English club to create full-time position using Football Manager

An English soccer team has joined forces with Football Manager and Xbox to create a unique new job opportunity. Bromley FC has organized a new campaign called The Everyday Tactician. The plan is to find a Football Manager guru to be hired alongside Andy Woodman’s coaching staff.

Football Manager is a popular soccer management simulation video game. Gamers take charge of clubs and are tasked with taking their team to glory by winning titles. The 2023 version of the game became the most-played Football Manager title in their history. Developers claimed in June that over five million users were playing the game less than a year after its release.

Game developers expect surge in campaign participants

Bromley FC, a non-league club in southeast London, launched in 1892. The team currently features in the fifth-tiered National League. After 19 matches, the Ravens currently sit fourth in the table, well within a potential playoff place. Bromley has remained in the division since earning promotion back in 2015.

“At Bromley FC, we pride ourselves on being a community club so we’re very much looking forward to welcoming an enthusiastic supporter to our backroom staff,” Andy Woodman, the club’s manager, claimed in a statement.

“There are definitely plenty out there who know how to guide us to glory in the Football Manager game so we’re excited to welcome someone who can replicate that in the real world!”

Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson also expects a massive influx of users in the campaign. The company currently develops Football Manager. “Football fans are full of opinions on how their team can do better on the pitch,” proclaimed Jacobson.

“Now with the help of Xbox and Bromley FC, we can finally find out if their theories are right and follow the journey of The Everyday Tactician. I expect there might be a bit more to it than even we at Football Manager anticipate.”

Bromley manager: ‘This isn’t a gimmick’

Many in the soccer industry believed that the announcement was just a publicity stunt by the club. Nevertheless, Woodman has claimed that he will welcome the eventual winner into the team with open arms.

“This isn’t a gimmick,” Woodman told Mail Sport. “This is a real opportunity and when it was presented to me to get someone into our coaching team and be alongside us with the tactics, I thought it was a brilliant idea. I really, really did.”

“I’ll make them feel welcome very early on that they do feel part of the team and then the next step is then to let them have their voice and their opinions and be a part of us.”

Bromley is bringing in the video game campaign winner as a ‘support performance tactician.’ They will remain with the club for the remainder of the current campaign, a temporary five-month position. The lucky winner, like the remaining staff members, will attempt to guide the club to promotion. Bromley has previously never featured in the English Football League (EFL) system.

The Everyday Tactician will be available on Football Manager 2024. It is the latest version of the video game series and only just released on Nov. 6. Gamers looking to join the campaign must apply by finishing the Xbox achievement ‘Championes’ in the game. Users accomplish this by guiding a club to a domestic league title. Users can play the game on a PC or console with Xbox’s Game Pass.

Bromley also plans on following the journey with a three-part documentary in the future. The club’s social media platforms will follow the eventual winner in their team duties as well.

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