Politics! It’s a dirty word and really hard to discuss here in Malaysia. Perhaps it is also a messy conversation over at the UK too, with the discussions of the UK leaving the European Union (EU), also known as Brexit. It’s complicated because despite a referendum vote by the public in favour of Brexit, the current government over there has yet to make the move, though it could happen sooner rather than later.
So what does Brexit have to do with Football Manager 17, a game about mostly looking at spreadsheets and numbers? As most politcal decisions, it does have its repercussions, even in the football world. As shown from this screenshot below, it affects players’ work permit, and thus will complicate the matters of getting players outside of the UK post-Brexit. Then there’s the case of visas and homegrown status of players being affected as well.
As such, developers Sports Interactive will make FM17 simulate three different scenarios of Brexit, each will affect your game in different ways. Check out the full rundown of it at Rock Paper Shotgun.
So, what are the cool new features of Football Manager 17? Most of them are under the hood improvements. Better match engine, better AI at signing transfers, the backroom staff of coaches and two new roles (analyst and sports scientist) will play a bigger role, some UI tweaks, a social media tab along with the good old inbox, and more. Sports Interactive made a 30-minute video for all the new features being added, so if you interest to learning everything that FM17 offers, have a look:
Football Manager 17 seems like another normal yearly iteration of the game, no game-changing features. But the inclusion of a simulated Brexit will surely be exclusive to this iteration, which is in our opinion the most interesting addition to the game.