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These 100 Football Manager 2024 save ideas range from familiar promotion climbs to strict transfer rules, academy projects and tactical experiments. Each is an editorially proposed challenge—not necessarily a built-in scenario—and pairs a premise with a constraint and a goal so you can start playing with a clear plan.
Before choosing, check which leagues and features your FM24 edition supports. Sports Interactive documents three save starts—Original, Real World and Your World—on its FM24 Console feature page; transfer-based ideas below name a mode where it matters. Availability differs by platform, so consult the official platform comparison rather than assuming every edition behaves alike.
How to choose an FM24 save
A good challenge has three parts: a premise, a rule that changes your decisions, and a measurable goal. For example: take a lower-division club (premise), sign no players for a fee (rule), and reach the top division (goal). The ideas below are prompts, not tested difficulty rankings or guaranteed outcomes. Check club eligibility, finances and playable leagues in the database and edition you use.
Choose a start mode to suit the story. Sports Interactive says Original uses clubs in the current game database when the career begins; Real World starts clubs on the career start date and applies future transfers on dates matching real life; Your World sets squads and budgets at that date and cancels future transfers. These descriptions come from the Console/Touch feature page, so verify availability and behavior for your edition. See the official mode descriptions and platform comparison.
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FM24’s launch announcement says its J. League addition made Japan playable, with 60 clubs. That makes a Japan-based project an official setting, though specific club and league availability should still be checked in your selected edition and database. Sports Interactive’s launch announcement also identifies Football Manager 2024 Touch on Nintendo Switch; it is a distinct edition, not the PC/Mac version.
Club rebuilds and identity
- Restore a fallen champion. Take a former domestic champion back to the top division, then win the league.
- Revive a cup specialist. Lead a club with a cup-winning identity back into continental competition.
- Rebuild after relegation. Keep players willing to stay, earn promotion and re-establish the club in its former division.
- Escape mid-table. Turn a regular mid-table side into a consistent continental qualifier.
- Depth over stars. Inherit a thin squad, avoid marquee signings and prioritize cover in every position; target a top-half finish.
- Promote and survive. Win promotion, then stay up in the first top-flight season without a major-budget overhaul.
- Recover a club identity. Choose a formation and roles that reflect the club’s identity, and use them for a full campaign; define a league target before you begin.
- Build around a neglected position. Make one position the tactical centerpiece and recruit or develop the squad around it; aim for a cup run or league improvement.
- Back a fan-led project. Choose a club whose ownership supports the premise, then build it into a domestic power without relying on a takeover narrative you cannot verify in your save.
- Win a first major trophy. Pick a club that has not won the trophy you target during the timeframe you verify, then deliver that title.
- Break into Europe from outside the usual contenders. Choose a non-favorite and qualify for continental competition.
- Win the derby table. Name your local rivals before kickoff and finish above each of them in the league every season.
- Compete cautiously. Set a low or zero net-spend limit at a financially cautious club and stay competitive without marquee fees.
- Return to the old division. Take a former top-flight club back to its previous division, then finish safely clear of relegation.
- One-club career. Stay at your starting club for the entire managerial career and reject every outside job; set a trophy or league-position milestone for each phase.
Lower-league and promotion climbs
- Unemployed to the lower leagues. Begin unemployed with minimal reputation and accept only lower-division offers; do not apply for jobs.
- From semi-pro to the summit. Take a semi-professional side to the highest playable division and establish it there.
- Objective-led journeyman. Move clubs only after meeting a written season objective, such as promotion or survival.
- Loan-built promotion. Assemble most of your starting squad on loan and win promotion.
- Wage-ceiling push. Set a strict wage cap before the season and pursue promotion without breaking it.
- Free transfers only. Use free transfers until you reach the top division; set a season limit for how long you will take.
- Youth-first promotion. Promote youth before adding experienced players and require a minimum number of academy starts each season.
- Explore an unfamiliar league. Choose a playable league you have not managed in, learn its registration and schedule rules, and target domestic stability in year one.
- Win every tier at home. Win each playable division in one nation before accepting a job abroad.
- Climb without applying. Start at the lowest-reputation club available in your chosen region and accept only offers that arrive.
- Stay through setbacks. Keep your starting job through promotion or relegation, rather than restarting after a bad season; target eventual top-flight survival.
- Set-piece promotion. Build around set pieces and track their goals as you pursue promotion.
- Sign domestic releases. Recruit only players released by clubs in the same nation and reach the next division.
- Registration-rule challenge. Make a squad-registration restriction the central rule, then target a promotion or survival place that fits the club.
- No transfer fees to the top. Reach the highest division without paying a fee, using loans, free agents and internal development.
Nation, league and regional projects
- Take on Japan. Manage a J. League club and win the domestic title. Sports Interactive’s FM24 launch announcement describes Japan as playable through the J. League addition and cites 60 clubs.
- Domestic and continental double. Win the top division and a continental competition with a club in your chosen nation.
- Develop a national-team pipeline. Turn one club into a stepping stone for national-team talent; measure success by first-team minutes for eligible players and the national side’s results.
- Club and country. Manage a small nation’s club and national team if your edition supports both roles; target a domestic milestone and a qualifying campaign.
- Domestic-only recruitment. Sign only players from your nation’s domestic league and aim to win the league.
- Neighboring nations only. Recruit exclusively from neighboring countries, then qualify for and compete in continental football.
- Continental outsider. Win a continental trophy with a club outside the richest leagues; set a domestic target to keep progress measurable while you build.
- Rise from a smaller nation. Take a club from a lower-ranked playable nation to the top of its continental competition.
- Regional journeyman. Manage clubs in several neighboring leagues over successive jobs; move only after a trophy or promotion.
- Learn before you recruit. Pick an unfamiliar league, document its registration and schedule rules, then target a first-season finish that avoids relegation.
- Underdog cup run. Win a domestic cup with a club that is not a regular title challenger.
- Home-nation majority. Keep a majority of the squad from the club’s home nation and measure both domestic and continental results.
- Exporter without collapse. Sell players to richer leagues while staying competitive; target a league finish and an annual sales figure you choose.
- Tour every playable league. Manage in every available playable league over one career, moving only after a trophy or promotion.
- Regional academy pipeline. Sign only players from a defined geographic area and build a first team around them.
Recruitment rules and squad building
- Under-23 squad. Sign only players aged 23 or younger; decide in advance how many exceptions, if any, you will allow.
- Veteran short-term push. Sign only players aged 30 or older and target a trophy within two seasons.
- Loans and free agents. For your first two seasons, use only loans and free transfers; reach a chosen league position without paid signings.
- Sell at your price. Set an offer threshold for each starter and accept any bid that meets it; replace departures without breaking your squad plan.
- Replace starters from within or below budget. Every outgoing starter must be replaced by an academy graduate or a lower-cost signing.
- Nationality core. Build around one nationality while maintaining a homegrown quota you set.
- Expiring contracts only. Recruit only players whose contracts are expiring and qualify for a target league place.
- Scouted by your staff. Sign only players personally scouted by your staff, and set a season-long recruitment target before opening negotiations.
- Role-first recruitment. Make no signing unless the player fills a named role in your tactic.
- Net-spend cap. Set a self-imposed net-spend ceiling, record it each season and finish above your chosen league position.
- One sale each window. Sell one first-team player every transfer window and replace them with a prospect.
- Wage ceiling. Set a maximum individual wage and build a squad that stays under it while pursuing a defined target.
- Stable XI. Use the same starting XI for a chosen run of league games when fitness and availability permit; record the results across the run.
- Profit through players. Make the club profitable through player sales while meeting a league-performance target.
- Domestic-league experience. Recruit only players who have played in the club’s domestic league and qualify for continental competition.
Academy and player development
- Academy-only challenge. Use academy graduates for recruitment and require a minimum number of youth players in every matchday squad.
- One graduate, real minutes. Promote one youth player each season and give them a defined number of starts.
- Homegrown trophy XI. Win a domestic trophy with a starting XI that meets a homegrown threshold you set.
- Regional graduate sales. Sell academy graduates only to clubs in a named region and reach a league milestone.
- Grow a captain. Develop one prospect into captain before recruiting a replacement leader.
- Training-led development. Center the project on mentoring and training; measure prospects’ first-team appearances each season.
- Loan for minutes. Loan every prospect who cannot earn your chosen level of first-team playing time.
- Improve the pathway. Improve youth facilities where your club and edition allow it; target a specified number of academy graduates in the first team.
- Promote through every line. Over several seasons, bring a youth player into each line of the team—defense, midfield and attack—and give each a defined role.
- Academy-heavy continental run. Reach a continental final with a squad dominated by academy graduates.
- Record sale, youth reinvestment. Sell an academy graduate for a club-record fee, then reinvest only in youth development.
- No wonderkid lists. Scout organically and avoid external wonderkid guides; win a trophy using players found through your own recruitment process.
Tactical and stylistic experiments
- One shape, full season. Commit to one formation for a full season and adjust roles before changing shape; aim for a defined league finish.
- Pressing identity. Build a high press and recruit for stamina and work rate; measure progress by league position rather than assuming a tactic guarantees results.
- Counterattack the favorites. Build a counterattacking side and track results against stronger opponents across a season.
- Possession under pressure. Use a possession-first approach at a club expected to struggle and make survival the target.
- Historical style. Research a real tactical system, recreate its defining principles and measure success against a season objective.
- Two-striker project. Make two strikers the defining constraint and build enough squad depth to sustain the shape through a full campaign.
- Set-piece edge. Make set pieces a major part of your identity and track their contribution over the season.
- Narrow by design. Use a narrow formation and solve width through roles and movement; target a clear league or cup objective.
- Back three, full campaign. Use a back three for a complete campaign and assess whether your squad can sustain it across the schedule.
- Youth-team blueprint. Create a tactic for your youth team and promote players suited to its roles; measure progress through first-team appearances.
- Home and away plans. Use different tactical approaches at home and away, with clear principles for each; compare the results over a season.
- Slow tactical evolution. Avoid abrupt changes in tactical familiarity and make gradual evolution the multi-season story.
- Identity before club. Choose a tactical identity before selecting a club and keep that premise when moving between jobs.
Narrative and scenario challenges
- Rewrite a transfer future. Start in Your World and try to change the path of a major transfer; check that the mode is supported by your edition. Sports Interactive describes Your World as setting squads and budgets at the career start date and cancelling future transfers on its Console feature page.
- Follow real transfer timing. Use Real World to shape a career around transfers arriving on their real-life dates, where your edition supports the mode. See the official mode description.
- Original database story. Start an Original career and let the opening club assignments in your chosen database define the challenge; set a measurable first-season goal.
- Build a custom scenario. Use an editor only if it is supported for your edition. The official FM24 In-game Editor Steam listing says the item “can only be used in Football Manager mode.”
- Kids to trophies. Recreate a “You Can’t Win Anything with Kids” premise as a self-imposed youth challenge outside Mobile. The named challenge is among the scenarios identified for FM24 Mobile in Sports Interactive’s 29 February 2024 update announcement; that does not establish its availability in every edition.
- Restore dressing-room harmony. Make resolving a fictional squad crisis the story and target a league finish after morale stabilizes. “Unrest at Home” is a named FM24 Mobile scenario, not a claim about all editions; see the official update announcement.
- Survive the money game. Impose a financial constraint inspired by “The Dangers of Capitalism,” then set a survival or profitability target. The named scenario is identified for Mobile in the official update announcement.
- Fictional board crisis. Take over after an imagined board crisis and accept only objectives consistent with the club’s means.
- One window to fix it. Give yourself one transfer window to address the squad, then freeze recruitment for a season.
- Reverse one decision. Build a what-if career around reversing a transfer decision; choose a start mode whose transfer setup supports your premise.
- No reloading. Do not reload matches after results, and keep a season record of the consequences.
- New-manager rescue jobs. Accept only offers from clubs that have just changed manager and try to stabilize each one.
- A decade at one club. Stay for ten seasons and judge success against written milestones, not trophies alone.
- Redemption career. After relegation or dismissal, continue the same manager career and rebuild your reputation instead of starting over.
- Make your own hybrid. Combine one club goal, one transfer restriction and one tactical identity; write down the rule and target before you start.
Edition and database notes
Challenge Mode and other features are not uniform across FM24 editions; use the official platform comparison to check what your copy supports. The three named Mobile scenarios above are examples of built-in framing, not proof that the same scenarios appear elsewhere. A self-imposed rule is still a valid save challenge, but it is not an in-game Challenge Mode.
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Eleven: Football Manager Board Game
- An advanced strategy board game for 1 to 4 players.
- Become the manager of a soccer club and lead it to victory.
- A Multi-layered business simulation in the world of sport.
- Acquire and train players, hire doctors, trainers, and other sports professionals then develop your stadium, attract sponsors, and play matches against other teams.
- Several paths to victory.
Sports Interactive’s 29 February 2024 Main Data Update announcement reported “more than six million data changes” — Sports Interactive, 2024. It said gameplay adjustments applied to current careers, while using the new data changes required a new save. The announcement also noted that certain calendar-year league rosters reflected through the end of the 2023 season and omitted 2024 incoming and outgoing transfers. Those are historical details about that update, not a statement that it is the latest database in 2026. Check the database and start date actually selected for your career: Sports Interactive’s update announcement.
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SEGA Football Manager 2024 (PlayStation 5)
- Write your football history as you enter the coach bench of the world's biggest clubs
- Use the most popular and modern approaches of modern football or develop your own winning philosophy
- Make important game-crucial tweaks as you watch your players fight for three points on game days
- Battle in one of the three online modes - Versus, Fantasy Draft and Online Career - to compete against their friends
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