Football Manager goes online

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here

SEGA Europe has announced Football Manager Live, a brand new massively multiplayer online game from Sports Interactive.

Football Manager Live will enable players to build a club from scratch to compete against friends and rivals online. Set up mini-leagues against friends, bid for players in auctions and compete in live matches 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Servers will be limited to 1000 managers, presumably to prevent problems that would arise from a world of 1 million + managers competing for the same players.

Matches take place in real-time with a range of tactical options available to managers to control while they follow the match via a realistic 2D match engine. In-game chat also means that rival managers can exchange words on the virtual touchline.

Being able to start a club from scratch means that a host of options will be available to the player. These include the basics such as choosing your club name, colours, badge and pitch size, through to the balancing of the finances and the buying and selling of players.

“With Football Manager Live, we’re ripping up the script that says how online football management games should work,” said Sports Interactive co-founder Oliver Collyer. “We’re creating something that is fun, challenging and sociable.“

Football Manager Live is scheduled for full release in spring 2008, with a beta test set to begin in May, 2007. For details on how to take part in the beta head over to footballmanagerlive.com.