The Iron Curtain

Something to look forward to

The Iron Curtain

Believe it or not, there actually is a bright side to the long delay before Football Manager 2025 will finally be released.

Not only does it mean that we’ll have more time with Football Manager 2024 — it also means that we’re likely to see the excellent Iron Curtain rebuild released in the coming weeks.

The idea behind the Iron Curtain is pretty simple. It involves reverting the world of Football Manager to the way things were in the late 1980s, before the fall of the Soviet Union.

It’s designed for anybody who is nostalgic for the days of 3 player foreigner rules throughout Europe, the days when most leagues consisted only of home grown talent. It’s also designed for those who want to see how countries like Yugoslavia and East Germany might fare with today’s players.

The original version was created for Football Manager 2016 and is located here. Unfortunately, it seems that the Google Drive file has been made private. I’m not sure if anybody might have contact with the original poster to get the file preserved for posterity.

Wolf_pd on the official forums created a remake for FM20. Those files still exist, and are pretty fun to mess around with.

However, the pending FM24 version promises to be the biggest of all. A lot of research has gone into this version, including research into some of the more obscure aspects of local football systems in the eastern bloc.

Among other things, this version will include relocating players to adhere to the foreigner limit rules in accordance with where they were born and, in some cases, where their families come from. It promises to be a completely different approach to Football Manager, one that players who are sick of the predictable gameplay and wonderkid cycles of the current game will undoubtedly welcome.

I just hope it’s released soon.