Football Manager 2026 officially launches worldwide today, with the Genero Adran Premier included on the game for the first time.
This is the first edition of the popular video game, played by over 19 million users, which features women’s football – a move that is significant for visibility and awareness.
“Research for women’s football to be included in the game has been ongoing for several years now,” says Harry Ware, Football Manager’s Head of Women’s Research in Wales.
“That was to ensure it was introduced to the game as accurately as possible and that it represents women’s football in a realistic way. I’ve been researching the Adran Premier since I went to university in 2022, but the work with Football Manager officially began a year later when it was proposed to add the league to the game.”
The Genero Adran Premier is fully licensed in FM26 – with official player photos, club logos and kits – and is one of just 14 playable women’s leagues, standing alongside the likes of the Barclays Women’s Super League (England) and National Women’s Soccer League (USA).
Although the league may not have the same stature as some of those counterparts, Ware says there was plenty of attraction for the game’s developers.
“It’s a league with a lot of potential in several areas. Each club in the Adran Premier has their own story to where they are now, but stories which aren’t recognised as widely as they could be. There’s been an increase in exposure for the league in recent years too, and this can help advance that.
“There’s also lots of talent and fascinating football careers within the Genero Adran Premier. The inclusion of the league in Football Manager allows people to learn about the upcoming players within the domestic game, but also the pathways that players have taken in the past.”
Football Manager is known for its extensive and detailed database of men’s players around the world and creating similar for the women’s game – starting from a blank canvas – was no easy task.
However, a team of dedicated women’s football researchers, of which Ware is one, have built a database that consists of more than 36,000 players and a further 5,000 non-players. Around 900 of those players are from the Genero Adran Leagues.
“The database for women’s football has been built from scratch, right from originally just adding names and base squads to the teams, which can be tricky with the limited historical data in women’s football as a whole,” says Ware.
“For each individual player, there’s several things you have to implement. A big motivation for me in my research was ensuring the history of players and clubs was painted as accurately as possible, so this was a big focus point from the start.
“We’re also looking for international appearances – for example Caitlin Chapman with Gibraltar, former Cymru internationals such as Ffion Price and Maria Francis-Jones – to ensure people can see that these particular players have represented their country. Additionally to this, we added accolades and league appearances and goals for each player.”
The game also reflects real life as Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham sporadically choose to play games at the Cardiff City Stadium, Swansea City Stadium and the Racecourse respectively – adding another level of authenticity.
There is sure to be plenty of interest among players around their ‘attributes’ in the game. These elements, scored out of 20, include technical qualities such as passing, finishing and tackling, physical characteristics such as pace, stamina and strength and mental traits such as composure, leadership and teamwork.
With video clips often in short supply, Ware’s dedication to ensuring these are as accurate as possible has been impressive.
“Several sources of information have gone into deciding attributes for each player. A main one is collecting primary data at the games themselves. A lot of travelling has been involved particularly for the Welsh women’s data, where footage and initial information at times is just unavailable.
“We’ve sourced footage where possible, which can be a massive boost in ensuring the accuracy of these attributes. There has also been secondary perspectives from players and coaches on many aspects of the data, to ensure there’s as much validity as possible.”
On larger databases, such as those on the PC/Mac version of the game, clubs and players from the Genero Adran North and Genero Adran South are also included. Those teams can then be controlled if they win promotion in-game.
“Tier two players will also be in the game, in order to create a more authentic transfer window, but most importantly to improve the representation of players in the leagues,” Ware says.
“This has meant that on release of Football Manager 26, you can choose from just over 900 players from across the domestic leagues in Wales alone.
“While users can’t control clubs from tier two, players from these teams can be signed to playable clubs. Transfers between tier one and two is common, so to have this in the game is an important addition.”
Football Manager 2026 is available to purchase on Windows, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
