We always suspected that clubs peeked at the FM database. In 2008, a Premier League club admitted it in black and white.
The deal
On November 17, 2008, Sports Interactive announced a deal with Everton. The club, then managed by David Moyes, would have official access to the Football Manager 2009 database.
The numbers were impressive: more than 370,000 players and staff, 20,000 active teams in more than 50 countries and a network of more than a thousand scouts, the researchers who rate players for the game every year.
What SI said
Sports Interactive took the opportunity to recall some past hits. It said the game had identified Wayne Rooney’s talent at 15 and had anticipated the rise of names like Lionel Messi and Ashley Young.
Miles Jacobson, the studio director, admitted it had been known for some time that teams used the game to study players, whether for signings or to analyze opponents. Formal recognition from a Premier League club was, in his words, fantastic.
Where the Portuguese come in
This story says a lot about the researchers’ work. Those who rate players for FM, and in Portugal there is a large team doing it, are building one of the biggest football databases in the world. So good that a Premier League club wanted to use it officially.
Next time you find a Liga 3 wonderkid in your save, remember that someone watched him play in the rain so he could be there.
Sources: MCV/Develop (11/17/2008) · VideoGamer
