There are also be press conferences, where the player can build up a rapport with the journalists, and the finance and transfer systems have been completely reworked.

[citation needed] The handheld version includes a 2D match engine for the first time, and the game was shipped with two skins: a light and a dark alternative.

[5] The game suffered setbacks on and before launch day, most notably many users found themselves unable to activate the game due to servers providing activation for the DRM system system coming under distributed denial of service attacks.

In response, SEGA issued a press release apologising for the problems faced by purchasers.

[11] Studio director Miles Jacobson stated that "for every one person that bought Football Manager 2009 there were four who pirated it".