I went back to it and still play it. Honestly, the real management parts of the game are way better than those of FM. FM is just a coaching simulator while the FIFA Manager really allows you to manage the whole club.

There’s an active community which releases a patch every year. You can download like 50 gigs of updated teams/pictures/stadiums and whatever you desire.

I’ve a long term save there which is about 18 seasons in. Contrary to FM you can actually develop a whole country there which is hella fun.

Fans and supporters are better simulated there, as well as infrastructures and sponsorships. When you’re doing a good job on international level, the whole league will grow in viewership and sponsorships money, which benefits the other clubs as well.

Going deeper, you can affiliate with other clubs and give them economic boosts, which really make a difference there and they aren’t only implemented for your personal enjoyment/benefits like in FM.

If you build up something financially stable you can build a bunch of youth camps which are expensive af, but drastically increase the amount of talents your academy generates. You can use those talents to further boost the other clubs and either loan or sell them right away.

I started my save in the Czech Republic and seeing a second club from the league in the CL about 12 years in felt extremely accomplishing, more than anything in FM. Fighting for the top 5 leagues spot right now is also an unique experience.

Oh, another great perk is the simulation of your private life, cause you can hoard money there. After those many years and many investments I got a private bankroll of ~150m which I can either use to pump it into my own club, or into other clubs through the stock market.

I miss those economic parts in FM. I find managing your merch, fanbase and infrastructures on a micro level more enjoyable than constantly fighting the locker and being confronted with weird, random player personalities. I think the old Fifa FM is more realistic there cause you get more informations about players which allow you to judge who you are dealing with, kinda like it’s going on in real life as well.

so yeah, the game definitely still has a niche with the community updates.

Compete is generous. Just an alternative, like LMA Manager or Premier Manager. FM/CM has always been head and shoulders above any other management game.