The release of Football Manager 2025 has been delayed until March 2025.
The simulation management video game, first released back in 2004, has become a fan-favourite with the annual edition eagerly awaited by many.
FM25 was meant to be launching on November 26 with many fans already pre-purchasing the game.
But it now looks as though fans are going to have to wait until next year to enjoy the new instalment.
Taking to social media to announce the news, game developer Sports Interactive published a length explanation for fans.
A statement read: “After careful consideration Sports Interactive have made the tough decision to further delay the release of Football Manager 25.
“Following discussions with SEGA our licensors and partners, we have agreed the best course of action is to delay the launch until March 2025. Specific platform release dates will follow once confirmed.
“In our last development update in September, we explained that we needed to push FM25’s original release back to give ourselves more time to deliver the best possible experience for this first instalment in a new era of Football Manager.
“This additional time has not been sufficient to ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards.
“In the previous blog, we explained that it has been a difficult development cycle for the studio. Many things have been moving slower than we had predicted – despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done.
“Timelines were already tight and, as rightly pointed out by many of your recent comments, we were simply rushing too much and in danger of compromising our usual standards.
“This has put in an enormous amount of pressure on everyone working across the studio who are all passionately committed to delivering the best game possible.
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“FM25 is the biggest technical and visual advancement in the series for a generation. We simply cannot compromise the delivery of this crucial juncture in Football Manager’s history by rushing to release it in November.
“Of course, this is not where any of us expected to be seven weeks out from our release but, in the spirit of our studio values, we always consider the bigger picture – and the bigger picture here is that we need this additional time to deliver a game that we can all be proud of.
“For the large numbers of you who have already pre-ordered the game we thank you very much for your trust and support. Given the delay, however, should you wish to claim a refund, please contact your retailer.
“Something you noted as missing from our announcement on 30 September was mention of Advanced Access on PC / Mac.
“We can confirm Advanced Access will be available ahead of the new release date and, when we are confident on how long that period will be, we will update you at the first opportunity.
“The new gameplay reveal will also now move to the end of January 2025.
“We are intensely aware that this will be massively disappointing for you. We share that disappointment and are extremely sorry.
“Thank you for reading and your patience. It means the world to us as we continue to work on creating a new era for Football Manager.”
But the news has not gone down well at all with fans of the game, who have taken to social media to air their frustrations.
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One wrote: “NO WAY YOU GUYS AIN’T SERIOUS.”
Another echoed: “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.”
But a third wrote: “I don’t need a new Football Manager 25 in March. The season is about to end and I need a Football Manager 26 at this point. There is no reason to buy 25 when the season is about to end and the next FM is on the way…”
Indeed, the underlying consensus from game-players is that the game release coming so late in the football season makes it lose much of its appeal – with people largely suggesting the developers just focus on the 2026 edition of the game.
One fan wrote: “Season will be over by that point might as well just skip 25.”
A more worried fan added: “Really hope this isn’t the beginning of the end of FM… but I’m scared.”
The developers have released an edition of the game every year since its launch though, so skipping a version of Football Manager in 2025 seems highly unlikely.