Football Manager 2022 is the latest sports game to show its stance following events in Ukraine.
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The arrival of the Final Content Update has seen major changes across the board, with FM gaffer Miles Jacobson penning a blog post to explain the reasoning behind certain decisions.
Real World Changes
As ever, Football Manager has made adjustments to reflect the state of the world, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine having a massive impact on this final update.
The update was delayed a few weeks ago following the initial invasion, with Jacobson taking to Twitter to confirm.
Now, with the arrival of the Final Content Update, we now know the extent to which Russian clubs/national sides will be affected.
Russian clubs will now no longer be eligible to compete in European competitions, nor will the Russian national team be able to compete in international football of any kind, including tournaments such as the World Cup.
Ukrainian players will also be treated as EU nationals for the first three seasons of any new save you being in Football Manager 2022, reflecting the real-life situation of Ukrainian refugees being granted eligibility to work freely in the EU for up to three years without the need of a visa or work permit.
You can read Miles' full blog post here.
Necessary Changes
When the Covid-19 Pandemic began, Football Manager made the conscious decision to keep it away from their game, citing reasons of escapism.
Whilst the argument could be made for the reason logic to be shown here, the extremity of Russia's actions in Ukraine have led Football Manager with no choice.
As Jacobson articulates in his article, Football Manager's continued strong relationship with War Child could not permit them to turn a blind eye.
The vast majority of these changes will only come into action when you begin a new save in Football Manager 2022.
FM22 Final Content Update
Football Manager 2022 has received one final face-lift, with competition updates, updates to AI transfer negotiations and the trusty stability fixes.
Changes in the 22.4 update include:
- Data Updates including transfer windows closing end of February
- Stability and crash fixes including fix for
- Addressed issue where Pre-Game Editor may not launch correctly on Windows Store/Game Pass
- Fix to allow user to change manager player picture
- Tweaks for AI loan offers, meaning less zero amount contributions
- Various network connectivity improvements for online modes
- Fix for keyboard shortcut settings in preferences
- Number of competition tweaks and updates, including 2022 promotion/relegation updates for a number of leagues outside of standard European calendar
- Multiple gameplay and database changes to reflect the current geopolitical situation as documented in Miles’s blog
Certain changes are sure to be music to Football Manager fans' ears, with the tweaking of AI transfer negotiations already raising a slight smile on our own faces.
The FM pre-game editor has also been tweaked, with the frustrating bug that saw players unable to load the tool now being fixed.
Click here to find out everything you need to know about the Final Content Update.
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