The Football Manager match engine is being brought into full 3D with motion captured animations for each player, developed in conjunction with SEGA’s in-house studio, Sports R&D Division. You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles, and can re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game. There is also a new full screen TV view, where players can customise their match view by choosing the information they would like to view during the match, be it the latest scores or player performance stats for the match, and arranging this information onscreen using a new drag-and-drop widget system, that lets players customise their match day screen with the information that they need as a football manager.

Football Manager 2009 will also allow players to receive added help from their Assistant Manager with pre-match and in-match feedback on how the team is performing, as well as hints on how the team could play better. So if you can’t work out why your tactics aren’t working, why the opposition seem to effortlessly demolish your team, or why a new signing isn’t fulfilling his potential, having the advice of a good Assistant Manager will be an invaluable asset.

Football Manager 2009 allows you to play as a female manager for the very first time, so you can be the first woman to lead your favourite team to domestic and European glory. The game will also be fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.

Everton Football Club becomes the first club to officially recruit the services of a computer game and its developers as part of their back room team.

In a football and gaming first Everton FC has signed an exclusive deal with Sports Interactive, developers of the football management videogame Football Manager, to give manager David Moyes and his coaches unrivalled access to its database of over 370,000 players and staff. Everton will be able to instantly scan 20,000 active teams in more than 50 countries worldwide with immediate access to the largest scouting network in football with over 1,000 scouts from around the globe.

The unique database has made Football Manager the most popular football management simulation in gaming and will help Everton FC spot the best young talent from around the world. In the past, Football Manager? has accurately identified Wayne Rooney’s potential talent when he was just fifteen and has been the first to predict other future stars including Lionel Messi, Ashley Young and Jose Baxter.

The game’s original creators Paul and Oliver Collyer have been approached by clubs wanting to sign the game in the past, but this is the first time they have put pen to paper to hand over the game’s database and bring virtual football management into the real world.

Paul Collyer comments: “The game’s database is a valuable resource with the most extensive scouting network in football so Everton FC is making a top signing. I am personally delighted with today’s announcement as I’m a Toffees fan. Standing on the pitch with my signing on shirt is as close to my boyhood dream of playing at Goodison Park as I will ever get.”

Studio Director Miles Jacobson adds: “We’ve known for a while that teams use the game to research certain players, whether to buy or to check out the opposition, but this formal recognition by a premiership team is fantastic and we are sure it will prove a fruitful one for the Everton FC.”

Football Manager has been fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data giving armchair managers everywhere the most up to date stats to manage their teams with the most realistic management experience available.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP or Vista
• Processor: XP: 1.4GHz or Faster / Vista: 2.0GHz or Faster
• Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon
• Memory: XP: 512MB RAM / Vista: 1.0GB RAM
• Hard Drive Space: 2GB
• DVD-Drive: 4x Speed
• Video Card: 128MB Supported Chipsets: Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 or greater; Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater. Earlier cards may only display 2D Match Viewer Mode and are not supported. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Directx: Version 9.0c (included)
• LAN: TCP/IP compliant
• Input: Keyboard, Mouse

Football Manager 2009 is set for release on Nov. 14th in Europe, Nov. 18 in North America.