The cancellation of Football Manager 25 was critical to the quality of the next installment in the series, according to Ant Farley, design manager at Sports Interactive.
In an interview, he emphasized that without canceling last year's project, FM26 "would never have reached its current level of development."
The new game is being created on the Unity engine, bidding farewell to the previous SI Operating System. The transition to the new technology caused numerous delays, feature cuts, and ultimately the cancellation of FM25. Farley admitted that the decision was difficult but necessary:
"We couldn't have released a game we were proud of. Continuing the old project would have only meant fixing mistakes."
According to the developer, the team's initial disappointment quickly turned into motivation:
"FM25 didn't provide the value our players expect. After the cancellation, there was a determination to make FM26 exactly that—well-developed and worthy of the brand."
The premiere is scheduled for November 4, 2025.
