08 Oct 2019 Football Manager 2020 Release Date: When is FM 20 out, 25 new features explained, trailer & more

A new iteration of FM brings about a new reason to spend about 34 uninterrupted hours in front of a screen, and this year’s version looks every bit as binge-worthy as the last. Below is a round-up of everything you need to know, including Football Manager 2020’s release date, the trailer, pre-order information and a breakdown of 25 new features.

Still squeezing the juice out of FM 19 before FM 2020 drops? Check out some of our list of the 15 best teams to manage by clicking here.

Football Manager 2020 release date

FM 2020 will be released on November 19 2019, a few days later than usual for most versions of Football Manager. But the new version will definitely be worth the wait, as we explain below.

As ever, Football Manager 2020 will be released on PC/Mac, while Football Manager Touch, the streamlined version should be available on iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. Although, Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive, dismissed the idea of FM 2020 being released on Playstation 4 or Xbox One. Jacobson responded to a fan on Twitter who queried this with a response explaining how sales for Football Manager Touch on Nintendo Switch have been ‘far from a success’.

Trailer

How can I pre-order Football Manager 2020?

Football Manager 2020 is expected to cost £39.99 on PC/Mac and £9.99 for Touch. You net an ‘early signing bonus’ and earn 10% off the game if you pre-order it through Steam, which you can do here.

What are the new features in Football Manager 2020?

Club vision – FM20 will feature a revamped, more club-specific boardroom experience with an added of a focus on long-term progression.

Graphic improvements –  As is often the case, the quality of gameplay graphics elevate year-on-year and Football Manager 20 should be no different.

Backroom staff –  The non-playing members of your football club will offer you more support and there will be new staff roles included on FM 2020, such as the addition of a ‘loan manager’, as well as improved advice and feedback.

Playing time pathway –  Player development should be easier to stay across as you will now have more control over which youngsters you choose to develop while still keeping a close eye on existing key first-team players.

Other new features

In a series of fan-lead ‘Twitpolls’, Miles Jacobson shone further light on some of FM 2020’s smaller refinements. Those new changes include:

• The ability to send a player on an intensive language course when they are loaned back to their parent club as part of a transfer deal
• When setting the transfer type as ‘sell at any price’ it locks in the minimum acceptable value of £0, rather than the price previously set
• Better modelling of higher-profile clubs taking some competitions less seriously, so more likely to use squad & youth players for tournaments like the League Cup/Euro Cup
• New-gens can now have more dynamic personalities that change over time depending on more circumstances in game
• Better modelling of the players who receive medals for competition wins
• You can now negotiate which club will pay the salary of a player being loaned back to a club as part of a transfer
• Better modelling of staff roles at clubs so that the correct members of backroom staff are assigned to their real life tasks, not just job names
• A revamped preferences section
• When players are released, particularly when at lower levels or when youth players are released at top levels, they are now much more likely to join clubs local to the club they’re released from should they have multiple choices
• Better modelling of staff progression – for example, young coaches will improve quicker when working with better or more experienced coaches, scouts & analysts will improve quicker by regularly scouting and doing more analysis
• The ability to ask your board to allow you to have a B team when managing in countries where they are allowed
• You can also now request a reserve team from your board should you not already have one
• New conversation options added for when players have to be sold to help with financial fair play
• Season bonuses for staff as well as players
• With certain B teams, such as those in Portgual where B teams are more reserve teams not separate clubs, you can now request which B team players attend first-team training sessions
• Huge improvements to the way MLS B teams work- full code refactor, real-life affiliations now set, much better AI to decide who should be moved to the B-team, & vice versa
• The possibility to request the board apply to use the A-League FFA Marquee player fund when playing in the A-League, up to a maximum of 3m AUD per season for the entire league
• Better modelling of new-gens for Basque region clubs whose players had previously been skewed to the countries they were based in, rather than the region they cover
• New squad registration rules for Norway, so if managing in Norway you now have to set A-List & B-List squads, with B squad players only allowed to play 3 league matches a season
• A new search filter for which country staff are based in