reviewed [Suggestion] Women's Leagues

[goqs06]

The Women's Super League is gaining traction all the time thanks to broadcasting deals with the BBC and BT Sport, as well as the impressive feats of England's Lionesses in international tournaments. Women's football is also hugely popular in overseas territories, such as North America, and in recent years, has been represented in another bestselling video game series, FIFA.

Isn't it about time Football Manager followed suit? The 2018 instalment was the first to feature female coach avatars, marking a small step forward on this front. Let's hope that move was to foreshadow the arrival of women's leagues in the next edition.

So, what would the introduction of women's football actually bring to the FM series, besides brownie points for gender inclusiveness? Aside from all-new content and challenges, it would make the next instalment a more authentic simulation of the sport.

In real life, Phil Neville recently crossed over into the women's game to coach the Lionesses. With female teams featured in FM19, your career path could mirror his. Whether that's a good thing per say is debatable, but it would at least add realism.

Football Manager claims it's the most authentic, in-depth simulation of the sport out there, and while that's true, there's an entire section the game it's failing to represent

[CFuller]

To be honest, EA are just about doing the bare minimum to represent women's football by including a select number of national teams in FIFA.

If SI are to include women's football in FM, they're going to do it properly. This would require years of research, extra resources, and perhaps a second ME that reflects the differences in women's football compared to the men's game.

As far as Miles Jacobson is concerned, women's football needs to reach a certain level of popularity before it is financially viable to include it in FM. A few years ago, he said that he'd consider it if 10 major women's leagues got Championship-level attendances. To put that into perspective, as of 2017, WSL attendances are barely in line with the National League right now.

As has been said many times in many topics before, while including the women's game would look like a good idea to some users, it realistically isn't going to happen in FM for a while yet.

[Luke Rumble]

Reviewed so locked.