M.C - Comments

It's been prepared - it is just being tested and will be made live any-day-now. Probably even today, assuming all is in order.

I do believe - though I need to check to be sure - that for any Person record where a change is applied through the main file, the offset has been increased to 3 years (for FM24) and 1 year (for FM26) systematically as of 1st June. So the additional files are just to cover all of the Person records that have no submissions/haven't moved club. Obviously for FM24 the ‘original data’ delta is smaller than for FM26.

Fair enough - my mistake!

Just a quick update as of today, 06/06/2026 (all reflected in the opening post, too): updates to reflect 2026/27 for both France and Germany in FM24 are now complete and uploaded to the FM24 Data Update.

From my side, I will be continuing with Belgium & Netherlands, next. I anticipate getting them done this weekend.

FM26 instances for the nations done for FM24 will follow in the near future; likely completed by other staff members (but still updated in this thread's opening post).

We do plan to adjust financial information for clubs, in due course - yes. I can't really be more specific, at this time, about when in the sequence that will be, nor to what depth those updates will go.

I can see why this is (sort of). It's a mix-up with the linking between created and official instances of players. This means the created version of Amir Ibragimov is being created in both FM24 and FM26 (whereas it should be FM24 only).

@Footygamer - can you purge any links from created players to 2000392429 (which is the official instance of Amir Ibragimov), please? I will then link 2100060712 (the active, created instance of the same player) to it. I get an error when trying to assign this link as it flags that “FM ID 2000392429 is already assigned to: Gazi Ibragimov”.

I've moved this comment to one of our other discussion threads - as it doesn't really pertain directly to the 2026/27 nation/league updates where your original post landed.

In any case, David Sullivan is a person who can be edited through the website's submission system and, I can see, that his removal from West Ham has already been submitted/approved: https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update/person/4000667. Our community tend to be pretty quick in recognising and submitting changes, especially high-profile ones. So the next instance of the Data Update available (overnight tonight on the free tier or already on the paid tier) to you will have him released.

Are you sure this is the thread you intended to post this feedback in? I'm asking, because this thread is for the FM24-specific download. The download here is not FM26-compatible and the installation instructions, therefore, are only for FM24.

The FM26-specific equivalent, which can be found at https://sortitoutsi.net/content/74677/fm26-real-name-fix-placeholder-thread, has its own instructions and those instructions reference the correct folder paths for that version of the game. If you're playing FM26, you will want the download from the other thread and you'll want to follow the instructions in that associated thread.

As an aside, these files (both instances) are provided for free and so I don't think the comment regarding paid subscriptions is fair/relevant (unless I've misunderstood something).

In general, we’re working towards making the ‘No Date’ concept the standard. But to do this properly also requires real-life start dates for all divisions. It will take some time. You can see the plan outlined here: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/76916/202627-league-updates-fm24-fm26. In my opinion, the ‘longer-term’ plan (which I describe in that thread) is the overall, perfect solution for this general scenario.

@ah!lan - I’m not sure what you mean when you say it is ‘relatively straightforward to build a proper 2026/27 database to any league’. If you’re referring to rolling the start date forward, then whilst ‘straightforward’ on the surface of it, it is still a lot of work which is why it’ll take a bit of time.

In general terms, I understand all of your perspectives. I know it causes issues especially in those nations that have seasons run across a single year (e.g. Brazil) and it is an imperfect solution overall. However doing this offset makes a lot of sense in the context of most of the footballing world - and it’s the exact same principle as was applied to FM24 - whilst we are constrained by an in-game start date (in FM26) that is now a year ago. If we didn't do this offset, the reverse complaint would exist which is that even though it's now the start of the 2026/27 season, contract lengths in-game don't reflect that.

All the same, tagging @Footygamer just so he is aware of the discussion and can review the feedback.

So far we've released one for FM26 - but it has quickly proven to not do the trick, fully. I need to investigate exactly what the various individual-nation dependencies are to get it working and, once I know what those are, I can make a plan across both FM24 and FM26 to get a new file included in each update.

The only thing I can ask for, for now, is patience. I will keep things updated in https://sortitoutsi.net/content/76916/202627-league-updates-fm24-fm26 - the opening post table has a row labelled ‘Europe’ which articulates the current status.

Unfortunately, this is not a straightforward/5-minute job, because the rules that determine who the game ‘qualifies’ for the continental competitions are drawn from a whole variety of sources (i.e. all of the domestic divisions and domestic cups that qualify the teams into the tournaments in real-life). The thing we pushed out a few days ago was an attempt to see if we could easily ‘override’ that but, alas, it wasn't that simple.

For some time, we've been including this database file as part of the SortItOutSI Data Update. Within the last few days, we have - with the original author's full permission - updated the file to reflect the 2026/27 season.

The file named sortitoutsi.net FM26 Data Update - England Lower League Pyramid.fmf that is contained within the FM26 Data Update is this base file, updated as best I was able to for now. For full clarity, the update has updated promotions/relegations down to Level 7, at this time. I will complete it the rest of the day in the coming days.

I'm pretty sure this is deliberate/by-design and was implemented from 1st June 2026 onwards, as - from a data point of view - we start to consider that the start of the ‘next season’. This happens every year, for context.

In FM26, we've reached the point where there needs to be a one-year offset; whilst in FM24 we're now at a three-year offset.

Right now, I'm confident that any submission that is approved will automatically have the contract dates offset by one year (in FM26 Data Update) so that things align against the in-game start date, in anticipation of the ‘first season’ being 2026/27 in Europe. I do appreciate Brazil (and other nations) are on a different cycle, in terms of when their league starts/ends. What we do not have yet is a corresponding file that does the same offset for players without submissions, but that will be added very soon to level everything out.

Those are absolutely the lines I'm thinking along, though I just want to check what @mattycamp9872 is reporting before I provide a fuller reply.

In the case of FM26, however, it's the lack of a 1 Year file (at this time) rather than the 3 Year file that you cited (that's the FM24 length - but you're spot in terms of principle/concept).

In fact, I think - right now - we have a bit of a hybrid, because I think the automatic offset of a year is being applied for all records that have changes submitted as part of the Data Update; but those without changes submitted do not automatically have the offset applied. As an example, Tomas Soucek has no submitted changes and so no adjustment is made. However Jack Porter (first example I could find), who has an approved contractual submission, has that offset in the data: https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update/person/2000407543.

There isn't currently a feature/capability that allows ability/attribute submissions for non-players that become part of the site's Data Update - only playing staff, unfortunately.

@mattycamp9872 - just so I am understanding this correctly. Tomas Soucek's contract, in real-life, expires in June 2027. In-game it is showing as June 2026, right? And just to confirm, you're playing FM26?

Yep - it's known and we're aware there's ‘more work to do’ as far as continental qualification is concerned. You'll note the opening post has been updated to acknowledge this and I also commented a bit further up in the thread on this topic: https://sortitoutsi.net/comments/get/883665.

I'm reserving some of this weekend to delve into it deeper. Getting all of the first-season teams to be correct has historically been challenging, too, and I think it is because the dependency-chain (in the data) is quite deep.

In the data, you can directly specify - against the competition - which are the ‘Registered Teams’ for a given season. However, I don't think this necessarily takes precedence over other parts of the data - things such as the ‘last winners’ of competitions that qualify teams for those continential competitions. So whilst we've created a file that has all of the ‘Registered Teams’ for 2026/27, I think those entries are being overridden from other places. My instincts tell me that the pathway to get it all 100% correct is to first have all of the domestic data (i.e. the data for each individual nation) updated…which could also include updating Coefficient Rankings and so on.

If we use the Manchester City example, my speculative guess is that the game is recognising them as the holders of the FA Cup and, for reasons I can't immediately fathom, is qualifying them for the Europe League on that basis. It is the only logical explanation I can think of, because Manchester City were a UCL-registered team in the default FM26 database, they finished in a UCL-qualifying league position in the default FM26 database and both of those factors are also true in the FM26 updated files we've provided. Why that is taking place, I do not know - and clearly it is incorrect. But in terms of ‘routes in to the Europa League’, the only one that fits the bill for Manchester City is that one.

Unfortunately, no matter how I consider it - right now, all I can do is acknowledge, assure you (and everyone else) I'm aware and commit some more time to investigating. If it transpires we need to update all European nation data first and only thereafter will we be able to have totally accurate continental qualifications then, of course, that will introduce some lead-time to getting the continental qualifications ‘right’. Again, to reiterate, I think this same challenge was prevalent last year and I think it only got to a point of being ‘accurate’ once all of the major, individual leagues had updated data. That's not a definitive statement; I'm going on memory and my passing involvement at the time.

I've moved your comment to another thread - as I think it fits better here.

In our Data Update, the file that contains the transfer data is the one that ends with Contracts.fmf. However, the entire concept behind our Data Update is that it can be contributed to by the community, through the website, and those submissions then appear in the Data Update for all. So I would strongly recommend against doing anything manually in the files - it would be much better to make submissions via https://sortitoutsi.net/football-manager-data-update/contribute. Any submissions you make - once approved - will then be part of the Data Update that you (and anyone else who downloads the Data Update) then gets the benefit of.

I've moved your comment to our main troubleshooting thread - as I think it is probably more appropriate.

With respect to the updated qualifications for continental/European competitions: this is something we're working on. Unfortunately, the dependency chain to get these all correct relies on a lot of other data to also be updated and so until we finalise more of the individual nations, this will likely continue to only be partially correct.

With respect to you not seeing any transfers, this suggests an installation issue at your end. Can you please share screenshots that show your ‘editor data’ folder and also the in-game screenshot that shows which additional files you have selected as part of your game setup? Can you also please confirm which mode you are using? If you are using the World Cup mode, I believe this does not allow you to use custom databases…which would probably explain why you're not seeing the updated data if you are starting in that mode in FM26.

Just to give a reply - and direct you to what SortItOutSI are working towards: our Data Update will, in due course, provide updated playable leagues to reflect 2026/27, along with the associated continental qualifications. We have begun the overall process and we will track progress here: https://sortitoutsi.net/content/76916/202627-league-updates-fm24-fm26 

The opening post outlines the longer-term picture and I would suggest can serve as a good reference point for what this site’s Data Update will do.

I cannot comment on what any other creators or sites may be working on. However, I can say that what you’re asking for is a significant piece of work (I would estimate it as many hundreds of hours of effort) and, fundamentally, is impossible to have been completed at this stage, accurately. Some nations are still playing matches that decide promotions/relegations; many others have just finished. Others still have not formalised the lower division teams because they are often regional and get finalised later in the summer.

If someone out there has already made updates to ‘all major leagues’ I would be astounded, but also I would confidently predict the accuracy of those files would be limited.

I just want to acknowledge that I’m aware the continental qualifications will be tricky to get 100% right; and I know the current file doesn’t achieve it, based on comments.

I‘m away with work until tomorrow so haven’t been able to engage with the discussion as quickly as I normally would. In my experience, to get all qualifications in place it is typically requires to have all of the individual nation files updated, as well, as a minimum. Certain qualifications seem to be prioritised based on Registered Teams; others on domestic competition winners (history entries).

I will review the full ruleset when I’m back and that will give me an understanding of exactly what the dependency chain is. It may transpire we first need all of the individual nations updated before the continental qualifications will reliably work. The file I quickly put together before my trip was a ‘free hit’ intended to get us some of the way quickly.

I would not expect that to be the case - I will need to investigate that on my return in a couple of days. Perhaps one of my staff colleagues will get to it quicker than that.

I have now uploaded the additional file that manages continental cup qualifications for Europe, for FM26. This should be available immediately for those on the Enhanced Data Update and should appear from tomorrow morning for those on the free tier. This will appear as a new file in the downloaded FM26 Data Update with the name sortitoutsi.net FM26 Data Update - Europe.fmf.

FM24 equivalent will follow in the near future - however, I also need to amend the Champions League ruleset to correct the first-season format before releasing that one.

I am, as I type this, working on the additional file that handles continental cup qualifications for Europe. To answer your question directly: if I manage to finish those files for FM24/FM26 tonight and upload them, then tomorrow's release will include those updated Champions League, Europa League and Conference League qualifications.

If I do not, then the European qualifications will still reflect 2025/26.

Right, so that shows me that the file is working - it's the “E20 - England to Level 11” file.

Sorry, between me explaining the other bits and pieces in this discussion, it may have become unclear - but, basically, you're still receiving the ‘old’ version of the file (i.e. not the one that I uploaded earlier today). This is because, on the free tier of the Data Update - the contents in the downloadable package are updated once per day (at around 04:30 UK-time). So when you re-download the FM26 Data Update from 04:30 tomorrow morning onwards, you'll have the updated England file in it.

Thanks - I think, just to be certain, I would like to see the screenshot of what files appear further down the list (as I do note the scrollbar).

I can tell from the file size (1,240kb) that this is still the ‘previous’ file, in any case. So that confirms that part, anyway. Mentioning that as you may feel it not worth continuing the troubleshooting knowing it is a file being replaced overnight tonight in the free tier.

Just FYI, the previous version of the file (the one you're using), in-game, shows the name “E20 - England to L11”, which is just an artefact/leftover from the way the original owner named it. I suspect it is in your list, but you're just not realising it has that name instead (and I appreciate that is confusing). From tomorrow (when the new file becomes avaiable on the free tier), it'll carry a name, in-game, consistent with all of our other files.

As I say, I have just downloaded and installed the same version you're on and I can definitively say I can't replicate the file not showing. I see it - and the two other files - and when I select all three, I get the effects of having it selected.

Just acknowledging - also, I've moved your post into our dedicated ‘Troubleshooting’ thread.

Certainly, you should definitely see all three files when starting up the game. Even on the previous version of the file (i.e. before today's updated England file) that should be the case.

Now, in terms of seeing the updated 2026/27 leagues, that will rely on the version of the Data Update you've downloaded ‘integrating’ the newly-uploaded file into the download. I have a feeling that, on the free tier, this updates on the once-per-day schedule that the other files do. Therefore, on the free tier, you should see the new file in the download from about 04:30 tomorrow morning UKT. One way you can definitely verify that is the case is to check the last modified date on the file from within the zip (i.e. before you extract it/move them out). If this shows a timestamp of April 2026, then it's still the old file. If it shows a timestamp of June 2026, its the new file. But it's important to check that modified date inside the downloaded zip file. As soon as you move the file out, it stamps a new modified date and I don't want to confuse you.

I think it is highly likely that the new file will appear for users of the free tier overnight tonight.

However, the old file, that you've just downloaded, should still work. I've just downloaded an earlier version with that file and tested it to replicate what you would have downloaded…and I can see all three files, select them and use them. So perhaps there is an installation issue at your end and, if you'd like help troubleshooting it (appreciating that you'll likely grab the new version tomorrow, anyway), then to help me do that please share a screenshot of your ‘editor data’ folder and a screenshot of the database setup screen in-game where the enabled custom database files can be selected.

I have just uploaded the new file for England for FM26. This will be available in the update immediately for those with the Enhanced Data Update and from tomorrow morning (~04:30 BST on 02/06/2026) onwards for those on the free tier.

This file contains playable divisions down to Level 11. It contains updated constitutions (promotions/relegations) reflecting 2026/27 down to Level 6 (National League North/South). It contains updated competition histories for the top 6 levels. It does not contain updated individual club histories at this time. It also doesn't reflect last positions/previous divisions - which doesn't have any recognisable gameplay impact as far as I know, but may have some small visibility in some UI elements. It is something we do include in all of our files normally and we will take care of this in a future iteration.

I ran into significant validation challenges having done everything down to Level 11 and, in the interests of releasing something for the community, I started from scratch and Level 6 (National League North/South) was as far as I could reasonably go at this time.

On its own, this file will not automatically update continental qualification for all teams. This is something I will work on next and I will endeavour to sort this out today, before I travel for work.

We will get the deeper pyramid updated; but we will defer that for a short while.

@lpop - the FM26 file has not been released yet. I wasn't able to quite complete it last night. Definitely, today. However, as per my message a little earlier in this thread - the continental qualifications are handled by separate data. I would expect, for FM26, that the continental qualifications are identical to the ‘vanilla’ experience at the moment. I'll be taking care of updating those straight after completing the FM26 file for England.

@rockondiesel - the free version of the Data Update includes updated nations/leagues files. It's just that in the FM26 Data Update there aren't any such files uploaded/completed yet.

The Enhanced Data Update includes two key features/differences: updated player abilities (these are not in the free version) and a much faster release cycle (there is one daily release for the free version, whilst the paid version has a new release every 20 minutes).

Just to be clear, I will post a separate message, here, when the updated file for England for FM26 is available, as well as update the opening post.

I am in the process of - as I type this - of validating/testing the FM26 England file, which includes playable divisions down to Level 11.

I will upload it as soon as I am confident it’s issue-free. I have no reason to believe it will throw up any issues.

To manage expectations, that England file is likely to be the only updated file release  through the rest of today. I will resume work tomorrow on other nations, but I can’t promise what those will be or when they’ll appear. I will also be travelling for work between 2-4 June, which will prevent my progress during that time. Unfortunately I’m not rich enough not to have to work.

An update to the file that handles European qualifications will follow in due course. My sole focus is on getting England for FM26 done today.

Thankfully the file for continental qualification is simple enough so I will do that next, as I know people will want that all lined up. Unfortunately it isn’t done simply based on finishing positions in the domestic leagues. As with everything, it is on the list and we will get it sorted ASAP but I can only get so much done with the time I have.

As per the message a few posts up (https://sortitoutsi.net/comments/get/883051), last season's loans will get terminated soon enough. That ‘official end’ to the previous season takes place in the near future and will get sorted.

In fact, for loans between English/UK clubs these typically are contractually, officially until 31st May and so those were auto-terminated earlier today. For loans involving players between other clubs around Europe, they typically, officially run until 30th June and so get processed - by us - as part of an end-of-season activity. This activity, which also sees pre-agreed transfers (that officially, typically, contractually go through on 1st July) processed, gets handled by the Site Admin as a central task and in previous years it has been done on, or shortly after, 1st June.