FM24
Football Manager 2023FM23
Football Manager 2022FM22
Football Manager 2021FM21
Football Manager 2020FM20
Football Manager 2019FM19
Football Manager 2018FM18
Football Manager 2017FM17
Eastside Hockey Manager (2015)EHM15
Football Manager 2016FM16
Football Manager OnlineFMO
Football Manager 2015FM15
Football Manager 2014FM14
Football Manager 2013FM13
Football Manager 2012FM12
Football Manager 2011FM11
Football Manager 2010FM10
Football Manager LiveFMLIVE
Football Manager 2009FM09
Football Manager 2008FM08
Football Manager 2007FM07
NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007EHM07
Football Manager 2006FM06
NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005EHM05
Football Manager 2005FM05
NHL Eastside Hockey ManagerEHM
10 years of games before FM94-04
Released: 05/11/2004
Platforms:
After many years' success with Championship Manager, Sports Interactive started a new chapter in its history by partnering with SEGA to release the very first Football Manager title.
Fittingly, Football Manager 2005 is best remembered for the enormous depth of its coveted database, the heart of the series. 2,500 researchers around the world pitched in to ensure players could play as over 5,300 teams in 158 divisions from 51 league countries.
Whatever fantasy you wanted to pursue, whether it was taking your home country to the World Cup or saving your hometown from relegation, the chances are you could do it, wherever in the world you happened to call home.
The advent of Football Manager also gave us the chance to rethink how we presented the game. While the interface wasn't overhauled as radically as it would be a few years later, additions like browser-style 'forward' and 'back' buttons were appreciated in a time when web tech was only just starting to cross over into mainstream interface design.
FM05 was also the first time players could engage in media mind games, picking from stock phrases to send rival managers into uproar. As for the gaming media, they recognised Football Manager was picking up where they had left off.
Significant Innovations
- Unprecedented Database Depth - Sports Interactive's not-so-secret weapon was the huge research that went into its football database, bigger than ever in FM05 with over 5,000 playable teams.
- New Series, New Look - The first Football Manager game introduced browser-style navigation buttons and grouped information more intuitively than ever.
- Media Mind Games - For the first time in the series, players could stoke rivalries by distracting other managers with pithy takedowns in the press.
- Control Creative Freedom - Managers could dictate their team's creative freedom, width and tempo, using slider bars to maximise accuracy.
- Optimised Data Engine - Football Manager now processed a lot of the action behind the scenes while you played, rather than waiting to be told to do so, reducing the amount of time spent watching progress bars with crossed fingers.
WHAT THEY SAID
4/5
"The incredible detail in the database throws up unexpected but fascinating situations during a season, making Football Manager 2005 almost painfully addictive. As a Tottenham Hotspur fan, I have already proved that I can do a better job of managing the club than the now-departed Jacques Santini, and have the added joy of bossing around and giving a humiliating nickname to new boss Martin Jol."
9/10
"Football Manager 2005 is the only football management game worth bothering with if you've got any real interest in the game."
9/10
"If you are serious about football and fancy yourself as the next Jose Mourinho (probably without the huge money pit), you could easily spend half your life playing Football Manager 2005."
