Why starting your main Football Manager 27 save during the beta could come back

After months of anticipation, Football Manager 27 is finally here. Well, sort of. With early access now underway, players can finally get their hands on the latest installment and see what Sports Interactive has been cooking up. But as exciting as it is to dive into a new Football Manager game, there’s always a question worth asking before committing hundreds of hours to a save: Is it worth starting your next big managerial adventure before the full release?

Early access is, after all, a chance for developers to iron out lingering issues before launch. And while there’s nothing stopping you from jumping straight into your next decade-long project, doing so might not be in your best interests. No one wants to invest countless hours into a save, only for an unforeseen issue to derail their progress. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you have to sit around twiddling your thumbs until the full release. There are plenty of alternative saves worth exploring in the meantime.

An Early Bug Could Derail Your Entire FM27 Save

First things first, the terms “demo” and “beta” don’t accurately describe the pre-launch play period that Sports Interactive gives Football Manager 27 players. A more accurate term would be “early access,” but because SI has always given players early access before it was common in modern gaming, those terms have stuck around.

Put plainly, the pre-launch version of Football Manager 27 is the full game. However, this doesn’t mean you should start your main save during this period.

According to many in the community, this early access period can sometimes contain bugs that, even after being addressed, can have adverse knock-on effects on your save for as long as it continues. For instance, one Reddit user describes an issue from years ago where facility upgrades during early access were bugged. Essentially, your facility upgrades would be approved by the board and completed, but it was only a visual change; under the hood, your facilities would remain in the same state as before. For training facilities, this would affect your players’ development; not upgrading your youth facilities would mean your youth intakes would be underwhelming, even if each was rated state-of-the-art.

Now, this isn’t a universal truth. It’s also possible that no such game-breaking bugs will appear during the early access period, letting you start your main save then. However, it is a risk.

What Save Should You Do During FM27’s Early Access Period?

With this in mind, most people won’t want to start their main saves during FM27‘s early access period. And who can blame them? I can’t think of anything more annoying and deflating than starting a save, investing a week’s worth of time, only to find something has gone belly up under the hood, and needing to start over.

Luckily, for this paranoid bunch, there are alternatives. Here are a few to consider.

Rebuild a Top Flight Team

The key to an early-access save is choosing a team with clear goals you can achieve in a relatively short time. Let’s use Manchester United as an example.

Over the past several weeks, United have had their worst start in the Premier League in decades. Manager Michael Carrick’s future is very much up in the air, and supporters and pundits alike have openly questioned the players’ commitment. Carrick isn’t the only manager to struggle with this squad — he is only the latest after the controversial reigns of Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Erik ten Hag, and Ruben Amorim were all sacked.

So, is it the manager? The players? It’s time you found out. Take over Man U at the start of the 2026/27 season and see if you can guide them to a European-qualifying position by the season’s end. Alternatively, if you find your players aren’t giving their all for the badge, avenge Carrick by moving them in the January window and finding replacements to help your push.

Of course, United isn’t the only big club to recently fall on hard times. Tottenham narrowly avoided relegation last season and will need a hand. Chelsea failed to qualify for European competition. OGC Nice was once one of France’s most prestigious clubs, but had to win a relegation play-off to stay in Ligue 1 last season.

Any of these teams should keep you occupied for a week until FM27‘s full launch.

Port Over Your FM26 Save

One of the best things about the Football Manager series is that it lets you transfer saves from previous games to the new one. While I personally prefer to start a new journey with each game, porting your FM26 (or FM24) save to FM27 is, in theory, a great way to get a feel for the new game and see how it differs from previous entries.

Assuming you’ve put as much time into your previous save as most people do, you’ll already have a good understanding of your team and its tactics. Your team will likely be pretty good, too. So you can load your previous FM save in FM27, see what’s working this year, and what’s not.

This also gives you an opportunity to formally “retire” your previous save and say goodbye to those glorious regens you either developed yourself or bought for peanuts from another club.