Still Just Men's Teams? Not interested

[Keithustus]

Based on the rave reviews, I decided that it's time to check in on Football Manger 2016, particularly the Touch edition, and see whether it's ready for me to buy and play it for the first time in many, many years (when it used to be Champion Manager). It still looks like there's no women, really? In today's world?

When will Football Manager do what EA's FIFA has done and finally introduce women? Where are the women players and leagues? Dare I keep my fingers crossed for Football Manager (Touch) 2017?

This year's Touch edition sounds especially fascinating but men's soccer is terribly uninteresting to me. I'm very happy that EA now has at least some women's teams in FIFA but am still hesitant to buy even that game since it doesn't include leagues and only having twelve teams is a joke.

In case you're going to say women's soccer isn't popular enough, please note the excellent attendance and TV viewership numbers from London 2012 and Canada 2015. Even a few women's leagues (e.g. NWSL, D1F, Frauen-Bundesliga) are at least as popular as some of the non-EPL men's leagues already in the game.

[Marc Vaughan]

I'd be happy for us to include womens football in the game, however it'd be a largely very different game because of the difference in contracts and such within that side of things at present.

It's possible at some point in the future they might be included, however at present this isn't something planned.

PS - Personally I've never quite understood why things are segregated into mens/womens leagues; I have no doubt that the best women can hold their own in the professional leagues and as they established themselves I'd see no reason why the best in the world couldn't be female ... incidentally I play in mixed leagues in Florida and regularly get turned inside out by lasses on a weekly basis

Technically under current FA rules its 'possible' that a lady could play in the English Premiership - but only up until the age of 18 (at which point the FA appears to enforce splitting the sexes into seperate games) - http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32848757

[Jamie King]

I think Miles has said before in previous Q&A's that when there are 5 professional women's leagues that have good attendances and viewership then it'll be very strongly considered for the main FM PC game (and so subsequently FMT/FMM).

For leagues to be fully supported, this would mean having researchers on hand to report on every club's players & staff, as well as the existing league and cup structures in the various countries and everything Marc mentioned. So it's certainly not a simple task.