FIFAe and Sports Interactive have announced the launch of the FIFAe Club World Cup 26™ featuring Football Manager.
According to FIFAe, FIFA’s football esports division, registrations are open for professional, semi-professional, and amateur football clubs worldwide on FIFA.GG, offering places in the online qualifiers.
“From press conferences to transfers and tactics, represent your club on the global stage and become the first-ever champion of this new competition,” stated FIFAe on social media.
The online qualifiers act as a pathway to the FIFAe Club World Cup 26™ featuring Football Manager. Clubs, represented by participating players, will compete in several online match weeks, where the players’ performance will determine which teams qualify for the main event.
FIFAe has shared that it will publish more information on competition format, schedule, roster requirements, and operational processes for the online qualifiers in the coming weeks. In the meantime, clubs can apply for the qualifiers by reaching out to the esports division through [email protected].
Football Manager Esports Makes a Comeback
The FIFAe Club World Cup 26™ marks the return of Football Manager as an esport. Taking the traditional PVE experience and pitting the best players against one another in a competitive setting.
FIFAe last held a collaborative competition for Football Manager in 2024, where 40 players (20 managers and 20 assistant managers) from 19 nations competed in Liverpool for a $100,000 (~£75,000) prize pool. Back then, the tournament took place across five days, with the Group Stage spanning four days before concluding with the Knockout Stage on the fifth.
The 2026 edition is setting itself up as a separate tournament entirely, which is apparent through the format changes announced so far, such as the inclusion of online qualifiers.
In 2025, no FIFAe Football Manager esports event took place. This could have been due to the fact that the franchise never released a 2025 edition after postponing its annual release. The announcement for the FIFAe Club World Cup 26™ featuring Football Manager was made a month after the release of Football Manager 26 in November 2025.
