I'm not much of a sports fan; infact, I hardly ever watch sports. Needless to say, I'm not much of a fan of sports games either. However, there is a particular genre of sports games that has managed to pique my curiosity now and then over the years and those are football (soccer for NA residents) management simulations.

Probably due to my love for strategy/simulation games, I always found these games interesting. However, I've only rarely actually tried them out; most of my experience with them involves watching others play them. I had a friend who was big on Total Club Manager; also, my brother spent a lot of time with an older (probably from the early 90's) management game where you were restricted to the English leagues, you could check the teletext for info, you could make an illegal bet against your own team and, if you played it for too long, the game would start to glitch up with lines drawing themselves on the stadium screen.

Anyway, since I've been spending a lot of time playing PC games lately, I want to remedy the fact that I haven't really taken my time to play one of these. However, much like other sports games, the games in this genre (most notably Football Manager and FIFA Manager) have had yearly instalments and there are also some older management games. So I'm preety confused as to which one I should play.

Does anyone here have any recommendations?

While this topic concerned sports management sims in general, there was some good feedback relating to football management sims:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/sports_management_sims

If you're not sure yet, then try to get a 1 or 2 year old version of Football Manager or FIFA Manager for cheap. They won't have the newest database, but cost only a fraction of the full price. Here in Germany, older versions of FIFA Manager are usually available for 5-20 € (depending on their age).

FIFA Manager generally has the better presentation, more eye candy, and more "funny" elements such as events simulating the manager's private life. It is the better choice if you like to actually watch the games in high quality. The last version that I checked thoroughly had some weird issues (header goals being almost impossible, youth talents being too predictable and ultimately too strong), but this was a couple of years ago, it may have been fixed in the meantime.

Football Manager has better tactics and is a slightly more "serious" simulation, but watching the games is less fun. (I would also recommend to watch the games in 2d, since the 3d engine still has problems and weird player behavior.) Also, there is no live commentary, so the experience of watching the games will feel less like watching an actual game on TV. But it is the better choice if you enjoy the tactical part of football management.

I also tried "Premier Manager" recently, but can't recommend it. Extremely inefficient interface, and the matches are played by huge players on a tiny pitch. Their formation and running paths didn't resemble anything I know from real football, and the passing was horrible even with a team that should have been good at it.

This is on sale right now :


http://www.gog.com/gamecard/sensible_world_of_soccer_9697

That is an arcade game, not a management simulation.

Misread...

Pretty much Football Manager series vs FIFA Manager series

Football Manager http://www.sigames.com/ has all the accurate player details, stats and simulation (formerly known as Championship Manager before the split years ago. the player base was brought over to FM. The rest went to a new game called Championship Manager - they kept name but game was shit compared to FM. FM is done by the original programmers who started the Championship Manager franchise). Best selling football sim in UK (and europe). Very addictive. Check the numbers on Steam using it.

FIFA Manager is EA's attempt at a football sim. Its graphics uses fifa soccers graphics engine to simulation games and this part is better than FM's, however the way the game plays, stats, play details, mechanics are nowhere as good as FM's.

Both have official licenses. Football Manager is normally cheaper and have been on sale recently. Is Steam activated though. Fifa Manager is EA Origin only. Football Manager has the much better support and actively worked on by devs and large community.

Those are pretty much the big two to choose from. Basically Football Manager has the better pedigree and stats and accurate player details and active community (lots of addicts lol). FIFA Manager has the much better graphics in terms of representing what is happening on screen during a match.