Football Manager 2008

Football Manager 2008 is the principal title of the 2008 edition of the Football Manager series of football management simulation games by Sports Interactive. The version for the United States and Canada is entitled Worldwide Soccer Manager 2008, while the South American version is Fútbol Manager 2008. There are over 5,000 playable teams from more than 50 countries. The demo for Football Manager 2008 was released on September 30, 2007. The PlayStation Portable version was released as Football Manager Handheld 2008.

The game was originally intended to be released on October 19, 2007, but due to early shipments by many retailers carrying their game, Sports Interactive moved the release date to 18 October 2007.

Several problems surfaced in the game, most of which had been reported to SI Games via their issues forum, and as a result a "Beta Patch" was released. This patch did not fix all problems, but was released early to fix major issues. A full patch was set to be released on 9 November 2007 but was delayed, and was finally released on 22 November 2007. The second and final patch was released on 14 February 2008 and updated on 20 February to attempt to fix three major issues that remained in the game. As with previous games, the patch updates the game's database with all the latest transfers and fixes many of the game's remaining bugs.

New features
There are a number of new features -
 * All features in matches seamlessly follow on from the previous one
 * A mini radar pitch appears during tactical changes
 * Improved International management
 * New skin
 * Advisor system
 * Improved notebook system
 * A revamped captain selection
 * Improved board and fan confidence system
 * Transfer centre to track transfers
 * Improved match engine
 * The player may change pitch dimensions
 * Award system overhaul
 * In-game all-time best elevens
 * A revamped finance system
 * Collective win bonuses
 * FaceGen system for new-gen players
 * New calendar

Playable leagues and club cups
Africa
 * CAF Champions League
 * CAF Confederation Cup
 * CAF Super Cup
 * RSA South Africa

Asia and Oceania
 * AFC Champions League
 * AFC Cup
 * AFC President's Cup
 * AFF Club Championship
 * A3 Champions Cup
 * OFC Champions League
 * 🇦🇺 AUS 🇳🇿 NZL A-League (Hyundai A-League)
 * 🇨🇳 CHN China
 * 🇭🇰 HKG Hong Kong
 * 🇮🇳 IND India
 * 🇮🇩 IDN Indonesia
 * MAS Malaysia
 * SIN Singapore
 * 🇰🇷 KOR South Korea

Mainland Europe
 * UEFA Champions League
 * UEFA Cup
 * UEFA Intertoto Cup
 * UEFA Super Cup
 * 🇦🇹 Austria Austria
 * 🇧🇾 BLR Belarus
 * 🇧🇪 BEL Belgium
 * 🇧🇬 BUL Bulgaria
 * CRO Croatia
 * 🇨🇿 CZE Czech Republic
 * 🇫🇮 FIN Finland
 * 🇫🇷 FRA France
 * 🇩🇪 GER Germany1
 * GRE Greece
 * 🇭🇺 HUN Hungary
 * 🇮🇸 ISL Iceland
 * 🇮🇱 ISR Israel
 * 🇮🇹 ITA Italy
 * NED Netherlands


 * 🇵🇱 POL Poland
 * POR Portugal
 * ROM Romania
 * 🇷🇺 RUS Russia
 * 🇷🇸 SRB Serbia
 * 🇸🇰 SVK Slovakia
 * 🇸🇮 SVN Slovenia
 * 🇪🇸 ESP Spain
 * SUI Switzerland
 * 🇹🇷 TUR Turkey
 * 🇺🇦 UKR Ukraine

UK & Ireland
 * Setanta Cup
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENG England
 * NIR Northern Ireland
 * 🇮🇪 IRL Republic of Ireland
 * SCO Scotland
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 WAL Wales

Scandinavia
 * Royal League
 * DEN Denmark
 * 🇳🇴 NOR Norway
 * 🇸🇪 SWE Sweden

North America
 * CONCACAF Champions Cup
 * Superliga
 * 🇺🇸 USA 🇨🇦 CAN Major League Soccer
 * 🇲🇽 MEX Mexico

South America
 * Copa Libertadores
 * Copa Sudamericana
 * Recopa Sudamericana
 * 🇦🇷 ARG Argentina
 * 🇧🇷 BRA Brazil
 * CHI Chile
 * 🇨🇴 COL Colombia
 * 🇵🇪 PER Peru
 * URU Uruguay

1 - Germany's national team is not allowed to be included in the game due to licensing rights being owned by EA Sports' "FIFA" series, whilst the Japanese J-League and the Japanese national team are not allowed in the game at all due to Konami's purchase of the exclusive rights for their Pro Evolution Soccer series.

Licenses
"We are very proud to announce the procurement of a license for the French Ligue de Football Professionnel, with both the 1st & 2nd divisions covered by the license that provides real club names, logo’s [sic] and kits for all the clubs in those leagues.

We also welcome back the Dutch national team to the game, which was missing from last years [sic] game.

On top of this, we have new licenses in Italy from Sampdoria and Fiorentina."

- Miles Jacobson, MD of Sports Interactive

International competitions
Football Manager 2008 allows the player to compete in several of the largest football competitions in the world including:


 * World Cup - FIFA World Cup
 * European Football Championship - European Championships
 * Copa America - Copa América
 * African Cup of Nations - African Cup of Nations
 * Asian Nations Cup - AFC Asian Cup
 * North American Gold Cup - CONCACAF Gold Cup
 * Confederations Cup - FIFA Confederations Cup
 * Olympics - Olympic Games
 * Under 20 World Cup - FIFA Under 20 World Cup

However, due to licensing issues they are not allowed to be referred to by their proper name but the in-game competition format is exactly the same as the competition is in real life. It also uses qualifying matches.

Xbox 360
SI Games announced the Xbox 360 version of the game on January 11, 2008, marking the release date for March 2008. The game would take advantage of Xbox Live functionality for multi-player games and leagues. Football Manager 2006 and Football Manager 2007 had previously been released for the console system.