Football Manager put you in charge of a football club and left the football almost entirely off the screen. Kevin Toms wrote it, and Addictive Games sold it by mail order, at first from an address on Conniburrow Boulevard in Milton Keynes. In February 1982 the company advertised it in Your Computer and Computer & Video Games as “a great new game”, £9.95, for the ZX81, the ZX80, the TRS-80 and the Video Genie. The Spectrum version followed in September 1982: “Now! For the SPECTRUM 48K!”
The first advertisement listed what the player got: four divisions, promotion and relegation, the FA Cup, full league tables, a transfer market to buy and sell players, a team to pick for each match “(but watch out for Injuries!)”, “as many seasons as you like”, seven levels of play “from Beginner to Genius”, a managerial rating that “tells you how good you REALLY are”, and a save-game facility, “all this and much much more packed tightly into 16K RAM”. The September advertisement explained the idea:
This is NOT a mere simulation. This is an exciting and highly enjoyable game in which you play the part of a Football Manager coping with the problems and decisions involved in running your club. […] included are form (top teams NORMALLY win), giant-killings, wage bills to pay, and you can even be sacked! […] BUT BEWARE, this game is extremely addictive!
Fast facts
- Designer and programmer: Kevin Toms.
- Publisher: Addictive Games, Milton Keynes, later Bournemouth.
- First advertised: February 1982, ZX81, ZX80, TRS-80 and Video Genie, £9.95 by mail order.
- Spectrum 48K: September 1982, £7.95 by mail order; £6.95 by 1984.
- Golden Joysticks: second to The Hobbit for Best Strategy Game of 1983.
- Sales: by Addictive’s own count in 1990, half a million copies in six years.
Tables, not players
On the ZX81 there was nothing to watch. You chose a side, played the match and read the result. The match highlights that many players remember, little figures moving about in front of a goal, belonged to the later versions. Addictive’s 1984 advertisements listed “Matches in 3D graphics” among the features, then added a warning in capitals: “3D GRAPHICS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE ZX81 VERSION”.
CRASH reviewed the Spectrum game in its first issue, in February 1984, and explained how it worked. You chose a team from 64 players on offer and tried to work your way up from the Fourth Division. Players lost strength by playing and regained it by resting a match. Morale fell with every defeat, crowds dropped, and the gate money dropped with them. Once you had picked the team and “studied the opponent’s dossier”, you could “sit back and watch the fully animated, edited highlights of the match!” Each part of the simulation feeds the next, which is why a screen of tables held players for whole seasons. CRASH called it “an amazingly engrossing game” and began its entry:
Universally agreed as one of the best of Spectrum games of any type.
Awards and sales
In the first Computer & Video Games Golden Joystick Awards, announced in March 1984, readers placed Football Manager second for Best Strategy Game of 1983, behind Melbourne House’s The Hobbit. Addictive put it on the advertisements straight away: “Strategy Game of the Year, 1983 (Nominated) Golden Joystick Awards”. The same advertisements quoted the footballer Charlie Nicholas, “reprinted from Big K”:
The Highlight sequences are pure magic. And then you have to sit on the sidelines and sweat it out! Completely fantastic. I want one!
By August 1984 the company was advertising from 7a Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, with versions for the BBC Model B (£7.95), Commodore 64 (£7.95), Spectrum 48K (£6.95) and ZX81 16K (£5.95), and the game was “available from computer software stockists” as well as by post. Personal Computer Games’ list of the best-selling games of 1984 had Football Manager at number 4 on the Spectrum, behind Jet Set Willy, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and Manic Miner, and at number 7 on the BBC Micro. By spring 1985 Addictive listed versions for the Amstrad CPC 464, Electron, Oric, Dragon and VIC-20 as well, with an MSX version to come.
In 1990 Addictive’s advertisements for Football Manager World Cup Edition summed up the first game: “In 1982, Kevin Toms wrote Football Manager, six years (and half a million copies sold) later, Kevin went one better and produced Football Manager 2.”
What it started
Football Manager is widely credited with starting the football management game. Its advertisements already describe most of the genre: a squad to pick, a transfer market, promotion and relegation, injuries, finances, and a league that carries on season after season. Toms has come back to his game more than once. Kevin Toms Football Star Manager came out for mobile devices in 2016, and a remake reached Steam in August 2025. The name Football Manager is now best known as the title of Sports Interactive’s series, which is not descended from Toms’s game.
Sources
- Your Computer, February 1982, p. 53: Addictive Games advertisement (“A GREAT NEW GAME”, ZX81, ZX80, TRS80, Video Genie, the feature list, “packed tightly into 16K RAM”, £9.95, 267B Conniburrow Boulevard, Milton Keynes).
- Computer & Video Games, issue 4 (February 1982), p. 82, and issue 5 (March 1982), p. 49: the same advertisement.
- Your Computer, September 1982, p. 112: Addictive Games advertisement (“Now! For the SPECTRUM 48K!”, “This is NOT a mere simulation”, £7.95).
- CRASH, issue 1 (February 1984), p. 60: review (“Author: Kevin Toms”, “Producer: Addictive Games, 48K £6.95”, 64 players, strength, morale, gate money, “fully animated, edited highlights”, “Universally agreed”).
- Computer & Video Games, issue 29 (March 1984), p. 15: “The Golden Joystick Awards”, Best Strategy Game placings (The Hobbit first, Football Manager second).
- Personal Computer Games, issue 9 (August 1984), p. 99, and Sinclair User, issue 29 (August 1984): Addictive Games advertisement (Charlie Nicholas quote reprinted from Big K; prices; the ZX81 graphics warning; “Strategy Game of the Year, 1983 (Nominated)”; 7a Richmond Hill, Bournemouth). Computer & Video Games, issue 36 (October 1984): the same advertisement.
- Personal Computer Games, issue 15 (February 1985), p. 8: best-selling games of 1984, compiled by RAM/C.
- Your Computer, March and April 1985: Addictive Games advertisement listing the Amstrad CPC 464, Commodore 64, Spectrum, Electron, BBC Model B, Oric 48K and Atmos, Dragon, ZX81 and VIC-20 (+16K) versions, “soon for MSX”.
- Your Sinclair, issue 53 (May 1990), and Sinclair User, issue 99 (May 1990), p. 25: Addictive Games advertisement for Football Manager World Cup Edition (“half a million copies sold”).
- Wikipedia, “Football Manager (1982 video game)” (web, secondary): credited with starting the genre; Kevin Toms Football Star Manager on mobile, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Manager_(1982_video_game)
- Steam, “Kevin Toms Football Star Manager” (web, secondary): the 2025 release. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3707550/Kevin_Toms_Football_Star_Manager/