Football Manager - Skin Installation Guide

Welcome to the new and improved Football Manager Skins and Graphics Installation Guide.

This part of the guide will show you how to install skins correctly into Football Manager.

For Instructions on how to Install Graphics then please refer to this Guide.

I've tweaked the format this year to try and make it as simple as possible.

First note that these instructions only apply to the Steam version of the game (whether it's a boxed copy, a CD-Key or purchased through Steam) and the instructions are generally the same regardless of your OS or whether it is the Full Mode or Touch Version you are playing and any differences will be noted in the instructions.

Please note you are advised as always to run a virus scan on any file downloaded from the internet.

It is also advisable to read any instructions on the download page for the content you are installing (or found in the readme that comes with the download) as they may contain any extra instructions that are specific to that file.

Football Manager - Graphics Installation Guide

Welcome to the new and improved Football Manager Skins and Graphics Installation Guide.

This guide will show you how to install the most common types of graphics (faces, logos, kits)  correctly into Football Manager.

For Instructions on how to install Skins then please refer to this Guide.

I've tweaked the format this year to try and make it as simple as possible.

First note that these instructions only apply to the Steam version of the game (whether it's a boxed copy, a CD-Key or purchased through Steam) and the instructions are generally the same regardless of your OS or whether it is the Full Mode or Touch Version you are playing and any differences will be noted in the instructions.

Please note you are advised as always to run a virus scan on any file downloaded from the internet.

It is also advisable to read any instructions on the download page for the content you are installing (or found in the readme that comes with the download) as they may contain any extra instructions that are specific to that file. This is especially important for multi-part mega-packs that may need to be extracted in a certain order.

Football Manager 2019 - Background Support Mod

Whilst the Football Manager 2019 Dark and Light Skins support background images out of the box this year, the default graphics aren't transparent and there is no overlay so you either get none of the background image or the full thing. Whilst the Default Skin has an overlay that completely blocks backgrounds.

This is a simple mod that increases the transparency of most of the boxes (to the same level as Touch Mode which you can see the backgrounds through them) and also adds an overlay to soften the background images so the game content stays readable.

Football Manager 2019 Touch Base Skins

As with recent Football Managers to make certain changes in Football Manager 2019 you are required to add files to the skin folders, whilst this isn't a problem for fan-made skins it is a slight problem if you are using the Default Skins included with the game. So to help people out I have again made some Base Skins for FMT2019 that allow you to add and modify the default skins without breaking your game.

However I don't really use the Touch mode and with it now getting patched separately I'm not always able to keep up with it so the Touch Mode Skins this year are fairly basic and you'll need to extract the font files and settings yourself if you wish to alter them.

Full instructions on when and how to use the Base Skins can be found on the download page, please ensure you read the page in detail before downloading the Base Skins as it will save you problems in the future.

Base Skins for Football Manager 2019 Touch Download Page

Currently there are four versions of the Base Touch Skin - one based on the Dark Skin and one based on the Retro Skin with a Touchscreen version of each also included.

If you have any further questions on the Base Skins please ask any questions in the Skinning Hideout on the Official SIGames Forums.

Football Manager 2019 Base Skins

Please note that these skins will only work with the Full Mode of Football Manager 2019, Football Manager 2019 Touch Mode Base Skins will be released separately during the week.

As with recent Football Managers to make certain changes in Football Manager 2019 you are required to add files to the skin folders, whilst this isn't a problem for fan-made skins it is a slight problem if you are using the Default Skins included with the game. So to help people out I have again made some Base Skins for FM2019 that allow you to add and modify the default skins without breaking your game. 

Thankfully over the last few years some more stuff has been moved out of the skins folder so you only really need the Base skin if you are wanting to edit the skin graphics, fonts or colours. If you want to edit the match graphics or the most of the panel xml files you no longer need really need the base skins.

Full instructions on when and how to use the Base Skins can be found on the download page, please ensure you read the page in detail before downloading the Base Skins as it will save you problems in the future. 

Also note that these are based on the Pre-Release Beta files at the moment so things are likely to change between now and release, however unless something major comes up I'll likely just update them with the Release Version files rather than with each Beta update.

Base Skins for Football Manager 2019 Download Page

Currently there are three versions of the Base Skin - one based on the Default Skin, one based on the Dark Skin and finally one based on the Light Skin for the Full Mode of FM2019.

If you have any further questions on the Base Skins please ask any questions in the Skinning Hideout on the Official SIGames Forums.

Football Manager 2019 - How To Locate or Move Your User Data Location

Since Football Manager 2016 the Preferences menu no longer lists or allows you to change your User Data Location, this feature was removed from the game because it was confusing people.

Your User Data Location is the place on your hard drive where user generated content is stored, this includes data generated by the game such as save games, tactics and shortlists. It also includes graphics (kits, logos, faces etc) and skins that you may have downloaded or created.

This guide explains where your default User Data Location is stored and also explains how to move it if you wish.

These instructions are largely the same as they were for Football Manager 2018.

Football Manager 2019 Pre-Release Beta Now Out

For those of you who have pre-ordered a digital copy of Football Manager 2019 you should now have access to the Pre-Release Beta.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be working on getting stuff checked and updated for Football Manager 2019, though most of the guides from FM18 should still apply so you can use them as a starting point for the moment, however FM18 skins won't work on FM19 whilst my various mods may or may not as that will depend on what has changed in FM19 though updated versions should follow in the next few weeks. (More than likely after the full release of the game.)

Football Manager 2019 Features Announced

If you aren't already aware the key new features of Football Manager 2019 were announced last week with the full game due for release on 2nd November 2019, with the Pre-Release Beta out two weeks before for those of you who have pre-ordered a digital copy of the game.

For details on the announced features have a look at the Official Football Manager Website.

From a look at the released screenshots it doesn't look like the underlying look of the game has changed much so it hopefully shouldn't take long to update everything for FM19, though this likely won't be until after the full release when I'll have access to the actual game files.

In the meantime I'll try and get some of the background stuff ready in time for the release of the game and you'll likely notice some slight tweaking of my sites as with the new FM branding it's a good time to update the feel of my sites.