Ok, we all have opinions on Football Manager 26. That topic alone could be the subject of a thousand blogs. For me, whilst I still enjoy it more than most, the struggle for investment and engagement is real.

I’d come to terms with the fact that a football management game probably wouldn’t be a major focus of my life once family and work were taken care of.

I’d also realised I could play Xbox games through the cloud on my MacBook and was content with the occasional 20-30 minute session showing the Locust Horde who’s boss on Gears of War.

Then, whilst dinner was cooking one evening and I found myself with ten minutes to spare, I popped onto YouTube and saw a video by Trequinho on MFL.

“What on earth is this?” I thought.

What is Metaverse Football League (MFL)?

Metaverse Football League (MFL) is an online football game in which you can purchase and manage a virtual football club.

Imagine a blend of Football Manager and Sorare.

Just like Football Manager, you buy players, pick the tactics, set your recruitment strategy and try to take your team up the football pyramid. The difference is that every club you face is managed by a real person.

And those players you buy? They’re bought with real money. Your real money.

You can also loan players in from other managers in return for what’s called Revenue Share. For example, if you loan a player with a 2% revenue share agreement, the manager you loaned him from receives 2% of the reward money you earn whilst he is at your club.

The more players you loan in, the more of your rewards you give away.

So you need to strike the balance between loaning players in to make you competitive, whilst also developing your own players who you can eventually sell for a profit and reinvest.

In other words: pretty much exactly like real football.

Why Play MFL?

As a Football Manager veteran, and someone who has previously dipped his toes into Sorare, you can probably see why this appeals to me so much.

This feels like the ultimate Moneyball experience. Or, as I prefer to call it: Soccernomics.

An opportunity to pit both my tactical and squad-building abilities against real-life counterparts? I’m in!

Create a brand new club with my own name, logo and kit? Definitely in!

Try to find the next wonderkid, develop him in the right environment and sell him when demand is high? Hell yes!!!

Sounds like a very fun adventure, right?

The Cost

Yes, there’s a cost. And getting into the game isn’t cheap.

Buying a team costs 80 USD (around £60). And you start with zero players. Not one.

New players can buy three starter packs for 10 USD (£7.50-ish), which contain two players each. That gives you six players for around £22-23.

You need a squad of at least 18 players.

Obviously, you can loan in as many as you like, in return for giving up revenue share, as covered earlier.

Some players sell for hundreds of pounds. But because you start in the Flint League, at the bottom of the pyramid, it doesn’t cost anywhere near that to build a competitive squad.

That said, I think you need to be realistic and expect to spend at least £100 to get started properly.

That sounds like a lot, but you could quickly develop a player or two and sell them on to get some (or more) of that investment back.

Personally, I’m fortunate enough to be able to justify the cost. I’d just had a bonus from work and, when I was playing NHL 26 Ultimate Team, I was spending around £20 a month on packs anyway. So, in truth, this isn’t an extra outlay that feels unfamiliar.

If you are thinking of giving it a go yourself, my advice would be simple: only spend what you’re comfortable doing so. There are no guarantees.

And if you do decide to take the plunge after reading this series, please use this referral code and we’ll both get a few extras thrown in!

The MFL League Pyramid

Are you the next Super Agent?

Got an eye for talent?

There’s another side to MFL which will appeal to a lot of people.

If you don’t want to own a club, or don’t have the time for squad planning and tactics, you can play the game as an Agent instead.

Could you be the next Jorge Mendes and build up a client list of superstars?

You buy players and control their destiny. Loan them out to teams which are the best fit for them at that stage of their career, then reap the rewards through revenue share.

You may only get 1-3% for a young, low-rated player, but you could charge far more for a genuine star. The more players you loan out, the more revenue share you accumulate and can reinvest into your own talent factory.

Buying a Team

This works much like buying a franchise in MLS. You own the licence.

There are two options available:

• Buy a brand-new franchise from MFL for 80 USD. This gives you a totally clean slate and you start at the bottom in the Flint League.
• Buy an existing team from its current owner.

There are two advantages to buying an existing club:

1. You can choose a team from a country or city which appeals to you, whereas brand-new team locations are randomised. That said, the location gives you no advantage or disadvantage.
2. You can buy a team already in a higher division, where the rewards are greater.

I do need to make one thing clear though: if you buy an existing team, you are only buying the club itself. You do not get the players.

The players remain the property of the person you bought the team from.

That surprised me at first, because there are some established clubs for sale at less than the cost of a new franchise. But once you realise you’re only buying the name and division status, it makes much more sense.

My decision was to buy a brand-new franchise.

So… Let the Mayhem Begin!

When I pressed the button to purchase the team licence, I had some obvious preferences.

My number one choice was Rome. It’s a city I love and, if I ever needed to sell the club, it would probably have decent resale value.

After that, I was hoping for Milan, New York or Los Angeles.

I’d even have settled for Nottingham, my home city, or Chester, given that I now live in Cheshire.

But it wasn’t to be.

Instead, after the very cool animations and pumping music, I ended up in Mexico, in a place I had never heard of.

However, as mentioned earlier, the franchise location makes no difference at all. And once I started creating the branding, I realised I actually quite liked it.

Introducing: Madero Mayhem FC.

(And yes, I’m already irrationally attached to a club that technically didn’t exist ten minutes earlier.)

What’s Next?

In the next update, I’ll look at my initial recruitment and squad-building strategy, the type of players I’m targeting, how much I’ve spent, and the tactical system I’m planning to use.

I’ll also share the mistakes I make along the way, because with real money involved I suspect there will be a few.

Please follow along and enjoy my journey, and if you want to carve your own path in the world of MFL, sign up using THIS LINK.