"We want to be so detailed at women's football as with men's football" - kicker

Last Friday, the developers of the Football Manager announced great: you want to advance the equality and therefore bring all women's football leagues worldwide into play. And in the same kindness, like the male counterpart.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive and Tina Keech, Head of Women's Football, talk about these plans in the Kicker Esport interview. How long do you already work on the project, which ambitions do you have and what causes the great work cost from which you speak in the announcements?

Kicker Esport : Congratulations on your project. Miles, you said that you have worked for a while to integrate women's football into the game. When exactly did you start and how did it come to the decision?

Miles Jacobson : We have talked about it for several years. Every year we looked at the cost analysis and always said: "No, it's worth it financially." A few years ago, I finally turned around and said, "The only way we can finish the financially, is that we actually drop off and make it easy. Internal work started just before the pandemic, so at the beginning of last year. We started Have our first motion made capturing and design sessions and looked at us exactly what we have to do.

FIFA started that, but it was never equal to men's football. The other manager game has little licenses and no 3D graphics.

Miles Jacobson Studio Director of Sports Interactive

Kicker Esport : Tina, when did you find the project?

Tina Keech : I started a few months ago at Sports Interactive. Honestly, the idea was to make nothing a database that is equal to the men, was daunting. First, I had to get to know the existing database and find people who can help me. I could not wait for this announcement to be done as soon as possible, so that I can ask the football community for help. So that we can build something unique, which we have never seen.

Kicker Esport : The previous database consists of over 28 years accumulated data. How is you the data collection for women's football, will it work similar?

Keech : The database of men is incredibly good, so we wanted to use the experience of it. But we also hope to bring fresh ideas into the database with women's football. Unfortunately, the data collection in women's football is generally bad, often they do not exist or it is inaccurate. So it is important that we have done there with a good example and improve this area.

Kicker ESPORT: What were the biggest challenges for you so far?

Jacobson: Data collection is of course a great task. Tina is working to expand the scouting network. Motion capturing during a pandemic is pretty hard, but luckily we found a way. A big challenge is also translation, the game appears in 19 languages ​​and for each script is different.

According to Jacobson, the studio tries a certain amount of time at Motion Capture for women's integration. Sports Interactive

Kicker Esport : You have announced certain partnerships, including Emma Heyes and Leicester City. How important is that for you and do you want to do more in this direction?

Jacobson : Something will be very important. For us as a simulation, it is essential that we represents women's football as accurately as possible, and it is important for professionals to work with us. For this year, we completed fewer partnerships with men's teams this year and these funds instead put women's football project instead.

Kicker ESPORT: Meanwhile there are several games with women's football. FIFA laid the foundation a few years ago, recently appeared We are Football. But you seem to pursue significantly higher ambitions. Was that out of advance your goal, so far-reaching and detailed as possible?

Jacobson : FIFA started that, but it was never equal to men's football. The other manager game has little licenses and no 3D graphics. Respect for both games for what they did. But we want to be so detailed in women's football as with men's football. For example, we recreate each animation, must rewrite the code of the game and want to purchase non-exclusive licenses. So I believe that our project is profound and more expensive.

Kicker Esport : In the announcement, above all, the speech of English teams and partnerships was. What is your international perspective for this project?

Jacobson : It will not be limited to England.

Keech: No, definitely not. If I think of the best leagues in women's football, I think of Germany, the USA or France. We want to start with 10 to 15 hours and then at some point each women league represented in the game. _WEADER_GAMING News _ and everything from the world of ESPORT is available on_earlygame. ## We Are Football: That's what the manager life looks like