In addition to the new menu system, many more high-resolution background images were added; these were mostly relevant to whatever screen the player was viewing.

The database of players and staff swelled to over 25,000 for this version, again increasing the depth and realism of the game.

Due to the increased player database and the massive amount of processing that the game needed to do, a multi-tasking design was used.

Championship Manager 3 received generally favourable reviews, and was consistently rated above 85%.

PC Zone gave the game its highest rating (93%), praising the depth of its database and its ease of use, although it was marked down for its slow running speed on older hardware.