On July 11th 2021 at Wembley Stadium, London, England the Euro 2020 final took place between England and Italy. Italy won. England fans still arenβt over it. As Euro 2024 approached a series of suspicious accidents have begun to plague Italyβs famous defence. Dimarco "slipped" - although no one saw it happen - Udogie fell ill after eating some questionable pasta at a Wetherspoon in Tottenham Hale, while Bastoni and Buongiorno were mysteriously mauled by a pack of British Bulldogs. One by one, every Italian defender has been ruled out of the European Championships.
Fearing for his own safety, head coach Luciano Spalletti resigned, leaving the role open for a new manager to step up. And thatβs where you come in. Your job? Guide a defenseless Italian side to their second Euros win in three years. Thatβs right: every Italian defender in the world is injured. Youβll need all your tactical ingenuity to find a solution. Will Moise Kean step up as a makeshift centre-back? Could wingers fill in as wing-backs? Or will you take the bold route of fielding ball-playing midfielders as centre-backs, embracing the ultimate form of tiki-taka?
Share your tactical masterplan in the comments, and donβt forget to submit your results once youβre done.
If you do you'll be added to our FM24 Challenges Leaderboard with a chance to win a copy of FM25.
Gold π₯ - 5 points - Win Euro 2024 without conceding
Silverπ₯ - 3 points - Win Euro 2024 conceded 3 or less
Bronze π₯ - 2 points - Win Euro 2024
How it works
Every week we will release a new FM24 Challenge.
Each challenge is designed to be quick to play. Usually half a season or less.
Complete the challenge to score points and be in with a chance to win prizes.
You do not have to complete the challenge that week. Each challenge will remain open until FM25 BETA is released.
All you have to do is play FM for a few hours and then submit a few screenshots of how you got on. Easy right?
Point Scoring
The scoring system works the same as the Olympics. You have the chance to win Gold, Silver or Bronze. Fail to make it to Europe? You won't get a medal and will score 0 points.
Gold π₯ - 5 points - Win Euro 2024 without conceding
Silverπ₯ - 3 points - Win Euro 2024 conceded 3 or less
Bronze π₯ - 2 points - Win Euro 2024
These points will take you on to the Overall Leaderboard. Each week we will release a new FM24 Challenge giving you more chances to win Gold, Silver and Bronze and total up your overall points.
Each Challenge has its own leaderboard. Since lots of people will inevitably win gold there are a series of tie breakers to decide your position.
Tie Breakers
- Total Points won (including FA Cup 3 for win, 1 draw, 0 for loss)
- Distance in FA Cup
- Total Games Won
- Total Goal Difference
- Total Goals Scored
- Total Chances Created
- Total Average Possession
God help me if we actually get to Total Average Possession as a tie breaker, i'll make something else up at the time.
Prizes
Overall Winner = A copy of Football Manager 2025
Weekly Challenge Winner = Premium Membership
The winner will be chosen before the FM25 BETA is released so the winner can play FM25 straight away. We do not know the date for this yet. If the date is given as something vague like βRoughly 2 weeks before full release dateβ we will conservatively announce the winner the Saturday before 2 weeks. I know this is vague but we will get given an official announcement by SI soon and this text will be updated and made clearer.
Rules
- You must use the manager already in the save file. You cannot create a new manager. This so that all managers have the same attributes and experience.
- You cannot use the in game editor.
- You cannot create any new managers.
- You cannot save before a match and then reload.
- You cannot use Genie Scout or FMRTE.
How to install
The download is a .fm file which is an FM Save Game.
Option 1) When you open FM and click βLoad Gameβ and click βbrowseβ in the top right hand corner. Then find where you saved the file, probably your downloads folder.
Option 2) Move the file to your default saved game folder, it should then appear when clicking βLoad Gameβ. The location is:
Windows: Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2022/editor data
Mac: /Users/<yourname>/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/games
On mac you may find it easier to Open Finder > Click Go in the toolbar > Go to folder > Paste this β~/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/gamesβ
Youtube / Twitch Creators
If you run a YouTube or a Twitch feel free to drop a comment letting us know what time you're streaming or linking to your video. We'll give a shout out on Twitter as well. Also feel free to send me a PM on here or DM on here with any other queries.
Changing Your Manager Name
The manager is called βSort It Out SI Challengeβ. You cannot retire and create a new manager.
However if you find being called βMr Challengeβ annoying then you can set a nickname to give yourself a new name.
- Click βClub Infoβ in the sidebar
- Right click on βSort It Out SI Challengeβ
- Navigate to Misc > Set Nickname
How to submit results
You must submit the following information. Where screenshots are required you must upload an image.
Do not take a photo on your phone. You can take screenshots in FM by clicking FM > Print Screen or by following instructions for Windows or Mac.
Fixtures
Click schedule in the sidebar
Game Status
The Game Status Screen (FM Logo > Game Status)
Manager Attributes
Manager Attributes (Home > Profile > Attributes tab)
Manager Overview
Manager History Overview (Home > My History > Overview)
# | Manager | Medal | Points | GD | Status |
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1 | π₯ | 21 | 18 |
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2 | π₯ | 21 | 18 |
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3 | π₯ | 21 | 18 |
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4 | π₯ | 21 | 12 |
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5 | π₯ | 21 | 9 |
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6 | π₯ | 19 | 15 |
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7 |
Kalle Kutt
2nd entry
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π₯ | 19 | 8 |
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8 | π₯ | 30 | 14 |
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9 | π₯ | 19 | 11 |
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10 | π₯ | 19 | 9 |
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11 | π₯ | 21 | 21 |
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12 | π₯ | 21 | 14 |
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13 | π₯ | 19 | 12 |
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14 | π₯ | 19 | 11 |
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15 | π₯ | 19 | 10 |
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16 | π₯ | 19 | 9 |
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17 | π₯ | 18 | 11 |
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18 | π₯ | 17 | 7 |
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19 | π₯ | 16 | 6 |
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20 | π₯ | 16 | 6 |
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21 | π₯ | 16 | 6 |
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22 | π₯ | 16 | 5 |
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23 | π₯ | 14 | 7 |
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24 | π₯ | 12 | 1 |
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25 | 7 | 3 |
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26 | 3 | -2 |
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27 | 3 | -4 |
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28 | 0 | -7 |
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29 | 3 | -4 |
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Comments
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Socretino
Gold π₯ - 5 points - Win Euro 2024 without conceding
HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA Β‘you're completely insane! ππ€¦ββοΈ
Jamie Aubrey
Tell me about it, I tried a tactic without any defenders and wellβ¦.. this one is going to take a few tries
DumbDumbo
There is no way this is possible without some sort of save scumming.. or at the very least FMRTE to make players capable of playing CB/FB
And if you ask yourself if i did any of those yeah, reloaded against England like 20x to figure out any way to get a tactic that works into the top nations not much else i can do.
Nantene
haaaahahaha Always conceded by Header
FMStrawzy
means its a good challenge to wheedle out the CHEATS
Kalle Kutt
Wow, this is a new idea. Anyone who gets a gold you can probably rule out for all eternity.
I do however have an idea for a tactic in mind - played with it a while back on a rtg. Let's see if Donnarumma can play CBπ€£
Gonna boot it up first thing tmrw
achmadasyrafani
THIS CHALLENGE WAS SO INSANE
Nicolas Schmidt
pt-br
Loucura!!
Foi uma experiencia muito boa, de fato um belo desafio. Em resumo, consegui adaptar minha tΓ‘tica que uso faz algum tempo com algumas instruçáes extras para favorecer a ausΓͺncia de defensores. O que consegui foi vencer e vencer, marquei uma quantidade significativa de gols, mas meu grande inimigo foi nΓ£o sofrer gols. Incrivelmente dificil conseguir ser campeΓ£o sem sofrer alguns gols. Tentei de tudo para nΓ£o tomar mais de 3 gols mas mesmo assim falhei, acabei tomando 5 gols. Nas etapas finais acabei pegando franΓ§a alemanha e espanha, extremamente dificil nΓ£o conceder gols ao adversΓ‘rio.
Acabei utilizando a experiencia e bons atributos (digamos...jogadores mais completos) do Verratti e Barella para jogar como wingbacks, para zagueiros tentei utilizar os melhores em marcação e desarme.
en-us
Crazy!!
It was a great experience, a great challenge indeed. In short, I managed to adapt my tactics that I have been using for some time with some extra instructions to make the most of the absence of defenders. What I managed to do was win and win, I scored a significant number of goals, but my biggest enemy was not conceding goals. It is incredibly difficult to be champion without conceding a few goals. I tried everything to not concede more than 3 goals but I still failed, I ended up conceding 5 goals. In the final stages I ended up facing France, Germany and Spain, it was extremely difficult not to concede goals to the opponent.
I ended up using the experience and good attributes (let's say... more complete players) of Verratti and Barella to play as wingbacks, for defenders I tried to use the best in marking and tackling.
FMStrawzy
Also guys remember to only submit the games in the euros, the game against turkey at the beginning of the save will not go towards point totals
Luke Sky
when you say no defenders, does it also apply to people who are versatile (CDMs who can play CB, LWs who can play LB) or only primary defenders. what about regens and youth players? are they also unavailable? π. Imagine the Kings of Defence having no defenders, this challenge is going to be hard. I swear, anyone who wins without conceding has cheated. even Man City and Madrid concede.
snafyr
hahaha, great challenge, let's see what happens next
snafyr
Okay, it's possible, but you have to play total anti-football.
The worst part was the lack of fun I had during this challenge. A nasty challenge, a nasty game and a lot of luck to make it possible.
Of course I can share the game save because I know it stinks.
Jamie Aubrey
For goals scores/conceded I left out the 4-3 penalty shootout win with Turkey and just counted the 2 goals each team scored
Luke Sky
so, I found two players who weren't injured but it's already late (I've registered my squad) . is it cheating if we get these lads in?
Socretino
uffffffffff, stressful, tough and very, very difficult (I had to use excel again to choose the best defender roles) but SILVER at last!!!! oeeeeeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeeeeeeee
PS: I've played two friendlies in preparation, but I've only scored in the European Cup goals in this form.
ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³ππ₯³
Vikeologist
Thought it might be feasible to win a Bronze at least, after winning friendlies without conceding against Turkey and Belgium, but all fell apart in the tournament itself. Might try again.
FingFangFoom
This was challenging to say the least. Insigne was atrocious in the earlier games. His passing was sloppy and his finishing was so bad, the only net he was hitting was his Wi-Fi connection! But he delivered when it mattered most - in the final. Zaccagni, Miretti, Frattesi and Jorginho performed commendably at the back although we shipped in 14 goals, but that was down to my reckless tactics. "Il sole splende anche dopo la tempesta."
Footygamer
Don't forget to share your tactics everyone, i'm interested to know what you all came up with!
DumbDumbo
In hindsight should've just gone for much more direct passing since this is basically counter style but whatever worked out in the end (apart from goals conceded but we don't talk about thatβ¦)
ashtonwoodicon
swivelingshark
anyone that says they've done this without conceding a goal has got to be a liar and a cheaterππ€ͺπ§π€₯
swivelingshark
π€₯
March
I've submitted the final against France as a draw, since it was 1-1 in regular time. Therefore 6 wins and 1 draw, I guess that's the right way to do it.
Kalle Kutt
Could you post your save file? Would love to just look through it really quick.
swivelingshark
a difficult challenge I won the final but as far as conceding 3 goals or less that's quite difficult with no defenders.
Kalle Kutt
Tough one for sure. Not even sure it's still possible not to concede.
Edit: Please delete π)
Kalle Kutt
Great stuff! Good job! Just wondering as well - @Footygamer - if there is a penalty shootout win, should it be listed as a draw or a win?
I am gonna replay it in a while. Gonna try n play full anti-football (0-0 every game hehe).
Footygamer
Draw for penalties please π
FMStrawzy
sorted
Kalle Kutt
Okay, it is possible to win but I highly doubt it is possible to get multiple 3-4 goal wins. Cheesed it so bad this time.
Happy to send game file if someone wants to take a look at it.
This is the tactic I used which somehow worked. Not very goal productive - but it worked like a charm for keeping clean sheet, with a huge thanks to Donnarumma for saving our asses more times than we had chances.
Never doing this again - that's for sure.