Football Manager is a long-running and successful football (soccer, for Americans) management simulation series. The most recent entry, Football Manager 21, just released on November 24. In a recent interview about the game, the game's director shared some interesting information, including that some player agents have offered him bribes.
Speaking on the podcast The Athletic UK, Football Manager director Miles Jacobson talked about the challenges that he and his team face in releasing a new game in the series each year. There are a lot of things to know about Football Manager, some of which fans are aware of, but according to Jacobson he has been reached out to many times by agents and players who want their in-game ratings to be improved.
The director said those individuals try to bribe him with stuff, but he quickly denies them. He said that they know to never ask him again because he's not one for bribing. Football Manager 21 is a fairly-well-received game, but for some players featured, they may think the game would be even better if they were rated higher. However, Jacobson makes it clear that to improve those ratings, the players need to improve their play on the pitch, not try to offer bribes for better results.
When The Athletic UK attempted to promote the podcast episode about Football Manager and its talk with Jacobson, it accidentally noted that he "received bribes" from agents to boost stats. This makes it look like the bribes were successful, but Jacobson jumped onto Twitter to clarify the situation and assure fans that he refused any bribes he has been offered, rather than accepting them. Despite this, it is often comical to see players react to their in-game ratings, be it through Football Manager or other sports times.
When thinking about football/soccer games, FIFA is usually the first that comes to mind, but there are some great non-FIFA football games and Football Manager is among the franchises on that list. For any pros who are unhappy with their ratings in the video game, however, they should focus on simply be better out on the field. It doesn't seem like they will get anywhere trying to bribe Miles Jacobson and the Football Manager development team.
Football Manager 2021 is out now on PC and Mobile, with plans to release on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on December 1.