Everyone knows how important fans are in football, their voices are heard beside the pitch and off the pitch. Football fans help to hold up their clubs and motivate the players to do better, showing support in person at games and on social media, their voices have never been bigger and carried more weight. In previous Football Manager years, fans have almost been a token and not held any importance to affect your game and your decisions. Football Manager 2023 is where all of that changes.

To reflect the strong growing changes that fans voices are having within football, Football Manager were determined to incorporate this within the newest edition of FM and they've done just that. They've provided more of an incentive to listen to the feedback of the fans to help grow and improve the story of your save.

Supporter Profiles

The FM team have taken time to do their research into fans and are aware that no two clubs are the same with regards to their fan base and this is echoed in the categories that fans have been separated into. The Club Vision has gotten the newly added section called Supporters and this is where you'll be able to see a snap-shot of the six fan categories.

This detail allows you to keep track and manage expectations for your club which keeps the Supporter Confidence level realistic and as close to reality as possible. It means there will be different expectations from the supporters depending on the type of club and each will be different and have their own identity.

Types Of Fans

• Hardcore: The most loyal and passionate section of the fanbase.
• Core: Representing the average football fan.
• Family: These supporters tend to be temperate and patient.
• Fair Weather: Fans who are especially impatient for success.
• Corporate: Most interested in the stadium’s facilities and club marketability.
• Casual: Less passionate and loyal than the average fan.

Supporter Confidence

The Club Vision has received even more attention with the Club Overview being updated to reflect the supporters desires as well. Now when you're in Overview, you'll see Supporter Confidence next to Board Confidence, where the playing field for views has been levelled between the two. The board will still mainly be focused on strategy and finances objectives whereas the supporters will have more objectives that revolve around club identity, performance against crucial rivals and the performance of certain individuals within the club.

It will be essential to keep in consideration the supporters views and whether they feel you are the right manager for their club or if they feel it's time you moved on! You can keep track of how the supporters feel in the Performance drop down now too and keep an eye on fan feedback on Match Performance, Transfer Activity, Tactics and Squad.

You may face dilemmas with your decisions if supporters and the board have conflicting feelings about certain issues and it will be up to you to decide who you'll keep happy. A decision may make the supporters happy but may make the board unhappy on financial terms or you might choose to make the board happy and disappoint your fans and set off a wave of unrest.

When starting a new match you'll be given a news item with the match expectations. This will not just be from the board but the fans as well and again this may conflict between the two. It will be up to you to try to obtain a balance between the two expectations with each decision and match as this will vary each game.

You will have the power to influence supporter opinion through your decisions whilst managing your chosen club as as with life, the fans support will trend upwards with wins and generally trend negatively with losses. Be careful to not upset the fans too much or else they may try to oust you!