We heard stories of clubs, manager and scouts using the Championship Manager and later Football Manager database as a means to find players. Premiership Everton F.C. has now become the first club to make Football Manager an official part of their "back room team". With a database of over 370,000 people researched by more than 1,000 scouts the network that Sports Interactive has built up is impressive. Sports Interactive founder Paul Collyer had the following to say on the deal:
"The game's database is a valuable resource with the most extensive scouting network in football so Everton FC is making a top signing. I am personally delighted with today's announcement as I'm a Toffees fan. Standing on the pitch with my signing on shirt is as close to my boyhood dream of playing at Goodison Park as I will ever get."
In an unrelated story Sega and Sports Interactive assures players that the activation issues with Football Manager 2009 (released last Friday) will soon be taken care of.