Football Agents Tried to Bribe Football Manager Devs
Miles Jacobson of Sports Interactive revealed that he was offered bribes in exchange for raising the statistics of players in Football Manager games.
In an interview for The Athletic UK podcast, Miles Jacobson from Sports Interactive revealed that there have been situations where players' agents have tried to bribe the developers in order for their players to have better statistics in Football Manager games .
Such offers were always rejected. However, a funny situation arose in connection with the interview. By promoting this episode, the podcast posted a Twitter announcement that Miles Jacobson was accepting such bribes, which the developer had to quickly correct.
Unfortunately, the developer from Sports Interactive wasn't ready to reveal which players were "advertised" behind the scenes.
Attempts to raise statistics with bribes should not be surprising. The Football Manager series has earned such a high reputation that many clubs use these games in search for new promising talents. More than a thousand football enthusiasts from dozens of countries are helping to create databases for Sports Interactive's series, so that the characteristics of even little-known and novice athletes often reflect their real talent quite well.
It is worth quoting a fascinating anecdote, whose protagonist is coach Alex McLeish. Between 2001 and 2006 he managed the Scottish team Rangers. His son was a devoted fan of Football Manager. During the game, the boy came across a promising 13-year-old player, playing in FC Barcelona B. Many times he tried to convince his father that it would be worth recruiting him, as he scored goals like crazy during virtual matches. McLeish ignored this advice because he hadn't heard about the player before and he didn't trust the data from a video game. That player was Lionel Messi.
Football Manager 2021 was released on November 24, this year on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
