Championship Manager 96/97 (also known as Championship Manager 2: 96/97 Update) is a game in the Championship Manager series of football management video games. It was released in September 1996, for the PC and Amiga computers. This was the last Championship Manager game to be released for the Amiga, the platform that the series started on. It is the only game in the series to have been developed by both Sports Interactive and the game's long-time publishers Eidos Interactive.
Gameplay[ | ]
The game was essentially just a seasonal update (the first of many in the series) but it offered a lot more than just a modified player database. For the first time ever, the game included 3 playable league systems within the main game - England, Scotland and Italy. As well as the usual compliment of bug fixes and tweaks to the game's AI there were also rule changes to reflex real life changes in the world of football, such as the full implementation of the Bosman ruling and the inclusion of 5 substitutes in the English Premier League.
The game also had a cheat in which if the player's name entered at the beginning of the game was the name of a national manager of the time (for instance - Glenn Hoddle for England) then the game would allow to take charge of that national team right from the start, as opposed to working up a good enough reputation to be offered the job as was supposed to be the case.