Tazskool

Monday, September 11, 2006


FM2007 Blog part 4 of many - the boardroom
Current mood: busy

Today's new features blog deals with the boardroom, and is the first of 5 new features blogs this week – a full round up, with screenshots, will also appear on our website at www.sigames.com on Friday.



THE BOARDROOM



The relationship between a manager and the board at a club is very important, and your link between the football and commercial world, and whereas some games in the genre decide to give you the option to set hot dog prices (which, let's be honest, has about as much to do with the job of being a football manager as forcing the user to cut the grass and painting the lines on the pitch before each match), this is an area that we leave to the chairman and chief executive.


However, a true manager still wants to know what's going on, and help influence it in some ways, whilst the board take a lot more care over their clubs now.



As well as the previously mentioned limiting of staff (not just scouts, but coaches too), if someone offers a transfer offer too good to be true, the board may well accept over your head. They also might limit the amount of wages you can offer a player who they haven't heard of.



They are nicer in other areas though. If they are running out of cash, losing interest in the club or realise it's too big a job for them, they might now invite people to make offers for the club, which could lead to a takeover. Different clubs will get offers from different groups, ranging from supporters clubs through to massive investment from abroad, so you could find your transfer budget tripled overnight, or the same shoestring budgets with more enthusiastic help from the board. Different chairmen have different personalities, of course, so some might not be happy with mid table obscurity, but it brings different challenges to the game. Or even end up with the new board giving you the sack as they appoint their own manager!



One of the most requested features on the forums over the last couple of years has been that of stadium moves. As we try to model stadiums as accurately as we are allowed, many are set to not being able to be expanded due to a lack of available planning permission, just like in real life, so there were occasions when mighty FM managers took their clubs from obscurity to the top division to find that they couldn't get any more fans into the ground. Now, if you've got enough money in the bank, or if the board are confident of paying off any debts that are taken on via the increased amount of fans in the stadium, they will build a new shiny ground for the team to move into.



You can also request relationships with feeder clubs, but that's a whole new section in itself, and we'll save that one for Friday I think…