Football Manager 2009 interview

On the eve of the much-awaited release of Football Manager 2009, the game's creators, Paul & Oliver Collyer and Miles Jacobson, talk to Shortlist about statistics, racism and a band called 'Elevate'. You can read more of this interview by clicking here.

By Nick Pettigrew

Every release of FM sees fans look for two things – new players and new features. With its 350,000+ database of players, the 2009 version will certainly satisfy that first desire, whether it's quantifying just how inept Titus Bramble really is or seeing if the Venezuelan second division have any decent reserve goalkeepers. And alongside the much-anticipated 3D match engine, there's more to look out for.

"We've introduced improved in-depth figures for players' performances" says Jacobson "So, for instance, you can check to see how far somebody has run during a particular game." It's another layer of realism for football fans used to seeing the OPTA-produced statistics of the real game.

However, the meticulously-researched stats have been challenged professional footballers in the past. "We had a couple of players contact us about their respective marks for dribbling ability" says Jacobson. "One of them was annoyed that he'd been scored lower than his teammate, so he challenged him to a training-ground test, which he won. We didn't alter their figures, though."

Football Manager 2009 will also benefit from online updates hosted by the STEAM website, ensuring the game retains optimum accuracy. And individual footballers can be taught 'preferred moves' so your player can be taught to try the Gerrard '35-yard piledriver', the Ronaldo '36 stepover wiggle' or the Drogba 'fall over if somebody blinks at you' manoeuvres. Although, as Jacobson points out, if you try and get your 6' 5" centre back to try shimmying runs with the ball, it might not be the best idea.

One unwelcome area of modern football that isn't included in FM is the issue of racism. "We feature the 'Kick Racism Out Of Football' campaign heavily in the game" says Jacobson. But surely, given events in recent European matches, the issue of racist fans is an important one? "Sure" says Jacobson "But it's an aspect of football we don't want to highlight. Also, we felt that it would make the game more sensationalist. And we'd run the risk of the game branding a particular set of supporters, which we'd never want to do. We'd open ourselves up for accusations of defamation." For similar reasons, some of the shadier aspects of football transfers have no place in the FM world.

Despite these understandable omissions, FM09 has the wealth of facts and figures the title is famed for. The attention to detail is backed by a host of staff including 15 in-house game testers, who surely rival Playboy proofreaders for the title of "Best job in the world", as well as translators for 17 different languages.

Despite the massive scope of the game's development, Sports Interactive still has the feel of a small, tightly knit community. On the day of our interview, several workers dressed in full SI Games football kit chat to Miles about the five-a-side game they'd just played during lunch. And the 900-strong scouting network is overseen by a childhood friend of Miles from school.

Indeed, Miles and the Collyer brothers have known each other since their university days, when the brothers Collyer were in a band called 'Elevate' and Jacobson was beginning work in the music industry. "I tried to sign them at the time" says Jacobson. "And we turned him down" counters Paul, drily.

Fortunately, for the legion of Football Manager fans, their current professional relationship has proven far more fruitful.

Football Manager 2009 for PC and Mac and Football Manager Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP are released on Friday 14th November.

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