The Premier League and Sports Interactive have teamed up in a multi-year licensing partnership to bring official logos, kits, and player photos to future releases of Football Manager in what is the biggest update since the announcement of the new unity engine for FM25.
Starting with the 2024/25 season, all 20 Premier League clubs will be fully licensed in Football Manager which means we can expect to see official logos, kits, and player photos in FM25. This goes alongside the already existing official licensing for the EFL, meaning that a save in England in FM25 will have an extra layer of immersion.
In previous versions of Football Manager, the Premier League would be called the ‘English Premier Division’ with only a handful of clubs had accurate and up to date photos and kits (such as Brighton in FM24) or Watford in FM22, leading many users to download third party kits and logo graphics packs to enhance the realism of a save.
The official Football Manager account on X (formerly Twitter) gave a nod to this in a teaser shortly before the announcement today.
Miles Jacobson of SI said:
Since Football Manager’s inception, we have always wanted to work with the Premier League, and we’re delighted to announce that at last we are.
The partnership isn’t just about the huge in-game benefits it’ll give our fans, but also the opportunities it provides us to help with the incredible things that the Premier League and their clubs do off the pitch. That includes community and charitable work, two things we’re enormously passionate about, as well as the ability to work with some of their existing partners.
We are very grateful to the Premier League and their other partners in our space for allowing us to be an officially licensed product of the world’s most commercially successful football league.
It’s worth noting that further announcements on what exactly the partnership between Football Manager and the Premier League is and how this will look in FM25 are still to be announced, with further reveals to be revealed in the run-up to the release of the game.
You can read the short announcment from Football Manager here.
Unity Engine in FM25
This is one of the first major feature announcements since the update that Football Manager 2025 will introduce the Unity engine for the first time.Best known for powering games like Cities: Skylines, Unity will significantly enhance FM25’s graphics, bringing more realistic visuals to the game, especially for newgen players and 3D matchday experiences.
This includes improvements to player models, stadium exteriors, and crowd aesthetics. The user interface is also expected to undergo changes, modernising the game’s look and feel. While FM25 Mobile won’t initially adopt Unity, future updates will bring a unified experience across platforms.
Women’s Football in FM25
Women’s football will debut in the Football Manager series with the release of Football Manager 25, marking a significant step for both the game and the sport. Sports Interactive has aimed to include women’s football since 2021, and the feature is now confirmed alongside the new Unity graphics engine, as announced by studio director Miles Jacobson in June 2023.
While female staff and managers have appeared in the men’s game in previous versions, FM25 will introduce women’s teams, leagues, and players for the first time. This groundbreaking addition highlights the growing focus on women’s football in gaming.
You can keep up to date with any future Football Manager 25 feature updates with our latest FM25 news articles.