Football Manager developer Sports Interactive has announced that it's secured a four-year licensing deal with the Premier League, the biggest league in English football.
According to a press release, the football (if you're expecting me to call it "soccer", you're out of luck) management sim will include all 20 Premier League clubs starting from the 2024/25 season.
Those clubs will come complete with their official logos, player lineups, and kits, and you'll also see authentic player photos for each player, bringing you that much closer to your dream of being a Premier League manager.
While individual teams such as Brighton & Hove Albion or Manchester City have featured as licenses in Football Manager games, they were usually included as part of other leagues or tournaments.
This deal marks the first time the full Premier League has been available in a Football Manager game, and given that many of the series' players likely hail from the UK, this is a pretty big deal.
Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson says it's always been his studio's dream to work with the Premier League, and he's "delighted" that the deal has finally come to pass.
Premier League CCO Will Brass, for his part, says Football Manager represents a "big part of the sporting landscape", and that the inclusion of the Premier League in the game will help to "deliver a deeper, more authentic experience".
We'll get more info about the partnership between Football Manager and the Premier League later in the year, so stay tuned for more on that.
If you're wondering exactly what Football Manager is, well, it's a football management sim series that's been running since 1992 in one form or another.
The series debuted as Championship Manager, but became Football Manager after the controversial release of 2003's Championship Manager 4, which saw developer Sports Interactive switch to Sega for future series installments (as well as the name change).
Championship Manager continued in various forms for a number of years, but no new games have been released in that franchise for a while, leaving Football Manager at the top of its rather lonely league table.
You can check out the latest Football Manager game, Football Manager 2024, right now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
