, is a great achievement. SI has again delivered a fantastic game; this has been backed by a great marketing campaign, with some fantastic support from UK retail."

Boasting a multitude of new and upgraded features, Football ManagerTM 2006 for PC/Mac was published by SEGA in October 2005. For further information please go to www.sigames.com or www.sega-europe.com

An Xbox 360 version of Football ManagerTM 2006 will arrive in March, along with the franchises' first outing on the PSP.