It’s mid February in Almelo, Netherlands. It’s still very much winter, temperatures rarely get above 6 degrees. The lake running through the city is frozen over, but the cold shiver running down the spines of Heracles fans isn’t from the weather. Their team is bottom of the league with 5 points, winless after 22 games, 15 points off safety.

Their last point came more than 2 months ago. Striker Thomas Verheydt did his cruciate ligaments in the last game, the first game after the transfer window closed, no time for a replacement and he doesn’t stand a chance of returning in time to add to his tally of 1 goal for the season.

What hope would you give Heracles of survival now? 30 points is often enough for survival in the Eredivisie, but with only 12 games to go they’ll need to win at least 2/3 of their remaining games. Fortunately there’s no cup games to worry about, that's one less game for this knackered squad and one less chance of humiliation for these beleaguered fans.

Your charge is to take charge of Heracles Almelo and guide them to safety over the remainder of the season.

If you do you'll be added to our FM24 Challenges Leaderboard with a chance to win a copy of FM25.

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 🥇 - 5 points - Survive relegation with positive goal difference

Silver🥈 - 3 points - Survive relegation whilst avoiding the relegation play offs

Bronze 🥉 - 2 points - Survive relegation

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 “Roughly 2 weeks before full release date” 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 “Load Game” and click “browse” 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 “Load Game”. 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 “~/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/games”

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 “Sort It Out SI Challenge”. You cannot retire and create a new manager.

However if you find being called “Mr Challenge” annoying then you can set a nickname to give yourself a new name.

• Click “Club Info” in the sidebar
• Right click on “Sort It Out SI Challenge”
• 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.