Football Manager 26 subs in a big beta patch with over 300 fixes and improvements, following polarising launch

Oi, gaffer! I know you’re busy trying to work out the exact moment at which we should park the bus and start unleashing the long throw-ins, but you’ll probably want to know about the chunky patch Football Manager 26 devs Sports Interactive have released into Steam beta. It’s aimed at fixing a lit of the initial issues which’ve been causing ire since release earlier this week.

“This update delivers over three hundred fixes and quality of life improvements,” the studio wrote in the Steam announcement of this beta patch. “Key highlights include new preferences for adjusting attribute colours, a preference to turn off/alter the speed of UI transitions, as well as a 1.5x Match Speed option, all introduced in response to your early beta feedback.”

Beyond those, some tweaks which’ve caught my eye include “substantial crash and stability fixes”, “further fixes to matches Freezing at start of the second half in single-player career”, and “manually scouting a player will now correctly delegate an appropriate scout”. Alright, if I’m being honest, those ones just strike me as useful, the following really caught my eye:

• Fixed issue where white match ball would be used in snowy weather
• Fixed issue forcing user to holiday past end of season team meeting
• Overall start/until dates within Club > Finances > Debts & Loans will no longer display 01/01/1900
• Fixed issue where player would reject the own asking price that they themselves had set
• Manager attire choices will now save correctly
• ‘Exit Talks’ button now functions correctly within Contract Negotiations

This barrage of tweaks is just the start, with Sports Interactive revealing: “The next update for the beta track is already underway (details to follow), and it’s set to introduce a legacy preference to advance through messages with the spacebar, which we’ve been working on since the initial beta feedback came in.”

So far Football Manager 26’s critic reception looks pretty mixed, while user reviews have skewed much more negatively. We’ve got our own review in the works, so make sure to look out for that if you’re taking the wait-and-see approach before donning your monogrammed tracksuit.

To give this beta patch a go, you’ll need to head to the manage button on the game’s listing in your Steam library, then properties, then betas, and select public beta from the private betas drop-down menu. It’s the standard path you’ll be familiar with if you’re a veteran of Steam betas.