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Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive Studio Director
Here it is, finally, our exclusive interview with Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive, the company that makes our beloved Football Manager game. As you all know Football Manager 2011 was announced yesterday, the game will be released before Christmas 2010, and Miles seems to be as excited as we are about that.
I want to thank all of you again for submitting your questions. Unfortunately not all of them made it into the final interview, many were taken out because Miles can not comment on FM 2011 features that were not announced yet. Here’s the interview, I hope you will enjoy it!
Johnny Karp: Hello Miles and thank you for this interview. I know that you have been a fan of the game before joining Sports Interactive, could you tell us more about that period and how you joined the team at SI?
Miles Jacobson: I’ve been involved since CM2, so a very long time. I was a big fan of the first Collyer brothers game, and got involved as a beta tester on CM2, which I actually had to go out and buy a new PC to play which, at the time, was the most expensive thing I’d ever bought (and on hire purchase, which was a very bad idea!).
Whilst beta testing, I started doing my own data updates, which a few friends thought were good, so I put them online, being taught how to do so by a guy known as Boah who made the first editor for the game. After a while the website became too much for me to manage, so someone called Marc got in touch and put my updates on his website instead. Both Boah (aka Svein Kvernoey) and Marc Duffy ended up joining SI too, and have both been here for more than 10 years!
Over the years I became English head research, UK head researcher, SI’s business consultant and then Managing Director of SI when Ov Collyer left to go travelling, all whilst working in the music industry.
Eventually things at SI got too busy to continue doing my other job, so I left that and went full time in 2000 or so.
Johnny Karp: You have worked on several versions of the game so far but which one is your favourite?
Miles Jacobson: My favourite always tends to be the latest version of any of our games.
Johnny Karp: Here’s a question from our reader Matthew: “With so many players on FM how do you find the time to watch each of them and gain accurate attributes on each player because you would need to employ thousands (possibly tens of thousands) to effectively do this surely!?!”
Miles Jacobson: I don’t personally! We have over 50 head researchers in different countries and regions, and well over 1,000 scouts around the world who are watching players week in, week out, at first team, reserve team, B team, C team and youth levels. Most of the researchers have been with us for many, many years.
Johnny Karp: Our friend from Singapore, Lye Kuek Hin wants to know about your FM skills: “What is your biggest achievement in FM10? What type of approach and tactics do you use?”
Miles Jacobson: I’m quite proud of my record as Watford manager in my main career game on FM10 as by 2026 I’d won everything I could, was top of the hall of fame, and England manager too. I stopped playing that game to move onto testing FM11, but only once my legendary striker Nathan Steed had become England’s record goalscorer, topping Wayne Rooney’s record.
Johnny Karp: Mariano from Argentina has seen a lot in South American football, so he asks: “Will FM include at some point situations like fans throwing a stone to the referee, managers threatened by hooligans, bribes to refeeres, positive doping, players that divide a team because of a girlfriend and all that kind of stuff that happens in real football?”
Miles Jacobson: No. It’s not something that we approve of, not something that should be part of football, and we don’t want to promote it in any way.
Johnny Karp: Now a few quick questions about your football favourites. Which is your favourite team?
Miles Jacobson: I support Watford, but also have a season ticket at Arsenal, and go and see AFC Wimbledon too. I also admire any team who play fast, passing, attacking football.
Johnny Karp: The football player that you like the most?
Miles Jacobson: At the moment my favourite player to watch is Leo Messi, but that’s not really a surprise. He’s one of the few players in the world that can really be called world class.
Johnny Karp: Your favourite football moment?
Miles Jacobson: John Barnes, a player who I saw make his debut as a substitute for Watford, scoring for England against Brazil. An amazing goal from an amazing player.
John Barnes
Johnny Karp: How would you describe England’s performance at the 2010 World Cup in a few words?
Miles Jacobson: Not good enough.
Johnny Karp: How would you describe FM2011 in just a few words?
Miles Jacobson: The best football management simulation that SI have ever made.
Johnny Karp: The last question comes from the Republic of Ireland, Sears asks: “What’s your opinion about this website, the ‘My Football Manager Story’ blog?”
Miles Jacobson: I enjoy reading a lot of the FM stories that are on the net, and enjoy pointing them out to people too – it shows how far the game has come that people really do treat it as an alternative reality, and that people really enjoy reading about their stories. It also shows us how wonderful our community are to take the time to write them!
That’s about it, I would like to thank Miles yet again for being so kind to take the time to answer to our questions. I know that many of you wanted to know more about the FM 2011 features but, as I said, you will get that information from here as soon as it will become available. Until then, you can watch the Football Manager 2011 announcement video if you haven’t done that already, you’ll get all the FM 2011 details that are available up to this point. Last but not least, now comes the best part of the interview, commenting on what Miles has said! 
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Thanks for setting all that up Johnny. Its interesting to hear from Miles, he’s just like a regular guy that has a real passion for football…except I’m sure he’ll be loaded ; ) I think the most interesting part of the interview is hearing how Miles got to where he is today. I guess we all start smoewhere, nothings handed to you in life is it. Well thanks again Johnny and Miles. That was a very good read.
What I like about Miles is that he really has a lot of passion for the game, or games (both football and FM). He started as a fan of the CM game, started a fan site and then got on board at SI. So I guess any of you could take his job in a few years
Hi Johnny
Great interview and I remember watching live that John Barnes goal against Brazil. Too bad the current team can’t play like that
Thanks Kevin. Brazil don’t play like they used to either but I doubt that comforts you
Whos that man in the picture?
Which picture?
Miles is in the first picture, John Barnes is obviously in the second 
Very Interesting! I cannot wait for FM11 now. Thanks a lot Johnny!
You should rather thank Miles for taking the time to answer these questions. As for FM 2011, I can’t wait either…
Thanks Johnny for a quality interview, nicely done
Thanks Stam, nice to see you here!
interesting interview, im really glad you could set it up.
Thanks Zheljo, I’ll try to do a better one next year
Hi Johnny,
I’m sure he’s very busy with the new FM11…. I thought Mariano’s question was funny 
Cheers for asking him my question!
thanks for setting up this wonderful interview with Miles. And thank you Miles for answering Johnny’s questions
Good work Johnny!
Thanks for your question Sears
Mariano’s question was funny but he’s not the only one thinking about such features, I know a few other people that would like to bribe the referees in the game 
hi johnny karp nice interview…
…
i don’t believe I Miles was once just a fan site and now he became Studio Director of Sports Interactive, he’s a brilliant
Of course he is, SI didn’t take him on board just because he was a big fan
Nice interview, and really eager to play FM 2011…! I hope every FM gamer didnt take long to adapt with some changes has been made in FM 2011.
Thanks Zinedine. I guess we’ll all need some time to adjust to the new game but the new features seem quite exciting indeed.
Hi Johnny, good interview, Miles is obviously a very good FM manager! I think it’s fascinating how many people are employed around the world to watch players, the in depth realism really makes the game for me. Hopefully Miles is right and FM 2011 can be even better than FM 2010
Thanks Laxeyman. Miles should be the best manager, he gets a head start every summer testing the new game before us
Hi mate, thanks for posing my question and arrange such a impressive interview. I am pretty amazed at how he go on to become the director of SI. Great stuff from him.
Thank for the question Lye, it really was a good one.
wow interesting would that website still be up id like 2 look at it
No, I don’t think it’s online anymore.
FM 2011 would be the best, and maybe the hardest of all. Miles and SI crew always take the game to the next level every year. But, I’m a little bit disappointed with his answer but also agree about threatened or bribed referee, etc. If something like that exist in FM, that would be very realistic but annoying too (something like that frequently happens in my country too) But anyway, FM 2011 would be very interesting.
>>Miles’ eyes are hypnotic…<<
I agree with Miles on that answer to Mariano’s question, those things are destroying football and FM should stay away from that dirty side of things in football.
hopefully fm2011 will be the best ever made, i couldnt get into any the fm games since fm07, so this will determine if its the last fm i get
I think that FM10 is the best one yet but of course each man has his own opinion. FM11 seems to offer plenty of new features and lots of minor improvements too so I’m quite confident that it will be a good game.
Cant wait for fm to hit the shops. Have to catch up on everything now. Busy Summer
I’ve been playing FM for many years, enjoying players like Cherno Samba or Anatoly Todorov, but I’m not going to buy the game this year because of it’s introduded by Marca. I’ll stick to FM2010 shich is free of dirty newspapers full of lies
I respect your opinion but it’s not like Marca are making the game now, it would be a shame to miss such a good game just because of that.