Sports Interactive has revealed how many women’s leagues will be coming to the upcoming Football Manager 26 (FM26) game.
Women’s football will debut in FM26, after several years of planning for its introduction.
It had been lined up to debut in Football Manager 25, before the game was cancelled after two delays.
FM26 was first announced back in August and fans of women’s football have been eagerly awaiting details for how it will be introduced to the game.
FM26 to feature 14 playable women’s leagues
The first details surrounding women’s football in FM26 have been revealed in a post on the game’s social media accounts on Monday.
In a video hosted by presenter Kelly Somers, it was revealed that there will be 14 playable women’s leagues in FM26.
Somers said: “It’s a whole new chapter in the Football Manager story.
“With 14 leagues across 11 nations and three continents, including some of the biggest licenses in the women’s game.”
#FM26 will introduce women's football with playable leagues from across the globe 🌍
This week, we'll dive deeper into this new chapter in the FM story 📖
Stay tuned, more news coming soon… pic.twitter.com/YiYCg2NfA5
— Football Manager (@FootballManager) September 15, 2025
The post also appeared to suggest that more details will be released this week.
Many will expect that the Women’s Super League and the National Women’s Soccer League will be among those available to play in the game.
Sports Interactive studio director, Miles Jacobson, as per FM Scout, said that over 35,000 women’s players have been rated for inclusion in the game. The database also reportedly includes around 4,000 teams.
Other new features in the game include a revamped user interface, enhanced player movement and greater on-pitch detail.
When is FM26 released?
FM26 will be released on PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5 and mobile devices on Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.
The PC version of the game is already available to pre-order online.
Why was FM25 cancelled?
This will be the first Football Manager game in two years after Sports Interactive decided to cancel FM25 after two delays.
In a statement published in February, the developers wrote: “Sports Interactive regrets to inform that, following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift our focus on the next release.”
It added: “Due to a variety of challenges that we’ve been open about, and many more unforeseen, we currently haven’t achieved what we set out to do in enough areas of the game, despite the phenomenal efforts of our team.”
“Each decision to delay the release was made with the aim of getting the game closer to the desired level but as we approached critical deadlines at the turn of the year, it became unmistakably clear that we would not achieve the standard required.”
