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Football Manager to include women's football for first time in historic move

Women's football is set to be introduced into the popular video game Football Manager for the first time ever, the makers of the game confirmed on Thursday.

Football Manager's studio director Miles Jacobson said in a statement that they had been working on women's football "for some time now" and that it will be integrated into the game rather than creating a separate game.

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Football Manager is a management simulation game, which was originally released as Championship Manager in 1992.

"We believe in equality for all and we want to be part of the solution," Jacobson said in a statement.

"We want to be a part of the process that puts women's football on an equal footing with the men's game.

"We know that we're not alone in this -- the historic TV deal that Sky and the BBC recently agreed with WSL in England is proof of that -- but we intend to do everything we can to get women's football to where it deserves to be.

"We know our voice is very powerful and we want to use it for good.

"Longer term, as the women's game grows in popularity, the financial rewards may come, but at the moment we're embarking on this journey because we know it's the right thing to do."

Jacobson added that bringing women's football into the game would be a "multi-year project," with no fixed date for when women's teams will make their debut.

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has praised Football Manager for their decision to integrate women's teams into the game.

"It's massive because we are now coming even further into people's homes and it's not just through the game itself," Hayes said to talkSPORT.

"The fact we are interacting with people that are sitting up until 4am, normalising household names from the women's game, can only be a fantastic thing."