Covid in Football Manager 2022

We're into the second year since the covid pandemic entered our lives and still is a reality without clearly knowing when it will end exactly.

Miles Jacobson - Sports Interactive studio director - posted an official FM22 development update, which provides insight on what we can expect from Football Manager 2022 in terms of covid implications.

Covid continues to cause issues in the world of football. The virus is still hitting players, making them unavailable to play and isolation is still a factor in some territories. Crowds are back in most leagues, but we’re still far from capacity.

However, SI will try once again to strike the best possible balance between realism and escapism.

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As far as escapism is concerned:

• Covid will NOT be in the game.
  
• Players will not miss matches because of Covid
  
• Players will not need to isolate when returning from holiday.
  
• Health officials will NOT come onto the pitch to call off friendlies because some players haven’t followed the local isolation rules.
  
• Crowds will fill stadiums to pre-pandemic levels.
  
• Handshakes are still there too, as the community voted for last year.
  

Now for the realism side of things:

• Made further changes to an already flexible transfer system to try and make that area as accurate as possible.
  
• Many more clubs than normal will start the game with much smaller budgets available.
  
• With decimated finances, some clubs will have to try and sell players, while others will struggle to reduce their squad sizes and wage bills.
  

In a nutshell:

While the pandemic may not be going away any time soon, in FM22 it’s as over as it can be. Just don’t expect big transfer budgets year one.

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