How to get updated FM25 squads on Football Manager 2024

Football Manager 2024
FM24 will remain the most recent release until March next year (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

Football Manager 2025 has been hit with a second delay to its release date and is now set to come out in March next year.

Aside from updated features and gameplay from Sports Interactive, the game’s developer, one of the most exciting parts of each new edition is getting the most up-to-date player and squad updates.

Luckily, there are services on hand to spruce up your FM24 experience and plug the gap until the new release.

How to add updated squads and players to Football Manager 2024

Football Manager / Premier League

When released, FM25 is set to hold official rights to Premier League branding for the first time (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

The first step is heading to a site like SortItOutSI or FMInside, both of which have custom-built squad updates covering transfers as recent as this month.

Once your chosen update is downloaded, it’ll go into your downloads as a zip file, which you can unzip using a tool like 7 Zip to extract the files inside.

How to Update Football Manager and Install 24/25 Database - YouTube How to Update Football Manager and Install 24/25 Database - YouTube
Watch On

Following that, you need to copy all the extracted files, head over to your 'Football Manager 2024' folder, go into the ‘editor data’ area and paste the copied files into that folder.

If you’ve updated your FM24 squads using this method before, be sure to remove the old update files before adding these new ones in.

Once that’s done, load up FM24, start a new career, and on the ‘Career Game Setup’ screen go to the ‘Database’ dropdown and ensure everything under ‘Editor Data Files’ is selected.

Having completed all those steps, you’re now free to start your new FM24 career mode with all the latest real-life transfers reflected in-game.

VIDEO

Why has Football Manager 25 been delayed?

An image of Football Manager 25 from FM25 creators Sports Interactive

An image of Football Manager 25 from FM25 creators Sports Interactive (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

In a statement announcing the delay, Sports Interactive said: “Following discussions with SEGA, our licensors and partners, we have agreed the best course of action is to delay the launch until March 2025. Specific platform release dates will follow once confirmed.

“In our last Development Update in September, we explained that we needed to push FM25’s original release back to give ourselves more time to deliver the best possible experience for this first instalment in a new era of Football Manager.

“This additional time has not been sufficient to ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards.

“We are intensely aware that this will be massively disappointing for you. We share that disappointment and are extremely sorry.

“Thank you for reading and your patience. It means the world to us as we continue to work on creating a new era for Football Manager.”

You can read Sports Interactive’s full statement here.