How the coronavirus is implemented in Football Manager 2021.
The coronavirus has the world in its grasps and the guys over at Sports Interactive have revealed how COVID-19 is reflected in Football Manager 2021. The new edition of the game will try to reflect the best possible balance between realism and escapism.
After the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic early 2020, Sports Interactive deliberately did not add the virus to their list of injuries nor did they alter the schedules in the database to reflect the current situation in the world. Back then they firmly stated they wanted to offer players a way to 'escape' the real world.
COVID-19 in Football Manager 2021
This has changed for the new Football Manager 2021 as SI have tried to reflect the current state of the world into the game but to also allow players to still escape the real world for a bit while gaming. There have been some changes to the database involving the coronavirus and these are the most important ones:
Coronavirus as an injury
- SI has made it very clear that the virus has NOT been included as an injury.
Fans
- Unlike the real world FM21 will allow fans in the stadiums from the start of the game
Schedules and dates
- Leagues that would normally start in August still start in August as normal
- League that are half way have adjusted schedules but will revert to normal the following season
- Transfer windows have adjusted dates but will revert to normal in the second season.
Finances
- Club finances will be worse than you would expect at the start of a game
- Clubs will try to sign players on loan with an option to buy more
- Clubs in financial troubles will try to offload more players
- As the game progresses money will come back and the clubs will act as normal
Matches
- Substitution rules are related to real life, this will change back to normal in the second season
- Players and subs will not be seen wearing face masks and referees will not be cleaning goal posts before a penalty shoot-out.