Football Manager 2017 simulates Brexit and is now sci-fi.
Football Manager tries to create a simulation that is as realistic as possible of the ins and outs of the football world. Apparently Brexit is also part of that, because the latest version of Football Manager has a real Brexit simulation!
In an interview with British newspaper The Telegraph, Sports Interactive studio boss Miles Jacobson says Brexit should be part of the game anyway. Sports Interactive, the developer of the Football Manager series, is the first to try to simulate the future of a country in a game, says Jacobson.
In Football Manager 2017, there are three possible Brexit scenarios that the player may encounter: a Soft Brexit, a Middle-of-the-road Brexit and a Hard Brexit. With the Soft Brexit, the game doesn’t get much more difficult, just like with the Middle-of-the-road Brexit. With that option, footballers are classified as entertainers and can thus easily obtain a visa to play in other countries. With a Hard Brexit it is a completely different story for the player, because then football players have a lot more difficulty – if at all – across the border from the United Kingdom.
The number of players who are still available for transfer from Great Britain will be a lot lower and those who are still available will be a lot more expensive than normal. Those are not even the only consequences of Brexit, Jacobson explains:
There is also the option that sees us adopt a system like Italy’s, where there is a limit on the number of non-EU players in each squad. The limit of non-UK players that British clubs are allowed could range from anything as high as 17 to as low as four. If you only had four non-UK players per squad, that’s going to make things difficult. All of a sudden Championship-quality players are moving into the Premier League to fill up slots. That could mean the overall quality drops, and that means the TV money goes down.
The team at Sports Interactive has had a lot of meetings and brainstormed to come up with these scenarios. The conclusion was that a hard Brexit would have profound consequences for the player in Football Manager 2017, Jacobson emphasizes.
If a hard Brexit does happen, transfer fees will go up: foreign players are worth more to British clubs because you need to make sure you make the most of those four slots, and the best British players become more valuable, and so more expensive, too. Footballers could decide against playing for their home nation because doing so could reduce their chances of ever making it to the Premier League. Newer nations such as Kosovo could suffer, with players holding out to become naturalized and play for a higher ranked country.
It is therefore hoped that no Hard Brexit will take place in your playthrough, because then the turnips are well done.
