Football Manager are removing another feature from the game and fans are divided

Football Manager have decided to remove another feature from their 2025 game - and fans have differing views.

The upcoming game will see a major overhaul to the match engine system, with the developers, Sports Interactive, moving over to Unity.

The standard of graphics on the match engine - which hasn't had a significant change for many iterations of the series - will be getting a major upgrade.

There will also be the addition of women's football for the first time ever in the Football Manager series, with that being part of the same ecosystem as men's football.

In the past, players could play women's football through mods, but would only be able to create male players in-game.

But as a result of the time spent on implementing those new additions, as well as the technical challenges surrounding the new engine, Sports Interactive have had to make some changes in other areas of the game.

Each Football Manager is usually scheduled to release in early November, giving players around six weeks to play before Christmas arrives.

But in a new Development Update posted earlier this week, Sports Interactive chief Miles Jacobson has confirmed that the game will be released in late November instead.

One of the other significant decisions, though, is that international football will not be a part of FM25.

Jacobson says that their plans for international football 'wouldn't reach our initial quality threshold', and that research showed that they needed to do 'much, much better' with the mode in time for FM26.

Another change that has divided fans is the removal of player weights as a visible base game stat.

The stat will still be built into the game, but will only be visible through using the free Database Editor or the In-Game Editor.

Football Manager 25 Development Update

Studio Director Miles Jacobson provides an update ahead of the start of our FM25 cycle.

— Football Manager (@FootballManager) September 4, 2024

Explaining Sports Interactive's decision, Jacobson wrote: "Through the creation of our Women's Football database, we discovered that while the weight of male athletes can change a bit month to month, women's body types are very different from men's and their weight fluctuates a lot more, often weekly.

"This perspective encouraged us to review the wider game, much like we have with all other areas, and we've ultimately decided to no longer show weight for any players in FM25.

"A very basic measurement will still be included under the hood, but it won't be visible on the front end anymore."

Despite that explanation, fans were still left divided by the change.

One wrote: "It makes no sense at all when you think about it. It's sort of implied that the weight displayed is an average anyway."

A second asked: "If player weight is still being used under the hood, then why hide it under a hood at all?"

But others didn't see any issues with the move, with one fan writing: "Never signed a player based on their weight so don't know why it becoming a hidden value is an issue."

A second agreed: "I've seen many complain about this, yet weight is merely a cosmetic in FM games."

A third stated: "Makes complete sense to pull weight from the visible data, very inclusive move."

And a fourth claimed: "Have no idea why people are getting so mad about no visible weight in a player's profile. Can't see it will make any difference to how anyone plays the game."