Keeping the game alive

As the football world is consumed by a new Premier League season, and while football management fans salivate over the trickle of new feature announcements for the next instalment of Football Manager, some are happier sticking with a relic of virtual football's yesteryear.

For one group of Championship Manager fans, the celebrated series never advanced beyond its Season 01/02 edition. Sports Interactive never left publisher Eidos for greener pastures at Sega, Championship Manager never became Football Manager, and there was never even a 2D match engine – let alone the fancy 3D one introduced in FM 2009 – to augment the game's iconic text commentary.