Football Manager 21.2 Major Update Out Now!

[Neil Brock]

Whilst the weather outside is frightful, staying indoors to play Football Manager is starting to look even more delightful, and what better way to enjoy than with the 21.2 major update? Containing a number of tweaks, improvements and fixes as listed in our changelist below, the update is save game compatible allowing you to continue your pre-existing saves. 

That’s not all though, we’re also pleased to announce the release of updates for Football Manager 2021 Touch across PC/Mac/Android and iOS and Football Manager Xbox Edition available exclusively on the Xbox platforms. 

If you encounter any kind of issues when running the game, we’d recommend reading our FAQ for troubleshooting help. You can also contact our team directly for further support via our ticketing system.

On behalf of everyone here at Sports Interactive as we come to the end of 2020, we very much hope you stay safe, enjoy the holiday period and perhaps even get your team’s name carved into a few trophies along the way.  

21.2 Major Update Changelist (including, but not limited to)
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Stability and Technical
- Further changes to issues related to blurry text and mouse-cursor appearing misaligned
- Re-added options to change resolution settings in full screen mode
- Number of stability improvements

Gameplay
- Unable to set some staff members to certain responsibilities
- Improvements to player logic when considering loan moves when they don’t have a work permit 
- Board incorrectly blocking deals due to wanting vast fees for players
- Recalculating how analysts produce their overall report ratings 
- Caretaker manager tweaks, meaning they’re more likely to be offered permanent role or replaced depending on success
- Board request logic tweaks related to senior affiliates, staff numbers and youth coaching/recruitment
- Staff missing from coaching assignment list for relevant squads
- Further improvements to inactive leagues generating newgens (for more details read this post)
- Tweaks to ages of youth candidates coming through
- Improvements to logic of questions being asked during press conference including VAR, short term targets, takeovers and players on international duty
- Promise and interaction tweaks including related to player traits, domestic silverware, finding loan moves and blank ‘unhappiness’ appearing

Match Engine 21.4.0
- Better clearances
- Attackers attacking area/far post better
- Better balancing to defenders challenging for aerial balls
- Defenders marking too literally tweaks
- Move to offer passing options improvements
- Passing focus fix to long lateral passes
- Some improvements to aerial interceptions for defenders
- Sent assistant referees on training course to remove some overzealous offsides being given and sort positioning during penalties
- Improvements to ball collision detection with posts/crossbar
- Keeper logic improvements for narrowing shooting angles and rushing out
- Players less likely to slide tackle opposition players who are static
- For a more comprehensive list of match engine changes, please visit our Bugs Forum

Competitions and Rule Groups*
- Various rule updates for Croatia, Serbia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brazil, Uruguay, Romania, Russia and Scotland
- Fix for Croatian newgens not gaining homegrown status.  All eligible newgens should now have homegrown status, even in old saves
- Croatian Second Division to have 16 teams for 21/22 season
- Cannot move players to B team in Finland "because the specific transfer window is now closed"
- Spanish and Portuguese B-Team promotion fixes
- Fix for B teams incorrectly appearing in the Italian Cup
- Fix so second teams present in the Romanian Second Division no longer enter the Champions Playoff
- Fix for Serbian Cup picking wrong entrants
- Copa America originally scheduled for 2020 will now be played in 2021.
- Further work to Chinese naturalisation
- Fixed issue related to Israeli squad numbers being forgotten 
- Alterations for transfer / registration window dates in India and Romania
- Fix for rare occurrences of incorrect scheduling of league playoff stages in Colombia and Peru.
- Further tweaks to work permit and Brexit rules
- Third tier teams selected in Mexican Cup instead of Expansion League teams
- Updated US Cup Format

User Interface
- General improvements to watching Past Matches
- Live scores on the Touchline tablet no longer duplicating
- User can't view 1 Jan to 14 Feb on arranging friendlies UI
- Can't proceed into a match if pressing back on Team Selection panel when managing international side
- League name is Cut Off in 'History in The Making' during End of Season Review
- Team stats showing goals conceded to be 'worst' when it should be 'best'
- Changing manager appearance from the Start Screen does not remember any changes
- Tweaks to how role ability logic and ratings on tactics screen
- Removed any inconsistencies in how xG appeared on certain panels

Pre-Game and In-Game Editors
- Database items not appearing in imported Editor files
- In-Game Editor not appearing active when offline
- Further default basic nation rules fixes
- All columns disappearing in People section of Pre-Game Editor
- Tactical Attributes formation changes taking no effect

*In some instances, changes to competitions, rules and registrations will require starting a new game to come into effect.